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The rapid rise of the digital humanities over the past decade has transformed literary study, helping us to discern broader patterns in print culture and media history. Franco Moretti's and Matthew Jockers's respective introductions to distant reading and macroanalysis have fundamentally altered the way in which many scholars now approach literary research.1 In light of their impact on the digital humanities field, I wondered how these methodologies might help us address longstanding critical questions regarding women's social and literary networks during the long nineteenth century. To what extent were women's relationships with fellow women writers—their networks of connectivity—important to their success in a male-dominated publishing marketplace? If, as some researchers have suggested, women formed "alternative networks" to the masculine clubs, universities, and editorial establishments that informed patriarchal print culture, how might we begin to understand these relationships on a broad scale (Easley 112–13)? As Joanne Shattock observes, "Women's literary networks were less obvious and less public" than men's and are therefore more difficult for current scholars to trace and assemble ("Professional Networking" 134). To date, studies of individual writers have revealed the ways in which women's clubs, salons, and other social relationships informed their engagement with popular print culture.2 To understand the ways women functioned within a complex network of private and professional relationships, however, it is necessary to go beyond a single case study approach, which often has the effect of rounding up the usual suspects—canonical women writers—and interpreting their experiences as representative of the field.
Literary scholarship has historically tended to focus on a small canon of writers, leaving their "rivals," as Moretti terms them, to become part of the "great unread" (66–67). Following the work of John Burrows, I hope to bring to light those writers who have "escaped our attention because of [the] sheer multitude" of existent women within the publishing industry in the nineteenth century and to discover why some writers succeeded more than others in creating connections with fellow female authors and in achieving canonical status over the long term (Jockers 26). While outlining his introduction to network visualization, J. Stephen Murphy surmises that "any [End Page 39] medium that groups writers together has the potential to turn writers into conduits through which other writers can be discovered" (iv). Indeed, my macroanalytic approach to network analysis aims to increase our appreciation of the highly influential, hyperconnected writers who often operated behind the scenes of print culture.
Engaging with various digital humanities methodologies such as data mining, distant reading, and network analysis, my essay investigates what new insights can be gained from viewing women's relationships with each other on a comprehensive scale rather than simply viewing the individual network or the network of "important" or "canonical" writers associated with a particular literary period or movement. My macro-network graph reveals how certain women writers functioned as highly visible and centrally located "nodes" within these publishing networks and how these heretofore overlooked writers have been surprisingly influential in the history of women's authorship. Studying women's social and professional networks on a broad scale leads to a deeper understanding of the various ways in which they connected with each other and with print culture during their careers and how this might be correlated with their canonical status, past and present. Of course, any visualization of women's literary and social networks is necessarily a partial one; I conclude with a brief reflection on the gaps and silences encoded in my digital archive source and issues of canonicity in the continually evolving field of digital humanities.
Methodology
In their quantitative study of reviewer-contributor connectivity in modernist periodicals, J. Stephen Murphy and Mark Gaipa define the term "network" as "a structure of relationships among entities" (52; my italics), and Friedrich Kittler likewise delineates a network as "a structure, the technic whereby cultural exchange takes place" (qtd. in Brake 116; my italics). However, invoking the notion of structure in reference to relationships suggests a state of static kinesis and rigidity. Nathan K. Hensley cautions his reader that there is an inherent danger that our data analysis techniques do not create anything new but merely function as tools for "re-circulating of existing content" and reinforcing what we already know about pre-established relationships between writers within the publishing industry (377). Therefore, I propose that it is perhaps more useful to conceive of networks as "informal, open, multiple, competing, and dynamic" systems, as Simon Potter suggests (622), or as ever-expanding organisms within which nuclei form through temporal and contextual bonds. Taking a distant approach that incorporates nearly seven hundred writers, this study builds on this notion of the network as a fluid model from which new trails of scholarship can be mapped rather than a stagnant structure of evidentiary support for pre-existing arguments. Such an approach, Matthew Jockers argues, draws "attention to general trends and missed patterns" that must be explored "in detail and [accounted] for with [End Page 40] new theories" (29). After all, "the study of literature should be approached not simply as an examination of seminal works but as an examination of an aggregated ecosystem or economy of text" (32). To this I would add that the study of networks should be approached not simply as an examination of seminal authors but as an examination of an aggregated ecosystem or economy of writers.
To explore this broader economy, I focus on a much larger sample of women writers than has typically been studied in existing scholarship on women's networks, aiming to provide a broader understanding of the nineteenth- century woman writer through an examination of contextual biographical and connectivity trends within wider networks of association. Although my connectivity study of nearly seven hundred British women writers captures only a small fraction of the large number of women who lived and wrote during the long nineteenth century, it goes a long way toward expanding our understanding beyond the narrow set of authors usually investigated in women's history (i.e., Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf—all of whom are included within my data though they are not the focus of this essay). By focusing on a broad sample of women working in the long nineteenth century, I also aim to dislodge assumptions about women's authorship associated with defined literary phases (i.e., Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism, etc.), which artificially categorize and contextualize women writers according to predetermined assumptions about history, gender, culture, and literary "periods" within the publishing marketplace. Rita Felski calls scholars to fight against lazy usage of literary periodization as a shorthand for the specific relationships informing textual production (573–74). "History is not a box," she warns, and we should not view authors or texts "only as cultural symptoms of their own moment" (574–75).
In order to understand women's networks from a macroanalytic perspective, I mined bio-data from Cambridge University Press's Orlando Project: Women's Writings in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present to produce a spreadsheet that tabulated the personal and professional connections between 684 British women writers of the long nineteenth century. I selected the particular writers included in this study from the total of 1,325 entries on the Orlando site based on two criteria: first, they must have been born or have died during the nineteenth century; and second, each must have had at least one signed publication.3 In order to determine each woman writer's connections, I pored through the biographical tabs for each author, noting the names of other women writers that appeared in these narratives; I then cross-referenced these names with the already formulated connections list found under the "Friends, Associates" and "Family" sections, paying special attention to any discrepancies I found between the two—a topic I will revisit in a later section.
The range of connections between writers incorporated into these biographies, as well as into my analysis, included social affiliations such as [End Page 41] friendships, familial relationships, and social/political/literary memberships; professional connections such as co-authorship and editor- contributor relations; and the bonds between reviewers and their authorial subjects. I included any connections between women writers noted in Orlando, no matter how small (e.g., the exchange of just one letter) or how large (e.g., a lifelong friendship), thus attempting to safeguard against the chances of overlooking small but significant connections between writers in my sample. As I worked, I realized I would need to make qualitative decisions about what I felt constituted a "connection" between authors. Though previous studies have often elected to analyze only the professional relationships between authors (i.e., their editing or writing collaborations), I chose to include every possible known connection linking one writer to another.4 Like Bruno Latour, I operated according to the belief that every activity can "be related to and explained by the same social aggregates behind all of them" (8). In other words, all activities, or the means through which connections are formed and measured, are meaningfully "linked in a way that does produce a society" (Latour 8). Social connections between writers, in particular, must be taken into account since they afforded women alternative routes for entering the literary field.
After transferring my aggregated data from Excel to the open-access software program Gephi, I produced a visualization of the complex range of connections between the writers in my study (see fig. 1). In this graph, each node represents a single woman writer and each edge indicates a connection between two nodes (writers). Rather than using relationally weighted edges, which would require me to assign each relationship an arbitrary value of relative significance, I instead selected a visual representation of each connection as either one-sided or reciprocal. For instance, if one author reviewed another but the two writers had no other apparent connection, I marked it as a one-way association originating with the reviewer and with the arrow pointing toward the reviewee. For reciprocal connections, such as familial or social relationships, I used a double-pointed arrow as the visual link between the two authors. In displaying these seemingly simplistic categorizations, I highlight the ways in which women's network formations shifted over the years. In the early decades of the century, my visualization showcases how reciprocal relationships were most prevalent, displaying the alternative ways women entered "into the male-dominated" literary marketplace through connections with other women writers and how this changed over the course of the century as women writers became more accepted and embedded within the publishing industry (Van Remoortel 131). I was also interested in developing metrics for measuring the idea of influence, noting which writers had reciprocal relationships that might indicate influence over one another's writing or career choices and which women were engaged in the one-way relationships often associated with reviewing and [End Page 42]
retrospective writing, activities that contributed to the important work of documenting women's literary history.
In a network visualization, a node derives its "authority, roughly based on how many other nodes … [it] is linked to" (Murphy and Gaipa 53). Nodes with numerous convergent edges, then, appear larger than less- connected ones and are colour coded to reflect their higher "authority." In the full-colour representations of fig. 1, hyperconnected writers Virginia Woolf and Harriet Martineau are signified by red-coloured nodes, while writers with fewer associations are symbolized by a slightly cooler shade of orange. This pattern repeats through lessening degrees of connectivity and nodal sizes, ending with purple-coloured points representing writers generally detached from the main groupings of other female authors (those with few or no connections). Thus, Gephi identifies and accordingly maps network "hotspots"—dense clusters of connectivity focused around particular authorial nodes. We can see that Woolf's and Martineau's relationships span the graph both spatially and temporally, indicating the authors' high level of connection with writers from a multitude of micro-networks and their tendency to make reference, through retrospective writings, to authors of earlier time periods. Because Woolf and Martineau were highly connected in print culture—reviewing, critiquing, editing, and, in Woolf's case, running a printing press—it is easy to see why they commanded such network authority. Though they belonged to different generations, both Woolf and [End Page 43] Martineau had a retrospective trans-temporal tendency in their writing to reflect on past women writers through reviews, biographies, and other forms of historical writing, multiplying the number of their associations and thus surpassing many of their peers in connectivity.
Besides revealing the connections between Woolf and Martineau, my network visualization revealed other, more surprising, "hotspots." In the following section, I focus on three non-canonical authors who emerged as important nodes in my analysis—Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), Geraldine Jewsbury (1812–80), and Margaret "Storm" Jameson (1891–1986). Their lives and work are less visible than those of Woolf and Martineau, whose careers and networks have been studied at length and whose canonical status is a commonplace in feminist scholarship, yet Baillie, Jewsbury, and Jameson were among the most highly connected writers of their respective generations, as we can see both from their central positions within the macro-network as well as from the weight and colour of their representative nodes (see fig. 1). It could even be supposed, based on this data visualization, that they functioned as the nuclei of distinct, clustered micro-networks around which other nodes seem to have positioned themselves. It is interesting to note that in all three cases, high connectivity did not, it seems, translate into canonicity. Their texts are rarely taught in college classrooms or included in anthologies of women's literature.5 It is my hope that my own digital humanities project can help to recover and reclaim the work of these writers, which often took place behind the scenes in the form of reviewing, editing, participating in writers' groups, and engaging in various forms of nineteenth-century social networking. While this activity may not have ensured their lasting presence in the literary canon, it nonetheless was influential in the history and production of women's writing during the long nineteenth century.
Until this point, I have made an argument for a macroanalytic approach to the study of women writers' history and biography. In the next section, I address the lives and network structures of three individual writers; however, I would like to emphasize the difference in my approach to these case studies. Rather than utilizing a traditional, singular case-study entry point into network analysis and taking an already well-known or "significant" writer and producing a network of known (or heretofore undiscovered) associates, or mapping the interconnectivity of a group of writers who were part of the same literary circle or wrote for a particular periodical, I discovered the objects of my case studies and their subsequent importance organically via my production of a macro-network of women writers. Using macroanalysis as the entry point to the study of women's connectivity allowed me to then effectively reverse-engineer an individual case study from a larger set of aggregated data. As a result, I was not only able to "discover" these women writers for myself (as I had not previously encountered their names in my own scholarship) but was also able to discern how surprisingly connected [End Page 44] and central they were to the formation of women writers' networks in the long nineteenth century. In the following sections, I take a biographical approach to three nodes in my visualization to explore how the authors they represent came to be so connected, and thus so seemingly influential, in print culture.
Joanna Baillie (1762–1851)
During the latter half of the eighteenth century, when Joanna Baillie came of age as a writer, the literary marketplace became increasingly female dominated. Upper-class women found themselves with an abundance of leisure time, and the print industry responded to fill their void with a flood of novels catering to what Ian Watt terms an "easy vicarious indulgence … in sentiment and romance" (45, 290). Baillie's literary aspirations took root in this romantic atmosphere while at a Glasgow boarding school, despite attempts at suppression by her deeply religious father. After his death, Baillie travelled with her mother and sister to London at the age of twenty-one to keep house for her brother. This fortuitous move brought Baillie into contact with her aunt, Anne Home Hunter (a published poet of small renown), who introduced her to literary society. Baillie quickly became a regular at her aunt's weekly literary salon, which included attendees such as Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Frances Burney, and Elizabeth Montagu. Encouraged by these examples of successful female authorship, Baillie published her first volume of poetry, Poems: Wherein It Is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners, in 1790.
Reviews of her work appeared in periodicals such as the Monthly Review and the Eclectic Magazine, and the affirmative reception of her poems as "true and lively pictures of nature" gave Baillie the confidence to start working in a new medium: drama (Brown, "Joanna Baillie"). She began incrementally, writing introductions and epilogues for friends' productions before eventually moving into producing complete plays of her own. From 1798 to 1812, Baillie wrote and published three texts that, when later collected, would comprise her most successful work to date—a series of verse dramas entitled Plays on the Passions. After the book of the first play appeared under the name "Anonymous," London was abuzz with speculation regarding the writer's identity, with most assuming male authorship until Baillie came forward in 1800. Though the playscripts themselves garnered mixed critical reception, their successful staging—produced on Drury Lane with John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons in leading roles—led Baillie to "fame almost without parallel," as Harriet Martineau later wrote, becoming a dramatist "second only to Shakespeare" in both talent and fame (358).
Baillie's biography reveals an author for whom the formulation of relationships with other women was instrumental in building her success. Unlike her hyperconnected successors who emerged later in the century, Baillie engaged in relationships with fellow women writers that were less [End Page 45] likely to be the one-way encounters enabled by professional opportunities in the literary marketplace (e.g., through book reviews, editorials) but were more reciprocal in nature: built through mutual correspondence, social encounters at her aunt's literary salon, and collaborations with fellow members of the theatrical world (see fig. 2).6 Baillie's hyperconnectivity is likely more attributable to her decision to work primarily as a dramatist rather than as a poet or novelist. Writing for the stage necessitated in-person connections with actors, directors, and other collaborators, some of whom also worked in the publishing industry. Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, wrote an epilogue to one of Baillie's early productions, De Montfort. Baillie collaborated with Felicia Hemans on numerous occasions to secure actors for their respective shows, and she frequently attended and reviewed Jane Porter's plays of the period. Later, Baillie's work as the editor of a little-known collection of Scottish poetry, A Collection of Poems, Chiefly Manuscript, and From Living Authors (1823), also afforded her an opportunity to develop both singular and reciprocal connections to the authors included in the volume (McLean).
Simon Potter notes that the networks of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women writers tended to be "only loosely structured," based on personal connections and often characterized by a "tendency toward homogeneity" owing to the fact that they were less public than
[End Page 46] male literary communities (634). During the early portion of the nineteenth century, even as professional opportunities in the public sphere expanded, writing was a means through which women could work safely in the private sphere of the home, "with only the … product of the author being necessarily in the public domain" (Thompson 69). This characterization held true for Baillie's early network connections, formed in a private literary salon with authors of similar backgrounds and experiences as herself. However, as her career progressed she made more public and diverse connections through her work as an editor and dramatist, and her network became far less homogenous than might otherwise be assumed. Yet, as important as her networked connectivity was, it was not yet considered the sort of work that led to canonical status. When the plays and volume editions of her works went out of print and out of fashion, her legacy was also largely forgotten, remembered only as a footnote in accounts of her broader, mixed-gender literary network, especially her relationship to the canonical novelist Sir Walter Scott. A networked analysis of Baillie's career as a dramatist and editor restores her status as a highly connected writer who was engaged with fellow women writers in ways far more substantial than attendance at a literary salon and who played an influential role in facilitating and interpreting their contributions to literary history.
Geraldine Jewsbury (1812–80)
Geraldine Jewsbury was born in Derbyshire twelve years after her sister, Maria Jane Jewsbury (1800–33), whom she eventually followed into the publishing business—producing a large number of novels and journalistic pieces, and later working as a publisher's reader. She also served as an editor and as a prolific critic and reviewer for the Athenaeum, for which it is estimated she produced well over two thousand reviews.7 Jewsbury faced significant trials early in life; the death of her mother and sister left her, at the young age of twenty, as the sole caretaker for her severely ill father. Experiencing a profound crisis of faith, Jewsbury discovered comfort in the literary texts that Maria had left her, especially the works of Thomas Carlyle. Boldly writing him a letter regarding her similar views of the themes of religious doubt in his work, she established a lifelong connection with Carlyle and, more importantly, with his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle.
After corresponding with the Carlyles, Jewsbury was inspired to begin her own publishing career. She began as a novelist, producing several books throughout the late 1840s and early 1850s, including Zoe: the History of Two Lives (1845), The Half Sisters (1848), and Marian Withers (1851), before transitioning to a career as a reviewer for the Athenaeum, among other journals, and a reader for Bentley and Hurst & Blackett. Her work as reader and reviewer tended to foster one-way connections, distinguishing her from Baillie, who, as we have seen, was more likely to form mutual connections with those in her literary and theatrical orbit. Though Jewsbury experienced reciprocal [End Page 47] relationships, such as those with Jane Welsh Carlyle, Harriet Martineau, Mary Russell Mitford, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, we can also see a greater influx of one-way (lighter-coloured line) relationships in her personalized network (see fig. 3).
As a reader, Jewsbury evaluated and made recommendations on the work of writers such as Ouida, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, and Ellen Wood, who appear as smaller nodes in her network visualization. During her prolific reviewing career, Jewsbury also formulated one-sided connections with Charlotte Brontë, Ellen Mary Clerke, and Charlotte Yonge, among others—as was typical of the reviewing trade at mid-century. Jewsbury still engaged in networking as part of her personal relationships, through letters and visits (most notably with the Carlyles), as was largely the case for Joanna Baillie, but she was more likely to engage in one-directional, professional relationships with her fellow women writers.
One possible reason for this connective shift during the mid-century was the "number of new and enabling public spaces for women writers [that] emerged from the 1840s," which provided an increasing number of opportunities for networking among women writers (Shattock, "Researching Periodical Networks" 61–62). New opportunities in the publishing field—writing, editing, and reviewing—and the rise of the "celebrity author" in the latter half of the nineteenth century changed not only the literary marketplace and the publication practices of the period but also the ways in which authorship, especially for women, was defined. Publishers began "abandoning the commitment to anonymity" and instead used "by the author of …" or authors' initials, which allowed readers to identify their favourite writers
[End Page 48] (Jordan). Later in the period, editors regularly advertised authorial identities when marketing their periodicals. Alexis Easley explains how this policy "made it increasingly difficult for women to engage in low-profile literary careers" (5). Thus, we are able to trace the roots of the shift from personal to blended personal-professional relationships for Jewsbury, as other authors—like Isabella Banks and Eliza Lynn Linton—were able to identify her reviews toward the latter half of her career.
This fundamental shift from the largely reciprocal composition of Baillie's more personal network to the heterogeneity of Jewsbury's professional relations follows Simon Potter's postulation that "from the mid-nineteenth century onward … technological and commercial changes modified earlier patterns of interconnection and privileged particular links at the expense of others" (634). Even though Jewsbury held a reputation "among her contemporaries as a major influence on Victorian literature, her contributions as author and critic have faded into obscurity" (Brown, "Geraldine Jewsbury"). Feminist scholars such as Elaine Showalter have attempted to rescue Jewsbury from obscurity by directing attention to her novels. Yet focusing on Jewsbury's fictional works does not do justice to the highly connected nature of her literary practice. Only through careful study of her behind-the-scenes, often anonymous, networked labours in the publishing industry can we begin to assess her broader contribution to the history of women's writing.
Margaret Ethel "Storm" Jameson (1891–1986)
As a woman who memorably described herself as the "invisible aunt of English letters," Margaret Ethel "Storm" Jameson has unsurprisingly received scant scholarly attention to date (Maslen 401). Born in Yorkshire in 1891, Jameson was first published in 1913, at the age of twenty-two. Married at a young age, she was acutely aware of the need to support her family as her husband finished his university studies and began teaching. The drive to work and to write propelled Jameson further into the publishing world than she at first dreamed possible. At the outset of her writing career, she lacked confidence in her abilities, noting that the "singular badness" of her first attempt "proves that I was not a born novelist" (Jameson 3). Nonetheless, Jameson continued writing in order to make ends meet, transitioning into writing copy for an advertising agency, publishing reviews in periodicals such as the Egoist, and performing research work—all of which gave her the background and experience necessary to land the position of editor of the Commonwealth magazine and London representative of publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Jameson's budding political activism, furious work ethic, and strong literary output of novels addressing the injustices of World War I led her to become the first female president of the English PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) Centre. Through PEN, she forged an ever-widening network of connections to both male and female authors, the latter including Rebecca West, Vera Brittain, Winifred Holtby, Naomi Mitchison, and Virginia Woolf (see fig. 4). [End Page 49]
Given her high degree of professional responsibility, it is unsurprising that Jameson's connections with fellow writers were numerous and diverse. As her network visualization demonstrates, Jameson was linked to a considerable number of other authors, with an even mix of one-sided and reciprocal connections. Jameson's work as a reviewer, like Jewsbury's, led to an early proliferation of one-sided connections with fellow authors. However, by the beginning of the twentieth century, such reviews were more likely to be signed. Thus, even though the reviewer and the reviewed author might never meet, their names would be linked within the publishing world. For example, author Dorothy Richardson was recruited by a publisher to write a hybrid review-response piece to Jameson's essay "Bored Wives," a feminist critique of suburbia as an intellectual desert. Because Richardson's fame was nearly equal to Jameson's at the time, their names were linked, even though they did not interact socially or professionally. Later, as PEN's president and self-appointed organizer, Jameson worked closely with other authors through mutual correspondence and in-person relationships, formulating the basis for her reciprocal connections.
If, as Murphy and Gaipa suggest, "modernism's emergence" directly resulted from the "circulation and connectivity" of period authors and their literary associations (31), Jameson seems to exemplify its success as a literary movement. So why has her self-described legacy been rendered all but invisible in literary history? One possible answer may be found in the nature of her connections with her contemporaries. As president of the English PEN Centre, Jameson was a fully engaged leader—organizing and running meetings, proposing and enacting policy change, and recruiting and retaining [End Page 50] organizational membership. Jameson was also wholly invested in supporting Allied efforts during both world wars—speaking to politicians and the public, writing and publishing pieces to fight back against Nazism and fascist ideology, and even raising funds for writers fleeing the terror and persecution of Europe during World War II. Jameson was abundantly engaged with and rooted in the specific issues of her time, which was reflected in her writing. Consequently, Birkett and Briganti note, when her first-generation Modernist peers insisted that truly great literature must be taken "out of history and [cut] off from its political moorings," "Jameson was easily nudged out of a literary canon" (10). Cast as an ephemeral novelist of a particular cultural moment, Jameson faded from literary history in favour of more well-known peers such as Virginia Woolf, whose novels still addressed the most pressing issue of the time—the war—but more fully embodied Modernism's ideals of timelessness and experimentation.
Though both Jameson and Woolf also engaged in various other forms of networked connectivity, such as reviewing, publishing, and writing about fellow women authors, Jameson's work was deemed too topical for lasting greatness, and her other networked activity within print culture, though arguably just as significant as Woolf's, resultantly disappeared from visibility. Though Virago Press reprinted Jameson's best-known novel, the autobiographical Journey to the North (1960), and second-wave feminism briefly rekindled scholarly curiosity in Jameson's life and work during the 1980s, interest in Jameson's career and texts ultimately failed to gain traction, and she, like Baillie and Jewsbury, was cast into the shadow of her (largely male) contemporaries. Instead of being recognized as central figures in nineteenth-century women's literary print culture, all three women have been reimagined as minor figures in the narratives and networks of canonical writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle, and T.S. Eliot.
Reading Broader Patterns in the Long Nineteenth Century
"Visualizing large data sets can reveal structural transformations as they took shape" in a variety of literary eras (Murphy and Gaipa 33). In graphing the network of seven hundred interconnected women writers, I was able to examine a temporal span long enough to see repeating patterns. As fig. 1 illustrates, three distinct clusters of networks emerge from the overall figure, centred around similarly sized nodes, representing three individual writers distributed over three nearly equidistant periods of forty to fifty years. Each micro-network represents a cycle within the macro-level whole, as Gephi is additionally able to measure the modularity of a set of network data, allowing it to measure the "degree to which a network is divided into smaller communities" (52). In graphing such a large span of time, this feature was particularly useful not only in foregrounding nodal hotspots of individual [End Page 51] authorial connectivity but also in distinguishing temporal connectivity pockets clustered around key women writers who flourished from 1750–1800, 1850–1900, and 1900–50. A new network arises as one generation of writers gives way to another and new women writers become central nodes within a cycle of densely connected, intertwined women's writing communities.
As Moretti observes, "cycles constitute temporary structures with the historical flow" of a network graph (76; original italics), often pointing us to a generalized time period or literary movement, but the very nature of network graphs shows us that the interconnections that occur between authors of such movements often transcend these movements. Romantic, Victorian, or Modernist women writers cannot simply be bundled together and made to fit into predetermined contextual boxes. Though a surface reading of the macro-network graph suggests that repeating patterns of homogenous authorial clusters appear at regular intervals centred around certain women in specified time periods, closer inspection of individual case studies reveals the cross-temporal nature of the connections between these women, suggesting much more complex relationships than have hitherto been understood. The authors simultaneously cultivated connectivity with one another in the present and wrote retroactively about their literary foremothers. Not only were they involved in documenting women writers' uniquely gendered history within the publishing industry but many also engaged in analyzing and critiquing the way that the works of these same women writers had entered, existed, and endured in the marketplace alongside those of their dominant male peers.
In light of this temporal entanglement with both past and present, network analysis, I contend, should be conceived as a tool for investigating multiple points of origin and entry into the study of writers in the nineteenth century rather than as the end-structure proof of pre-existent theories. Networks open lines of inquiry rather than closing off previously held assumptions or hypotheses. My study aims to expand the canon to include, or at least consider, the kinds of important roles women played both on the literary public stage and behind the scenes. Given their capacity for influencing fellow women writers and reclaiming female authors of the past, perhaps networked relationships are a better measure of any given writer's influence in literary history than their published works of imaginative literature. This idea of the importance of influence is complex, referencing matters of literary style and output, celebrity, connectivity, opportunity, critical acclaim, and so on. However, bids for canonicity by women writers have long been made on a variety of literary claims; from saintly genius (Christina Rossetti) to imaginative virtue and brilliance (Charlotte Brontë) to intellectual power and exemplary leadership (George Eliot) (Chapman, "Achieving Fame" 78–83). If nothing else, my study suggests a means for considering concepts of connectivity and influence as other viable criteria for canonicity. [End Page 52]
Archival Gaps and Silences: The Orlando Project
In examining the lives and networks of Baillie, Jewsbury, and Jameson, my goal was to illustrate the way that women's networks evolved structurally and temporally during the long nineteenth century. Of course, the validity of network analysis in defining both presence and absence in women's literary history depends on the quality of the source data used as the foundation for research—in this case, the Orlando Project database. As Lauren Klein contends, we must think of the digital archive "not as a neutral repository of knowledge, but instead as a tool for exposing the limits of our knowledge" (684). As scholars, we must consider the "epistemological assumptions" built into our use and visualization of data and "engage in a critical description" of such tools when putting them into practical use (Drucker 248).
Just as I have mined the digital material of the Orlando database, I must also interrogate the project's gaps and silences. Given the stake I have in the data's validity, "it is vital," as Paul Fyfe argues, to "account for its history" (552). The Orlando Project database is a relatively new resource in digital scholarship, rooted in the compilation of entries on women authors across several eras and aesthetic movements by editors Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy for their reference volume The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. By the end of the project, they found that the collected content had grown too large to be feasibly contained in a hard-copy text. In 2006, the latter two editors, along with scholar Susan Brown, turned their attention to building a digital project on feminist literary history.8 The first archival iteration, launched in 2010, incorporated entries on just over one thousand British women writers—with British male writers and international women writers occasionally included at the editors' discretion. In 2013, the database underwent another major expansion, bringing the total number of writers listed to 1,325 entries.9 Yet, even with this fairly large cross-sectional sample of women writers, the archive is (and will remain) incomplete. The nearly seven hundred women writers I mined from the Orlando Project database do not begin to approximate the actual number of women writers who published during the long nineteenth century, which numbered in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. Thus, while the Orlando sample is commendably large compared to the number of authors usually covered in reference books or in scholarship on women's authorship, it is simultaneously a limited selection that perhaps reflects the particular knowledge and interests of the editors who created it.
Probing the data reveals gaps at both the micro- and macro-level. For the former, within individual author listings, I grappled with constraints in collecting writer connectivity data created by what page editors opted to include in the "Life and Writing" summaries, as well as under the "Friends", "Associates", and "Family" tags. In their introduction, the editors describe their methodology and reasoning: [End Page 53]
Entry length is governed by a range of factors. The first is the historical importance, as we see it, of the writer. Authors with full entries have been picked for historical or literary interest (or both); a few treated only briefly in timeline material are candidates for full entries in some approaching update; a few (mostly from early periods) have no "Life" screen because information about them is so sparse.("Literary History with a Difference")
Michel Rolph-Troulliot describes this process as "the moment of fact assembly," during which archival silence becomes encoded (Klein 663). The privileging of certain authors over others, as reflected in the degrees of completeness for individual entries, clearly shows that not only information availability but also commercial concerns, scholarly interest, and marketability were taken into account. Given that the Orlando Project relies on paid subscriptions for financial viability, its selection bias is understandable, yet this selectivity also makes it difficult to judge the influential status of writers within print culture in an unbiased and unfiltered way. On a macro-level, the difficulties I encountered when collecting my data on women writers' relationships reinforce what Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney term the "mythologizing" of female authors "as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses" (13). Archives necessarily isolate and detach a subject or individual component in order to present information, but this treatment simultaneously removes individuals or texts from their connections and contexts. It is the work of the scholar, then, to act as the mediator who mines the subject/component of a database or archive and makes the connections visible to readers in order to highlight the importance of a specific author or text. But the question remains, how do we perform this work without privileging canonical authors over others? How (if at all) can we situate women writers within (cross-)temporal communities in an unbiased way?
Conclusion
Approaching archival data and its practical usages from a macroanalytic standpoint allows scholars to pose academic questions in a way that at first seems relatively free from the conventional biases that inform literary study. Yet, if the information included in the database is itself informed by what we already know about authors from conventional research—with canonical women writers' lives and works being much better known than those of their non-canonical sisters—then how can we ever hope to achieve an unbiased vision? "If we mine only for 'x' … we are getting a very partial intellectual picture" (Onslow 3). Perhaps we can hope for only partial truths when utilizing any data set. Nevertheless, it is a valuable exercise to try to gain a sense of distance from our usual objects of analysis and experiment with methods that defamiliarize them in engaging ways. [End Page 54]
By utilizing network analysis tools and data visualization, we are able to see not only what is present but also what is not. Visualization transforms data so that we can examine it in context with other sets of data points and thus consider it in relative terms. In analyzing connectivity data for women writers of the long nineteenth century and discovering surprisingly important nodes within these networks—such as those of Joanna Baillie, Geraldine Jewsbury, and Margaret Storm Jameson—we can begin to redefine what constitutes a writer's influence in literary history. We are invited to confront our own culpability in overlooking certain writers in favour of others. As Lauren Klein argues, the realization of "absence challenges us as critics to make the unrecorded stories that we detect—those that we might otherwise consign to the past—instead expand with motion and meaning" (675). Repeated scholarly attention to a select group of women writers has not only solidified their place within the canon but also reinforced "readers' familiarity with these authors," underscoring "their perceived worth and significance" (Murphy and Gaipa 42). By engaging with network analysis on a macroanalytic scale rather than taking the canonical individual or coterie as a starting point, I hope to raise fresh questions about women authors' experience in the literary marketplace—and about the archives that claim to represent them. A distant reading approach, followed by the close reading of biographical data, promises to dislodge our preconceptions and stereotypes about women's writing, canon formation, and the idea of influence and importance in literary history.
ANDREA STEWART recently received her MA from the University of St. Thomas, where she also works as an editorial assistant for Victorian Periodicals Review. Her research areas of interest centre on Victorian literature and its intersections with modern media culture studies, as well as quantitative analytic approaches to mapping biographies and networks of British women writers of the same period.
Notes
1. For example, Natalie Houston's ongoing map of the textual relationships between Victorian poets and publishers ("Toward a Computational Analysis of Victorian Poetics") or Anne DeWitt's data visualization study concerning reviews and the Victorian theological novel ("Advances in the Visualization of Data: The Network of Genre in the Victorian Periodical Press").
2. See, for example, Chauncey Brewster Tinker 30–41; Alison Chapman, Networking 3–18; and Susanne Schmid.
3. The first component is, of course, intrinsic to the scope of my analysis. The second was included for assurance of mapping connections between women writers specifically. Texts published pseudonymously or anonymously could not be attributed with absolute certainty to a female author, so certain authors could not be entertained for this study.
4. Examples of previous studies that focused on group networks include Patrick Leary's examination of the Punch brotherhood, and P.D. Edwards's exploration of Dickens and his circle of writers.
5. Indeed, as Barbara Onslow laments, the names of writers such as Geraldine Jewsbury are familiar only to "scholars specializing in nineteenth-century feminism" and not to general readers (1).
6. One useful feature offered by Gephi is the ability to create a personalized 3-D graph for each author showing the author's connections on an individual scale to other writers in the larger whole.
7. The exact number of Jameson's reviews for the Athenaeum is unknown since many of the periodical's reviews remain unattributed, "Anonymity [having] remained entrenched in the reviewing of the 1850s" (Shattock "'Orbit' of the Feminine Critic").
8. Brown, Clements, and Grundy serve as project editors for the site and oversee content development, each taking a section of history. Brown oversees women's writing from 1820–90, Clements covers writing from 1880–present, and Grundy manages writing from the "beginning" to around 1830. The archive also lists seven co-investigators, fourteen technical personnel, eight post-doctoral fellows, one hundred and six research assistants, seven administrators, and two external consultants, all of whom have worked in various capacities to build and launch the Orlando Project into its current digital form.
9. The database updates its records on a biannual basis, but additions are fairly minor (ten to twenty-five new writers may be added), and existing writers' content also undergoes smaller revisions. | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/744951 |
The category of writing of women has been described by the publishers as something special. The writing by women is in fact very interesting and in fact a new arena of literary work.
Narrative of Texas women
The impact that the texas female authors have shown in the literary work is hugely appreciated. The authors trace the effect of women in the history of the state of Texas. This has been going on through prehistoric times and is seen even in the present.
- The narration of the books that are based on women’s history is based on the simple fact about the role of the women in the past. The authors felt that it has to be intrinsically known to the people all over the world.
- The women authors depict the stories of women from numerous perspectives and also varied opinion. They also have related the lives of the women in the past. This is relation to the effects of religion, castes as well as political ideology and sexually.
- The writing of the Texas women authors vary widely with the others in respect to theme, voice and setting. TheTexasfemale authorsare now heading towards a new beginning, irrespective of novels, dramas or poems.
A survey has been carried out to see the changes that took place among the writers. Theyhave now taken particular challenges that have shaped their work. This is a section that has been researched about the writers in Texas and has found that there are many contributions in the literary world. The scholar writers have contributed greatly through their writing to the state.
The main intention is to introduce more readers in this vibrant literary tradition. The books that are written areunique to the tradition and experience of Texas. A most comprehensive bibliography has been created to dedicate it to Texas women. | https://www.round-about.org/know-the-importance-of-the-writing-of-texas-female-authors/ |
In this comprehensive work, Zierler, an assistant professor of modern Jewish literature and feminist studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, draws on a broad range of feminist theories and reading strategies to examine the work of three generations of female Hebrew authors and poets. Zierler takes her title from the curious incident in which our foremother Rachel took control of a patriarchal legacy by stealing her father’s idols. Zierler sees this as a metaphor for the heritage of modern Jewish women’s writing in Hebrew. She perceives Rachel as “a kind of biblical voleuse de langue, an archetypal feminist writer, who dares to steal across the borders of masculine culture, seize control of her cultural inheritance, and make it her own.” While Yiddish might have been ‘mamaloshen’ (mother’s tongue), modern Hebrew in its early years was the domain of male writers. Zierler shows how a number of talented female poets and writers took control of the language of Hebrew literary culture and impressed on it their own feminine (and sometimes feminist) styles, values and images.
Zierler begins by giving a brief history of Jewish women’s writing, which also introduces the authors and poets whose work will be analyzed in the book. The other chapters examine uniquely “women’s themes” addressed by these writers in Hebrew literary culture. Poets such as Leah Goldberg of Israel and Rachel Morpugo of Italy reclaimed the stories of biblical women in classical and modern Hebrew. Zierler also examines how the land of Israel was personified with various female images (mother, bride, wife, daughter, maiden) in the poetry of Esther Raab and Rachel (Bluwstein), among others. In their stories and poems, authors such as Devorah Baron, Anda Pinkerfeld-Amir and Nehamah Puhachevsky explored the very female, sometimes wondrous, sometimes painful experiences of barrenness, pregnancy and childbirth, which had rarely been presented from a woman’s perspective. The prose writings of Sarah Feige, Meinkin Foner, Hava Shapiro, and Devorah Baron depict women who broke boundaries by entering new intellectual, social, religious and geographic spaces. Significantly, their characters’ journeys often ended in exile and alienation, not a return to an embracing community. The final chapter, “The Rabbi’s Daughter in and out of the Kitchen,” uses stories featuring these exceptional and knowledgeable women to examine the symbol of the kitchen, a site of both limitations on women as well as a gathering place for female community and creativity.
Zierler has also included a biographical section at the end of the book, which contains brief but informative biographies of all of the poets and authors whose work she analyzes in the volume. With many original translations and a stimulating combination of Jewish literary and feminist scholarship, And Rachel Stole the Idols is an important contribution to the growing and diverse field of Jewish women’s studies. | https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/and-rachel-stole-the-idols-the-emergence-of-modern-hebrew-womens-writing |
The Wives: The Women Behind Russia's Literary Giants is about the wives of Russia’s most celebrated authors –– from Anna Dostoevsky and Sophia Tolstoy to Véra Nabokov and Natalya Solzhenitsyn. Here, author Alexandra Popoff delves into the relationships they had with their husbands, and how they changed the landscape of literature forever.
The six women in the book were the writers’ muses, intellectual companions, and indispensable advisers. Above all, they were veritable "nursemaids of talent," as Sophia Tolstoy was described during War and Peace. To use Vladimir Nabokov’s words, these women formed a "single shadow" with the writers.
These marriages were marked by intense collaboration: the women contributed ideas and committed to paper great works as stenographers, typists, editors, researchers, translators, and publishers. Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s wives were absorbed with their husbands’ art, which they also helped produce. Tolstoy’s novels are unthinkable without Sophia whose articulate letters and diaries gave him better insight into the female world and who was a model for his heroines. During the first two decades theirs was a highly functional marriage that gave the world War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Unlike Tolstoy, whose novels draw from his family life, Dostoevsky kept his marriage out of his works. But Dostoevsky’s achievement was equally impossible without Anna, whom he called his guardian angel, collaborator, and a rock on which he could lean. Like Nora Joyce, who had saved James Joyce from alcoholism, Anna nursed Dostoevsky through his gambling addiction and epileptic attacks. Being a stenographer, she also helped Dostoevsky produce his novels, remarking that the hours he dictated to her were the happiest. Anna’s first stenographic assignment at twenty was with her favorite author: much like Sophia Tolstoy, she loved her husband’s literature while still in her girlhood. From the time Anna helped Dostoevsky meet an onerous deadline, dictating to her became his preferred way of composition. Dostoevsky never failed to acknowledge Anna’s contributions; he called her his idol and his only friend. In contrast, Tolstoy was reluctant to express gratitude to Sophia, who was his copyist and first editor, and who later became his translator, publisher, biographer, and photographer.
While the two rivals, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, never met, their wives recognized and supported each other. Both became publishers and Anna, who first produced her husband’s works, shared her business practices with Sophia. As publishers the two aspired for quality and handled proofreading and most stages of production themselves. This came on top of raising their families and managing all other practical affairs. Both were remarkably versatile, combining practicality with literary giftedness. After decades of publishing Dostoevsky and establishing his museums, Anna remarked, “I did it out of gratitude for…the hours of highly artistic enjoyment I experienced reading his works.”
But the two unions were also different in many respects. While Dostoevsky praised Anna’s business skills, Sophia lived in fear of Tolstoy’s criticism. After completing Anna Karenina Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis, which changed him profoundly as a man and writer. He emerged as a founder of his brand of religion, whose sweeping repudiations of money, property, and sex became confusing even to his disciples. For the family to comply with his moral absolutes was unfeasible, making Sophia’s role beside Tolstoy ever more complex.
Unlike the Tolstoys, who read each others’ diaries, Anna kept a stenographic diary, unreadable not only to Dostoevsky, but even to another stenographer. She did not want the public to know the complexities of her relationship with the genius. But a few decades ago, an expert stenographer cracked her code and her original diaries came to light. They revealed that Anna purged her entries of the episodes that negatively reflected on Dostoevsky or revealed her private experiences. In contrast, Sophia did not alter her diaries, realizing their historical value, and had the courage to voice her independent views.
The two prominent wives had a following in the twentieth century. Véra Nabokov was aware of the contributions her predecessors made to the writers whose lives and literature she intimately knew. Nabokov admired Tolstoy and despised Dostoevsky, to whom he gave a C minus for his novels. Early in their relationship Véra and Nabokov played a literary game, evoking the famous episode of betrothal in Anna Karenina where Levin gives Kitty his bachelor diary. This episode, of course, was drawn from the Tolstoys’ betrothal.
The Nabokovs’ union evokes the Tolstoys’ in many ways, minus the domestic drama of the final decades. Véra’s involvement in her husband’s career was vast, but not as unmatched as it is believed. Placing the Nabokovs’ marriage in its cultural context allows comparison. Véra, for example, was intensely private, but less secretive than Anna who guarded her marriage from outsiders and from Dostoevsky who could not read her private diary.
The six wives in the book made their own cultural contributions. Their collaboration with the writers was inspired. When eminent writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, wanted their wives to partake in producing literature, their marriages suffered as a result. Russian literary unions were different: the women believed writing was worth a shared sacrifice and that being a writer’s wife was a vocation in itself. | https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/53396-the-women-behind-the-greatest-works-of-russian-literature.html |
A fascinating book examining the female influence over the horror genre. As an aspiring writer myself, I found this book to be useful and beautifully presented.
Michelle H, Librarian
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***Thanks to the publisher and #NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*** For fans of horror and classical literature, this book gives an in-depth look into the monsters and the authors that wrote about them. I enjoyed learning more about gothic literature and was delighted that the recommended other books to read if you liked certain novels.
Rebecca C, Librarian
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Wow. I really enjoyed reading "Monster, She Wrote" because it took me back to my college days but better. I loved that this book had a little bit of everything. I found this book to be interesting and I will definitely recommend it.
Bookseller 545305
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I have to say, the e-arc doesn't do this book justice, but I was lucky to get my hands on a physical galley and it is is so, so pretty! The illustrations and fonts are gorgeous and it's just a pleasure to hold in one's hand. Besides that, it's great to have a book that outlines women's contributions to the genre. Of course, it's not comprehensive and is more like an encyclopedia with short bios and fact-dumping, but it's pretty long and full of interesting names not many folks know. Moreover, every chapter ends with a reading list, so that's really nice. It's a really good gift book for anyone interested in feminist studies and the genre; the language it's written in seems to be aiming more at teens and general audience - it is definitely not an academic book. Have to say, I'm kind of upset the three greats of the 20th century: Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler didn't get their own chapters. Like I said, the book isn't comprehensive at all, but does include less famous names, so that's great, I suppose... Just seems strange talking about women who "pioneered" speculative fiction and not talk about them. Overall though, I loved the book. Quirk books never disappoint.
Kirsty L, Reviewer
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Will I ever tire of books about books? (Answer: no.) This one was great fun, and was a pleasant reminder of my favourite course during my English Lit undergrad, on the Female Gothic. It's a very brief overview, but I found the selections interesting, and I've added several new books to my to-read list. The more modern selections had some strange omissions (no Hotel World by Ali Smith? No Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel? No Amelia Gray or Camilla Grudova?) and focused on some lightweight YA authors when it would have made more sense to focus on literary authors who are writing great and unusual books while also really engaging with the topics mentioned. But still, I really enjoyed it, and would have happily read it at twice the length.
Natasha S, Bookseller
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This was a gorgeous little book to flip through. I'm all about my fellow women who create and love horror. Thank you for this book.
Gizem U, Educator
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This book has been created with the idea of bringing together all the dark queens of literature. I am completely clueless when it comes to genres of horror, gothic fiction, paranormal literature, ghost stories, and haunted environment and I wanted to learn about the most important/famous examples of these genres and it seemed a great starting point reading this book although it focuses only on women, which I believe is a good thing, since, behind most pseudonyms used in literature, there is a woman trying to hide her real identity as a writer. This unique collection of female authors, who have written unconventional stories, and their most prominent works and masterpieces are listed under special categories such as ghost stories, haunted homes, vampires, horror and speculative fiction. It is great to read their life journey and how it shaped the way they write about such unusual topics. Female authors are often expected to be creative in romantic love stories and the examples in this book display the shocking fact that women can be as intense and unconventional as men when it comes to supernatural phenomena, suspense and horror, ghost stories and haunted houses, gore, and murder, violence, and erotism and paranormal activities. However, it is not easy to be accepted in society and publish your works since you're supposed to be all elegant and fragile as a woman(!). These brave women push the boundaries of society and dance beautifully around gender roles. A great read for the lovers of the related literature and even though I do not really fancy the genre, I have enjoyed it and learned a lot. The only downside is my TBR list has skyrocketed.
Patricia U, Librarian
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It’s been years since I took a deep dive into early gothic and speculative fiction, so I thought this would be a nice refresher. Kroger and Anderson have written a *readable* and engaging piece of non-fiction that delves into all the kick-ass women who wrote sci-fi, paranormal, and speculative fiction from the 17th c. on. Many of them wrote using male pseudonyms, but others started their own goddamned publishing houses just for women! While I especially enjoyed the chapters on the early writers in the field, I also found many new authors to explore who wrote for the pulps, or who wrote under male pseudonyms. This book had me scouring my bookshelves for English and Victorian ghost story and short story collections to see if I actually had some of the stories referenced. I now have a stack of ghost story books all set for a summer reading project and am thinking about putting together a reading challenge for my library system using the authors referenced here. This one’s a winner, folks!
Kyera L, Librarian
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There is something very intriguing about this book. It is a combination encyclopedia, reference text, and reader's advisory. If you want to learn more about some classic women gothic/horror/science fiction writers or need some new books to read then this is a great guide! Personally, I also love books where you can pick it up and turn to any given page for just a tidbit of information instead of being stuck reading from start to finish. It will certainly find a place on my shelves.
Rebecca K, Librarian
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"These genres of fiction are instruments with which women writers can shake up society and prod readers in an uncomfortable direction... It's no surprise that women's fiction focuses on voice and visibility. Women might be told to be quiet, but they still speak up." Monster, She Wrote is a refreshing and interesting overview of many female writers of the wider horror genre. It profiles the more well-known writers (Mary Shelley and Anne Rice), as well as many who have been influential but are in danger of being forgotten. This is an excellent guide: I would recommend getting it in print as opposed to a digital copy, as it is a book that you would want to revisit for reference. It is accessible to a wide audience, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Leticia R, Librarian
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This was a fun read. It was a nice quick and easy flow read. I enjoyed the timeline of writers and their influence and impact they had in the Gothic Horror genre. It was interesting to see how each writer not only opened up new stories and ideas in the genre but how their impact started a wave of new ideas of writing and capturing the audience. I really enjoyed how the recommended reading list. It gave me an ah-ha moment or I didn't think about that title as something similar. I love the idea that it was not just about the writers but their creations and "monsters", and the lasting impact they had.
Bookseller 539277
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This is a good book for starting out when new into the horror genre. It provides a rich overview of authors in various different giving insight into their backgrounds and how it may influence their writing. It’s reading lists not only offer titles of the authors to check out, but also provides a list of similar titles from other authors. The chapters were reminiscent of online top [number] lists videos and would be a good suggestion for readers who enjoy watching them. #IndigoEmployee
Brittany M, Educator
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I was enamored with this text. To give some context to my emotional response: book orders for next semester are due Monday at my university and I am trying to rework my course theme so that I can use it in the upcoming Fall. I thought the pacing was incredible for this kind of text; in the beginning, when the authors were mainly providing a background of the creation of the Gothic novel, the sections were very short and digestible for students who might not be as interested in biographical info. It gave us, the reader, a very fully painted idea without droning on too much. As the text went on and began to look more deeply at the way monsters and other spooky things evolved, the sections seemed to go into more depth in a way that really kept my interest. As a Carter fan, in particular, I loved section seven. I also loved how the text really allowed a greater appreciation for the intertexuality in horror. Great Text!
Stephanie P, Librarian
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This is a comprehensive and well-written collection of information and recommended reading from female horror writers. Some are well known and others have nearly faded into obscurity. The author of Monsyer She Wrote gives just enough information about each author to make the reader want to learn more. I can see myself purchasing this as a desk reference when I’m looking for new reading material!
Jules I, Librarian
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A fun, light read about Mary Shelley and her contemporary women writers in the genre of horror/ sci-fi. I knew a lot about Shelly but definitely learned a few things about the other authors. This book is well put together and a great starting place for finding out more about some lesser known female writers. Recommended.
Ian S, Librarian
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This book is a lot of fun. Everyone know about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Now get to know Shelley's work better and learn about her contemporaries in gothic horror and the women that succeeding them. It is a nice format, giving a biography of each author and then some literary criticism and reading recommendations. | https://www.netgalley.com/book/161331/reviews?=r.updated&direction=desc&page=4 |
This list is sorted by popularity, so only the most famous 20th century quotes are at the top the authors of these historic 20th century quotes are displayed next to each quote, so if you see one you like be sure to check out other inspirational 20th century quotes from that same writer. Paul dirac has repeatedly been referred to as one of the most significant and influential physicists of the 20th century the cambridge professor greatly contributed to early quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, and even received the nobel prize in physics in 1933. List of famous british writers of the 20th century with their biographies that include trivia, interesting facts, timeline and life history they have penned some of the most classic tales of romance that have kindled a feeling of love in the most brazen of hearts, created characters whose fame . Modern critical analysis of nineteenth-century women's literature seeks, in part, to understand the underlying reasons that women authors, especially in america, britain, and france, were able to .
19: - born september 25th, 1897 in mississippi - he wrote many short stories, and fiction novels - considered of the most influential authors in 20th century and one of the most important southern writers - won the nobel prize for literature in 1949 - won the pulitzer prize in 1955 for his book a fable and again in 1963 for the reivers - he was . One-time donation you can also become a spontaneous supporter with a one-time donation in any amount: top ten works of the 20th century famous writers might . 20 most influential women authors of all time and early 20th century, critics denounced dickinson’s individual style and literary prowess, but later . These are the most influential books in literature often considered one of the great novels of the 20th century huxley’s novel looked unfavorably on the loss .
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How sometimes less talented rock bands get more famous and one by one i started to enjoy his lyrics popular songwriters of the 20th century jingle writers . Common knowledge book awards harpercollins 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century (1,891 boston public library's 100 most influential books of the century. Popular 20th century literature books (showing 1-50 of 1,250) the catcher in the rye (paperback) by jd salinger i offer you this one myself, in the only form .
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2018. | http://yftermpapertfda.locallawyer.us/an-analysis-of-one-of-the-most-influential-writers-of-the-20th-century.html |
*Week in Review is a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.
Women in the publishing industry
VIDA, an organization for women in the literary arts, recently released statistics from 2010 that showed a disparity in the number of female book reviewers and books by women that are reviewed in magazines and literary journals compared to men. The group showed its findings through 40 different pie charts looking at 14 magazines. Only on two charts did women outnumber men (cover to cover authors at The Atlantic and in authors reviewed at Poetry). Here are some examples of their findings:
- Only about 14 percent of the authors reviewed by The New Republic werefemale — 55 male authors and nine females.
- The New York Times Book Review had 438 male bylines and 295 female bylines,and those reviewed a total of 807authors, 283 of which were women.
- The New York Review of Books women had 39 bylines to men’s 200 and 59 female authors were reviewed compared to 306 men.
The issue was picked up across the web, mostly by women and a few men, and spurred debate this week around why this gap exists.
On Slate, Meghan O’Rourke noted that the findings become surprising, because “writing isn’t a field historically dominated by men, like theoretical physics.” She poses a number of possible reasons, but also points out that the issue that these statistics show is perhaps how “seriously” books by women are taken.
Ruth Franklin at The New Republic with some help crunched the numbers to find out how many books were published by authors of each gender in the past year. With those in mind, she noted: “…The magazines are reviewing female authors in something close to the proportion of books by women published each year. The question now becomes why more books by women are not getting published.”
Reasons suggested by commentators included that its a matter of a socialized bias that men’s stories are considered the best and most important and also that women, as a result of this being ingrained in them as well, are less confident and therefore less likely to submit or promote their work.
Laura Miller at Salon.com argued that perhaps males tend to read books written by men, while women are more likely to read books by both genders. (That same argument has been used by Disney and others to explain that female-focused films, like the princess movies, appeal to too narrow a demographic — just girls).
Or perhaps its a flaw of the establishment that is the literary world and not a reflection of popular culture and readers as a whole. In his critique of some of Miller and Franklin, Jason Pinter points out on Huffington Post that “if more popular fiction was treated fairly, I’m certain the gap would close, if not shut altogether.” He notes that Franklin’s numbers ruled out genres that are typically not reviewed, which tend to be written by women.
Margot Magowan suggests that the gap will continue to exist unless women are empowered to believe that their views, ideas and opinions are valid and worthy, just as men’s are.
Here’s a roundup of links to some of the other comments and news on the subject:
- “‘Numbers don’t lie’: Addressing the gender gap in literary publishing” by Jessa Crispin at Need to Know on PBS
- “On Gender, Numbers, & Submissions” a response from Tin House
- “The Lack of Female Bylines in Magazines Is Old News” by Katha Pollitt on Slate
- “Research shows male writers still dominate books world” on The Guardian
- “Gender Balance and Book Reviewing: A New Survey Renews The Debate” by Patricia Cohen on The New York Times’ Art Beat blog
- “Women in Publishing: What’s the Real Story?” by Kjerstin Johnson on Bitch Magazine
- “Why It Matters That Fewer Women Are Published in Literary Magazines” by Robin Romm at DoubleX.
- “How To Publish Women Writers: A Letter to Publishers about the VIDA Count” by Annie Finch as posted on Her Circle Ezine
- “Women in Publishing” by Stephen Elliott at The Rumpus
- “The Sorry State of Women and Top Magazines” by Anna North at Jezebel
What do you make of the findings? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. | https://genderreport.com/2011/02/12/week-in-review-feb-7-%E2%80%93-feb-11/ |
Shirley Jackson was a literary superstar of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Her work won the O'Henry award and was shortlisted for the National Book award. She’s best known for “The Lottery,” which is one of the most famous stories in American literature.
In her memoir, Life Among the Savages, Jackson wrote about going to the hospital to deliver her third child, and having the following exchange with the receptionist:
“Occupation?”
“Writer,” I said.
“Housewife,” she said.
“Writer,” I said.
“I'll just put down housewife,” she said.
I want to think things have changed. I want to think that if a woman says she's a writer, today, people accept that she's a goddamned writer.
The gender ratio of the authors on the New York Times Best Seller list is one way to gauge how being a female writer today might be different from 70 years ago, in Shirley Jackson's time. The Best Seller list is the equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100 for literature, tracking the weekly 10-15 best-selling books since the 1940s.
By taking the set of books that made it onto the list each year and looking at the gender of the authors, we can track the changing relationship between author gender and commercial success.
Best-Selling Novels by Author Gender
Male
Female
Our analysis of New York Times best sellers is based on the aggregated list of unique books that charted each year. For example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone appears on the Best Seller list for all 52 weeks of 1999, but it only counts once towards the 1999 data. Note: this process yielded a directionally similar result as an approach that weighted books by weeks-charted (see the results here).
Books by women consistently made up about a quarter of the list in the 1950s. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, female representation on the list fluctuated dramatically. The rate of books by women got as high as 38% in 1970, and as low as 14% in 1975. (Some of this was simple math: from 1963 to 1977, the New York Times capped the list to 10 books per week. This made the annual list of best sellers shorter and the gender ratio more sensitive to changes in the counts from year to year.)
This volatility didn’t result in permanent change: in both 1990 and 1950, 28% of the books on the list were written by women. In the 1990s, women finally made steady gains on the list over ten years. 2001 saw the highest ratio of all time: 50% women, 50% men, later dipping to 48% in 2016.
This is a piece of our answer, and it's good news. Among commercially successful authors in Shirley Jackson’s time, men outnumbered women 3 to 1. Now, that number is close to 1 to 1.
What Happened in the 1990s?
Since most of the change in the gender ratio occurred in the 1990s, let’s better understand the composition of the Best Seller list and how books are categorized.
Here, binned by decade, are the top-performing authors ranked by number of books on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Top Authors by Decade
Note each author’s genre: the Best Seller list includes all types of fiction. The list tracks pure commercial performance, including everything from mystery and horror fiction (e.g. Agatha Christie, Stephen King) to literary fiction (e.g. Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen).
Critics call books that are written to fit into a specific genre — such as mystery, romance, sci-fi, and horror — “genre fiction.” Genre fiction is often compared to its high-brow counterpart, "literary fiction." In practice literary fiction tends to to be critically acclaimed, and to not involve things like aliens, magic, private investigators, or cowboys.
To understand what happened in the 1990s, we wanted to separate out the many different kinds of fiction. Using a subject heading database, we were able to classify every book on the list by genre.
Best-Selling Novels by Genre
Genres in the “Other” category: historical fiction, domestic fiction, religious fiction, legal fiction, war fiction. Books labeled “Literary/None" could not be classified into any particular genre.
Genre fiction sold the best in the 1980s. Though it remained prominent in the 1990s, it gradually waned in popularity over the decade and dropped off significantly in the early 2000s.
This matters because the gender breakdown of best selling authors varies a lot between genres, and over time. If a genre dominated by male authors dwindles on the Best Seller list, the overall gender balance changes. If female writers become more prevalent in a popular genre, that affects the overall gender balance, too. Today, most of the books on the list fall in the literary/none category, which means the gender breakdown of this category has far more representation on the Best Seller list.
Let’s examine at the gender ratio within each category (examining decades with at least 10 books within the genre on the Best Seller list).
Gender Ratio of the Best-Selling Genres by Decade
- ← Percent Men
- Percent Women →
Almost every category started out as heavily male-dominated, and many have stayed that way. These categories align with stereotypes about male interests: fantasy and science fiction, spy and political fiction, suspense fiction, and adventure fiction, have all been consistently male-dominated since their introduction to the list. A best-selling female fantasy/sci-fi author today is just as rare as a best-selling female literary author in the 1950s.
Then, there are the genres that have flipped. The horror/paranormal genre is now almost at gender parity, owing no small thanks to paranormal romance novels. Mystery is the most balanced genre over time, which shouldn't be surprising given the genre's history. The 1920s and 30s are known as the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," and were dominated by a quartet of female authors known as the Queens of Crime: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham.
Best-selling romance novels were mostly written by men in the 1950s, but in the 1960s women took over. By the 1980s, female authors solidly dominated the genre, probably because female writers had a natural advantage writing for mostly female readers about mostly female experiences of love and sex.
The Feminization of Literary Fiction
If we are looking for a single category to explain why women are better represented among best-selling authors today, the Literary/None category is our best candidate. Most best-selling books fall into this category, and its change over time closely matches the overall gender ratio, shifting from extreme bias in the 1980s to close to parity in the 2000s.
This is more good news. For better or for worse, literary fiction is more prestigious than genre fiction. It’s what wins book awards and Nobel prizes. The major literary prizes still skew male, but in the case of novels, there’s clear market signal that women authors are just as commercially viable as men. It’s a tension that exists in many industries: what does well in the box office may not win an Oscar.
While we can’t say for sure why literary fiction trended toward parity, or why it regained popularity over genre fiction, we can theorize.
It turns out that in the 1990s, colleges started training people to produce non-genre fiction at record rates. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of people earning MFAs in creative writing tripled. What's more, these new degree-earners were 59-66% female.
Creative Writing MFA Degrees
Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young collected the above data from IPEDS, a federal database. Prior to 1988, and from 1989-1994, IPEDS didn’t distinguish creative writing MFAs from other graduate studies in English. Data includes poetry as well as fiction students.
The vast majority of MFA programs in fiction focus on teaching students to produce non-genre or literary work. Many MFA students graduate with workshop-polished first books and the contacts to at least have a shot at publication. Colleges are now graduating thousands of MFAs per year, pumping many more disproportionately female authors into the market.
The Market vs. The Publishing Industry
So far, this might look pretty OK to you. But we’re not done here!
The data seems to say that, today, books by women are as valuable to the book-buying public as books by men. So why doesn’t the publishing industry seem to recognize this?
Like many institutions, the publishing industry has long been accused of gender bias. Every year, the VIDA Count organization goes through literary journalism outlets and tallies the genders of the writers whose works are featured and reviewed in those outlets. According to their most recent study, in 2015 books by women made up less than 20% of books reviewed in the New York Review of Books, 30% in Harper’s, 29% in the Atlantic, and 22% in the London Review of Books.
A lot of the bias in reviews reflects a bias in publishing. In 2011, inspired by VIDA, Ruth Franklin at the New Republic did a small-scale analysis of the upcoming catalogs of 13 publishing houses. Franklin found that 11 of the 13 publishers, including Harper, Norton, Little Brown, Knopf and FSG, had heavily male biased catalogs — around 30% or less of their books were written by women. The Huffington Post followed her study up in 2012 with similar findings of widespread gender bias.
If you’re persuaded that most of the trend towards gender parity in the 1990s was due to the expansion of the MFA, the biases in publication and criticism might explain why the growth of female authorship on the Best Seller list did not continue into the 2000s.
MFA programs have continued to expand, and about 2/3s of MFA earners are women, but the gender ratio on the Best Seller list has been frozen at under 50% since the early 2000s. The statistics suggest publishers and critics aren’t giving these new young authoresses the chance they deserve.
Sources and Methodology Notes: New York Times Best Seller list data was taken from the Hawes Publications website. Analysis is limited to hardcover fiction.
Gender was tagged by linking a book’s entry in the Library of Congress OCLC classify system to the author’s page in the Virtual International Authority File database, which includes gender information. Books credited to mixed-gender writing teams, corporate entities, and fictional characters were excluded from the analysis.
Genre was tagged by using OCLC classify system to fetch FAST Subject Headings for every edition of the book, which are assigned by Library of Congress partner libraries around the country. Some FAST Subject Headings indicate work of a particular genre. When more than 1% of tagged holdings of a book were tagged with a genre-specific subject heading, the book was assigned to that genre. When a book was tagged with subject headings for multiple genres, the book was assigned to the genre that corresponded to the subject heading with the most holdings. Books without sufficient FAST Subject Headings to assign a genre were classified “Literary/None”. | https://pudding.cool/2017/06/best-sellers/ |
This article uses the term ‘equivocation’ to describe the sense in which Christian incarnational theology appears to have provided a resource or way of thinking about the embodied human condition. For British literary works produced across a period of over a thousand years, that is not wholly negative. Christian convictions about God's investment in the materiality of human existence bear witness to the perception of infinite human longings and seemingly endless possibilities, as well as our fearful limitations. British artists and commentators during this period have not all accepted the authority of a Christian approach, and in the last two or three centuries many have aspired to challenge the more negative or limiting emphases of its teaching. Arguably, the paradigm remains significant, yet it continues to provide both impetus and challenge to ongoing reflections on the nature of unavoidable human incarnation.
Feminist Revisioning
Heather Walton
This article explores the literary revisioning work as it is displayed in the work of two women writers whose attention has been largely focused on the Jewish and Christian traditions. Alicia Ostriker and Michèle Roberts are women whose work arises out of direct political involvement with the women's movement. Both are authors who are deeply immersed in contemporary critical debates and both acknowledge their conversational relationships with other female creative artists. As such, it is possible to view their work as representative of a revisionary movement within contemporary women's literature concerned with nothing less than the radical revisioning of religious traditions. | https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/browse?btog=chap&pageSize=20&sort=titlesort&t_0=ORR%3AAHU03020&t_1=ORR%3AORRREL008&t_2=ORR%3AORRREL020&t_3=ORR%3AAHU03060&t_4=ORR%3AORRREL004 |
Unveiling the first of its kind event across the Middle East, Africa and the Sub-continent regions, Ananke’s Women in Literature Festival 2021 features some of the most noteworthy names in the literary world. Joining a distinguished line-up of authors, is Nathalie Etoke who will be talking about her book Shades of Black published by Seagull Books.
Nathalie Etoke is Associate Professor of Francophone and Africana Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY (The City University of New York). Her articles have appeared in Research in African Literatures, French Politics and Culture, Nouvelles Études Francophones, Présence Francophone, the International Journal of Francophone Studies, and the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy. She is the author of L’Écriture du corps féminin dans la littérature de l’Afrique francophone au sud du Sahara and of Melancholia Africana l’indispensable dépassement de la condition noire, which won the 2012 Frantz Fanon Prize from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. In 2011, she directed Afro Diasporic French Identities, a documentary on race, identity and citizenship in contemporary France.
The Women in Literature Festival 2021 is a celebration of the literary genius, creative journeys and lived artistic experiences of the female gender. Marking Women’s History Month and Women’s Day, the 3-day event will take place on (March 30-April 1) to also observe World Book and Copyright Day.
The event aims to look at literature from a gender perspective, the impact and role of translations that expand the scope and audience reach. From Dostoevsky to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, readers have enjoyed many adventures. And while they are able to relish the sublime through immense efforts in translations that preserve authors’ authenticity, the role of translators, particularly female translators remain largely unacknowledged, long forgotten and even unrecognized.
Through this festival, Ananke strives to not just celebrate creativity of female fiction and non-fiction writers, but to highlight female literary history and showcase – many a times – invisibilized women writers in cultural festival line-ups. The Women in Literature Festival plans to highlight how literature produced by women needs to be showcased, promoted and celebrated globally via translations, digital documentation and more.
With the purpose of rediscovering literature under a gender lens, the Festival also aims to trigger inclusive conversations on the sociology of discrimination, misogyny, and racism. Several dialogues at the digital event will examine the societal constructs of silence and complicity; how it impacts works of literature through propagation as well as resistance to it.
Talking about her participation at the event and her book, Shades of Black, which will be unveiled during her talk, Nathalie said: “I think it is important to have continuous inclusive conversations about the dilemma and paradox of Black people, -women included- to create a society that dismantles a colonial and oppressive understanding of freedom.”
Adding: “On the one hand, we have been socialized to accept power dynamics that confine specific human groups to the margins and robbed them of the power to achieve their full potential. On the other hand, so called democratic societies are constantly extolling the virtues of freedom without acknowledging that it was achieved at the expense of other people. I am fighting against this colonial understanding of freedom. Freedom must be decolonized. With regard to women of color, freedom cannot be achieved without challenging patriarchy and heteronormativity. They must be able to achieve their full potential in their own terms. They must not only confront white supremacy, they also have to challenge the sexualized distribution of social roles that undermines their ability to be free.”
Confirmed speakers also include notable names such as pioneer of second wave feminism, Phyllis Chesler, Resident Director Aurat Foundation Pakistan Mahnaz Rehman, inspirational academicians writers and award winning authors: Sheela Reddy, Leonora Miano, Baela Raza Jamil, Moni Mohsin, Naima Rashid, Dr. Amina Yaqin, Faiqa Mansab, Aekta Kapoor, Radhika Tabrez, Piyusha Vir, Karen Osman, Mehr F Husain, Anchal Malhotra, Deepti Menon, Laaleen Sukhera, Nida Usman Chaudhary, Anupama Jain, Lakshana Palat, Mini Shivakumar Menon, Saba Karim Khan, Rashin Choudhry, Dina BenBrahim, Maha Tazi, Ana Serrano Telleria, Amrita Mukherjee, Sutapa Basu, Sana Munir, Kirthi Jayaumar, Mandy Sanghera, Afshan Shafi and many more.
Partnering with leading authors, literary & feminist entities and publishers including Zuka Books, Readomania, Seagull Books, Zubaan Books, the Gender Security Project, Authors Alliance, Ananke hopes to set a new standard in literary festivals where there is greater visibility of female literati as well as diversified conversation on inclusion.
To register click on this form.
For more information: [email protected]
Social Media: #WLF2021 #WomenInLitFest
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram: @Anankemag
About Ananke:
Ananke is a non-profit, digital platform empowering through awareness, advocacy and education. Launched in 2014 in Dubai UAE, the organization strives to trigger conversations on inclusion, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the digital realm. Breaking barriers to empower women, the organization is a World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) nominee for 2019 and 2020. Recently, Ananke hosted the first ever digital Girl Summit across the MENA and Subcontinent regions with attendees from all over the world.
Ananke also publishes special editions on the ISSUU platform and can be viewed here.
To check out videos of Ananke’s previous our YouTube or Vimeo channels. | https://anankemag.com/2021/03/01/eminent-author-nathalie-etoke-among-notable-guest-speakers-at-women-in-literature-festival/ |
the town of La Blockera is located in the Municipality of Ixcaquixtla (in the State of Puebla). There are 9 inhabitants. Of all the towns in the municipality, it occupies the number #10 in terms of number of inhabitants. La Blockera is at 1859 meters of altitude.
The town of La Blockera is located at 1.6 kilometers from San Juan Ixcaquixtla, which is the most populated locality in the municipality, in the Southwest direction. If you browse our webpage, you will also find a map with the location of La Blockera.Population in La Blockera
In the town there are 4 men and 5 women. The ratio women per men is 1.250, and the fecundity rate is 2.67 children per woman. People from outside the State of Puebla account for 55.56% of the total population. 0.00% of the inhabitants are illiterate (0.00% of men and 0.00% of women). The average school enrollment ratio is 10.20 (11.50 within the men and 9.33 within the women).Indigenous culture in La Blockera
0.00% of the population is indigenous, and 0.00% of the inhabitants speak one of the indigenous languages. 0.00% of the population speaks one of the indigineous languages, but not Spanish.Unemployment and the economy in La Blockera
22.22% of the inhabitants (more than 12 years) are economically active (50.00% of the men, and 0.00% of the women).Housing and infrastructure in La Blockera
In La Blockera there are 3 dwellings. 100.00% of the dwellings have electricity, 0.00% have piped water, 100.00% have toilet or restroom, 33.33% have a radio receiver, 66.67% a television, 66.67% a fridge, 33.33% a washing-machine, 33.33% a car or a van, 66.67% a personal computer, 0.00% a landline telephone, 33.33% mobile phone, and 0.00% Internet access.
>>> Click here to see more towns in the Municipality of Ixcaquixtla (statistics, photos, maps, restaurants, hotels,...) <<<
Where is La Blockera?
Location map of La Blockera: Please use the top left controls to zoom in (+) or out (-). They are satellite images centered in La Blockera, which is marked with the symbol
You can access more information about maps of La Blockera in this link. You can also visualize satellite photos of La Blockera with a higher resolution.
What is La Blockera like?
Enjoy the photos of La Blockera on this link
Vote for La Blockera
Do you like La Blockera? Or don't you like it much? Now you can vote for La Blockera so that everyone knows it. Use these stars ("0" you like little, "5" you like a lot) to rate with your opinion. | https://en.mexico.pueblosamerica.com/i/la-blockera/ |
Tables 1 to 20 are the list of multiplication tables. The table consists of multiples of natural numbers from 1 to 20. Maths tables from 1 to 20 charts will help students to solve multiplication problems in a quick way. Students can learn the maths tables from 1 to 10, first and then proceed with higher number multiplication tables.
Memorizing multiplication tables 1 to 20 serves as a building block for related Maths concepts like division, fractions, long multiplication and algebra taught in elementary school. PDFs of each table are provided at the end of the article to help students learn effortlessly and improve their problem-solving skills.
Learn Maths Tables from 1 To 100 here at BYJU’S.
|Table of Contents:|
Calculators are of great assistance for complex calculations. However, using a calculator for simple mathematics calculations is not the proper way. It will lower the problem-solving skills of students and they will not be confident enough to solve such problems in the future. Therefore, it is always recommended memorising the tables at least from 1 to 20.
Maths Tables 1 to 20
Maths table 1 to 20 is the basis of arithmetic calculations that are most widely used in multiplication and division. These tables will help students:
- To solve problems quickly
- To avoid mistakes in calculations
The complete list of 1 to 20 tables up to 10 times is given below.
There is nothing brighter than being reliant on one’s memory. Remembering the multiplication tables doesn’t just give a feeling of self-confidence, but it additionally keeps information prepared on fingertips to utilize it fast when required. It builds student’s memory power, stimulates in them the method of observing and holding things. Students who have mastered multiplication tables from 1 to 20 find that their calculation speed has increased, which is beneficial for them in increasing their confidence in Maths.
Maths tables are also considered as a multiplication table because each table is produced when we multiply a specific number with all of the counting numbers, i.e., 1,2,3,4,5,6,…so on.
Suppose if we have to create a table of number 4, then 4 is multiplied with all the natural numbers in such a way:
- 4 x 1 = 4
- 4 x 2 = 8
- 4 x 3 = 12
- 4 x 4 = 16
- 4 x 5 = 20
And so on.
|Note: From the above tables 1 to 20, we can see and understand the patterns of multiples of numbers.|
Maths Tables from 2 to 20 (with Downloadable PDFs)
Here, we have compiled multiplication tables. Students can prepare math tables 2 to 20 from the given below links.
|Maths Tables 1 to 20|
|Table of 2||Table of 3|
|Table of 4||Table of 5|
|Table of 6||Table of 7|
|Table of 8||Table of 9|
|Table of 10||Table of 11|
|Table of 12||Table of 13|
|Table of 14||Table of 15|
|Table of 16||Table of 17|
|Table of 18||Table of 19|
|Table of 20|
Multiplication Tables Chart
Here is the chart of the multiplication table from 1 to 10.
|× (Times)||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9||10|
|1||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9||10|
|2||2||4||6||8||10||12||14||16||18||20|
|3||3||6||9||12||15||18||21||24||27||30|
|4||4||8||12||16||20||24||28||32||36||40|
|5||5||10||15||20||25||30||35||40||45||50|
|6||6||12||18||24||30||36||42||48||54||60|
|7||7||14||21||28||35||42||49||56||63||70|
|8||8||16||24||32||40||48||56||64||72||80|
|9||9||18||27||36||45||54||63||72||81||90|
|10||10||20||30||40||50||60||70||80||90||100|
In the same way, we can create a chart from table 11 to 20.
Tips To Memorise Multiplication Tables 1 to 20
Let us see some tips to memorise these Maths tables.
- In the case of a table of 2, the number is increased by 2 times or a number is doubled when multiplied by 2. For example, 2 times 6, means 6 is doubled here; therefore, the result is 12. Hence, 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20.
- Table of 5 has a pattern. The number either ends at 0 or at 5. Hence,5,10,15,20,25,…
- Similarly, the table of 9 also has a pattern. If we see the 9 times table, the ten’s place digit of the numbers goes in increasing order from 0 to 9 and the unit place digit of the numbers goes in decreasing order from 9 to 0. Hence, 01,18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90.
- To memorise the 10 times table is very easy. We should have to put a zero next to the number multiplied by 10. Like, 10 times 8 is 80.
Why learn Multiplication Table?
Tables of 1 to 20 are the basic or fundamentals of learning Mathematics. Hence, it is necessary for each student to learn the tables for easy and quick calculations.
Table 1 to 10 are fundamental, which helps in calculating the simple arithmetic operations. When students create a strong foundation on the necessary tables from 2 to 10, they are capable of learning and recounting the multiplication tables from 11 to 20, which helps to solve complex problems. It is prescribed to sort out quick-fire rounds, table recitation competitions, tests and so on to make tables easy to remember for junior classes. Memorising tables helps in quick computation and saves a great deal of time. It is essential to by-heart tables from 2 to 10 for fundamental estimations.
The child’s brain is ever-evolving. Thus, it is progressively open to perceptions. While learning tables, they go over plenty of examples like 4×3=12 and 3×4=12. On seeing these patterns continuously, they infer that any number multiplied with another number results in a similar outcome when the numbers are multiplied the other way. This improves the perception ability of a kid.
Solved Examples
Q.1: What is the fifth multiple of 6?
Solution: The fifth multiple of 6 = 5 x 6 = 30
Q.2: If Sam brought a book for Rs. 10, then what is the cost of 12 such books?
Solution: Cost of one book = Rs. 10
Cost of 12 books = Rs.10 x 12 = Rs.120.
Q.3: What is the product of 13 and 5? (Take the help of tables 1 to 20 given above)
Solution: The product of 13 and 5 = 13 x 5 = 65
Practice Worksheet on Tables 1 to 20
|Solve these simple multiplication problems based on the tables from 1 to 20.
|
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is the easiest way to memorise the multiplication table?
How to memorise the Maths table?
What is a Maths Multiplication Table?
How to remember the Maths tables?
How to remember the table of 9?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
So, we can see, 09 is the value of 9 times 1, 18 is the value of 9 times 2, and so on. | https://byjus.com/maths/tables-1-to-20/ |
Company: W. R. Grace & Co.
Requisition ID: 20364
Built on talent, technology, and trust, Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and engineered materials. The company’s two industry-leading business segments—Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies—provide innovative products, technologies, and services that enhance the products and processes of our customers around the world. Grace employs approximately 4,300 people in over 30 countries.
Job Description
W.R. Grace seeks an Industrial Electrician for the Chicago 71st site. This the primary functions of this position is to work safely, and provide industrial electrical service to the manufacturing operation.
Responsibilities
- Comply with all EHS and process safety standards and procedures. Report hazards, deviations, and injuries in a timely manner.
- Comply with all company policies, procedures, and quality standards as well as participate in quality and process improvement initiatives.
- Ability to troubleshoot process control and electrical systems, including motors, VFDs, control loops, PLC, and DCS systems.
- Ability to troubleshoot electrical distribution systems, such as trip relays, MCC’s, disconnects, feeders, etc.
- Knowledge of mechanical systems and usage of tools and testing equipment.
- Perform preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance as required to maintain equipment in optimal condition.
- Ability to perform and diagnose thermal scans to determine hot spots and corrective actions.
- Utilizes diagrams, blueprints, and other drawings for electrical troubleshooting purposes.
- Familiarity with NEC and NFPA 70E standards.
Required Qualifications
- High school diploma or general education degree (GED) with a minimum 3 years of related experience working with commercial or industrial instrumentation OR a minimum 3 years of related experience working as a commercial or industrial electrical technician.
- Academic degree in related technology is a plus OR documentation supporting completion of acceptable training for an electrician such as a journeyman program, trade school, or qualified in-house program.
- Self-motivated individuals with strong problem-solving skills capable of effectively and efficiently troubleshooting.
- Ability to read, comprehend, and interpret schematics, control loop drawings, P&ID’s and other technical resource manuals.
- Ability to perform basic math calculations and conversions.
- Able to communicate effectively to functional levels within the organization.
- Able to use electrical measuring and testing equipment for electrical troubleshooting purposes.
Grace is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Grace via email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Grace. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Grace as a result of the referral or through other means. | https://jobs.grace.com/job/Chicago-71st-Industrial-Electrician-IL-60629/872545000/ |
Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines (Part 1)
Note: This is the first article in a two-part series on the Jamie Merisotis book, “Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines,” concerning the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace and how the workforce will need to adapt to the challenge of working alongside smart machines.
When I read a short blurb about the latest book authored by Lumina CEO Jamie Merisotis, Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines, I was skeptical that anyone would be able to make an argument that the number of jobs will increase as AI continues to be embraced by more and more companies. After reading and rereading Human Work, I continue to be a skeptic, but I am more of a believer in the methodology proposed by Mr. Merisotis.
In an opening chapter, How Work is Being Transformed, Mr. Merisotis writes that he believes the preoccupation with job loss due to the implementation of AI is misplaced. It would be better, he writes, if we think less about the future of work and more about the work of the future.
What’s more important, Merisotis states, is that everyone will see their jobs change in some way by technology and will need additional learning to take advantage of the opportunities for work that will be created. In 2020, technology has impacted all occupations in the U.S., with half of all tasks designated “uniquely human” versus just 30 percent designated as such in 2000. Mr. Merisotis writes that projections of these trends indicate that the percentage of tasks designated as “uniquely human” will increase to 80 percent over the next 10 years.
Human work, the work that only people can do, is the work that Mr. Merisotis believes is what our collective future will be based upon. People will need to develop the knowledge, skills, and expertise that human work requires.
For instance, the jobs created will require high-level cognitive skills such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. They will also require social intelligence such as the social perceptiveness needed when one is persuading, negotiating, and caring for others.
Globally, nearly half of adults have only a basic ability to solve problems utilizing technology. In the U.S., the number of jobs requiring only a high school diploma has shrunk from 33 percent to 20 percent over the past three decades. Good jobs have increased, but they are going to people with post-secondary credentials.
According to Mr. Merisotis, there are four kinds of occupations emerging that embody human work. These are helpers, bridgers, integrators, and creators.
- Helpers are people in occupations involving deep personal interaction with other people. Customer service roles and many healthcare roles are helping professions.
- Bridgers are people who interact with others, perform technical tasks, and help run systems. Sales managers and many supervisors fall into this category.
- Integrators are people who integrate knowledge and skills from a range of fields and apply them in a highly personal way. Social workers and elementary teachers are excellent examples of Integrators.
- Creators are people who possess highly technical skills and pure creativity. Examples provided by Mr. Merisotis include several entrepreneurs who leveraged technology to build nationwide businesses, which was not possible without harnessing the Internet and other technologies.
Mr. Merisotis outlines the exponential increase in knowledge growth over the past century including the most recent decade of advancement, but writes that knowledge obsolescence is also a factor in careers almost as much as knowledge acquisition is a factor. According to him, there is no way we can prepare people for work using old models of learning based on mastery of knowledge.
We need to change our education systems to embrace wide learning. Three sets of skills will be required for human work: people skills, problem-solving skills, and integrative skills.
Innovations enabled by AI will create new capabilities, products, and services. These innovations will increase the importance of people skills and person-to-person relationships. One people skill that underlies all others, according to Mr. Merisotis, is empathy.
Problem solving is on everyone’s list for future work, but it’s seldom explained because it’s a multi-stage, complex process. Stage one is identifying or diagnosing the problem, which may require analyzing data, insights from personal interactions, or using whatever other information is available. Solving the problem requires subject matter or technical expertise and the ability to think creatively.
Because of the ever-changing nature of work and the fact that people need to keep learning throughout their lives, the ability to learn is an essential skill for human work. In a world where human work is constantly changing, it’s not either/or.
Everyone needs a combination of general and technical learning. What’s important to human work is integrating them.
According to Mr. Merisotis, human work requires us to rethink every aspect of how we provide everyone the opportunity to learn, because the learner must be at the center of the system. Currently, there are two dominant processes for learning. Workforce training prepares individuals quickly for specific tasks. Education prepares people for life beyond work.
For the most part, these two processes are treated as different activities and handled by different systems. Academics state that they are educators and not trainers. Higher education looks like training for academics to many of our public today.
Mr. Merisotis writes that each of these two systems is missing a critical component. Workforce training lacks broader learning, and most education doesn’t prepare individuals directly for work. What is needed, he argues, is a broad, integrated system focused on individual learners.
The new “system” needs to solve three problems related to preparing individuals for future work:
- Problem 1: More people need higher-level learning. High school is no longer enough. At the same time, few of today’s colleges have adapted their systems to accommodate the profile of today’s learner who is older, works full-time, and goes to school part-time.
- Problem 2: We don’t do a good job developing skills that human work requires. You don’t learn these skills sitting passively in a lecture hall. One of the best ways to learn skills for human work is by actually doing human work.
- Problem 3: We don’t know what graduates have learned. The solution to this problem, writes Mr. Merisotis, is to assure the transparency of learning by defining clear frameworks for knowledge and skills so that employers, educators, and student workers are all speaking the same language about skills. Transparency about learning will build stronger credentials and multiple pathways for individuals for learning and careers.
Credentials document the knowledge and skills that people have and presumably, that jobs require. A college degree is a credential — specifically, one that is required for many jobs. People with degrees may also have credentials.
For example, licenses are issued by states in the fields of law, medicine, nursing, accounting, engineering, and architecture. Employers use credentials beyond degrees to make it clear what the knowledge and skill requirements are for open jobs.
Mr. Merisotis writes that the information technology (IT) field may be the area of employment where the range of credentials is widest. Approximately 85 percent of IT professionals have at least one certification. Many have several.
In addition, nearly 70 percent are pursuing their next certification. Clearly, the rapidly changing technology field impacts its chief workers as much or more as it impacts its users.
Looking at degrees from a credential perspective, Mr. Merisotis writes that high school degrees are an inadequate credential, as they provide no indication of the skills and knowledge of the individual who is awarded the degree. And while college degrees provide an indication of additional learning over a period of time, they do not provide a clear indication of what most graduates have learned. The problem, according to Mr. Merisotis, is a lack of transparency.
Three problems that need to be overcome for individuals to be prepared for a world of human work are:
- Problem 1: It’s not clear what most credentials represent in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Nearly 740,000 unique credentials are issued by colleges, workforce agencies, licensing entities, and other issuers in the United States. Most have value in the labor market, but there is a lack of transparency about what those credentials represent. Credentials should not represent the kind of experience an individual has had, but they should represent the knowledge and skills they have obtained.
- Problem 2: Employers, educators, and individuals all speak different languages when it comes to knowledge and skills. The primary example of the schism between employers and educators is that 96 percent of chief academic officers believe their colleges do a good job preparing graduates, while only 11 percent of business leaders say that higher education is producing graduates with the skills that they need. Transparent credentials would define the terms of learning accomplished in a manner that learners and workers, education providers, and employers would understand.
- Problem 3: Pathways through education and careers are either nonexistent or nearly impossible for outsiders to fathom. For many college graduates seeking jobs, they have no indication whether the vague statements on job position postings such as “effective problem solver” are met by the degree that they earned at their specific institution. Employers have the same problem from the other side, as they don’t know what applicants actually know or what their skills are.
Part 2 of this article will be published tomorrow.
Comment(1)
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I would not recommend that anyone buy and read this book. Mr. Merisotis does not have enough to say on his subject to fill ten pages, let alone 177. If you’ve read Wally Boston’s articles, you know all that you need to about Mr. Merisotis’s ideas. Then you can make up your own mind about whether these ideas are workable or just head-in-the-clouds dreaming. | https://wallyboston.com/human-work-in-the-age-of-smart-machines-part-1/ |
What’s Math Used in Cryptography?
The theory of cryptography stems out of the term”Crypto” along with the modern idea of cryptography is about security, privacy and also the ability to transact securely.
Of course there are additional uses for cryptography, but most individuals would agree that these things fall under the basic concept of cryptography.
Nicely, you can use statistics and mathematics to aid in the understanding customwriting of cryptography and that I am going to explain to you how exactly is math employed in cryptography. You will find many means of employing statistics and the mathematics and you can use it if you want to simply help in the comprehension of a people key, or if you wish to extend a key . Once you want to provide the protection for your data and defend it from 22, and also you might utilize it.
First let us look at just how is mathematics used in cryptography. Let’s think of a key that is secret. Back in cryptography we work with a secret key to decrypt it and then to encrypt data. A key is composed of several facets, the range of keys which are going to have to set up a bit of information.
It is likely to visit this page figure out how many keys that there are and how many that there are demanded, therefore the first element is greater compared to the component. It’s possible to figure the square root of 2, and then to do that the remaining by dividing by two, thereby multiplying the last variable from the sq root of both 2 and then multiplying with the number of keys necessary to decrypt the data. That is the way the mathematics employed in cryptography.
Then there is just another way of making use of would be numbers and math to support in the understanding of just the way exactly is math used in cryptography. An essential variable is needed to assist within the calculation of a public secret. You definitely need to choose the square root of the variety of factors required to multiply the main, to receive the range of keys necessary to decrypt the info if you require a key to be multiplied by a few facets.
Employing the numbers alone to determine that a secret may be inadequate, as you will find different methods. For instance, you can figure out the square root of two, split up the variety of keys needed to decrypt the data https://www.fullerton.edu/biology/ from two, then multiply by the variety of keys necessary to encrypt the data, then divide by 2 and multiply the result by the range of keys required to authenticate the info. That is how is mathematics employed in cryptography.
You may use the exact manner is numbers and mathematics to find just how is mathematics employed in cryptography. You may utilize it in order to obtain the factors that are needed to multiply the people secret, to find the range. | http://www.plusgroup.com.au/2020/02/05/whats-math-used-in-cryptography/ |
The instructor in this course will lecture on the role of Chemical Science and Technology for the Environment in order to solve modern environmental issues. The instructor will first explain the present and future of modern environmental issues, the natural environment, and resource energy. Building on that background, the instructor will explain a chemistry approach to environmental issues.
[Course aims] Encourage understanding of the following specific items.
1) Improving the natural environment, 2) Securing resources and energy, 3) Environmental chemistry and science approach (green chemistry) to material production, and 4) the appropriate role for chemistry in waste processing
Students will acquire the following skills from taking this course.
1) The ability to understand modern environmental issues from a chemistry standpoint
2) The ability to understand the role of chemistry for solving environmental problems
3) The ability to propose solving techniques for environmental problems through a variety of chemistry approaches
Chemical Science and Technology for Environment, Resources, Energy
|✔ Specialist skills||✔ Intercultural skills||Communication skills||Critical thinking skills||Practical and/or problem-solving skills|
To check understanding of course content, students will do exercise problems on that day's content at the end of the class.
|Course schedule||Required learning|
|Class 1||Trends in Natural Environment, Resources, and Energy||Gain knowledge for recent trends in natural environment, resources, and energy.|
|Class 2||Chemical Technologies for Protection of Natural Environment||Understand chemical technologies for protection of natural environment.|
|Class 3||Recent Environmental Issues||Understand examples of recent environmental issues.|
|Class 4||Chemical Approaches toward Environmental Issues (Overview)||Understand the overview of chemical approaches to solve environmental issues.|
|Class 5||Reservation of Resources and Energy||Understand the role of chemistry for reservation of resources and energy.|
|Class 6||Green Chemistry||Gain knowledge for Green Chemistry for materials production.|
|Class 7||Waste Treatments and Recycle||Understand the methods for waste treatment and recycle.|
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Makoto Misono, Modern Chemical Science and Technology for the Environment-Its Understanding and Improvement, SHOKABO (Japanese)
None.
Learning achievement is evaluated based on an exercise, final exam (60%) and reports (40%).
None. | http://www.ocw.titech.ac.jp/index.php?module=General&action=T0300&GakubuCD=3&GakkaCD=332100&KeiCD=21&KougiCD=202002331&Nendo=2020&lang=EN&vid=03 |
The town of La Lagunilla is located in the Municipality of El Llano (in the State of Aguascalientes). There are 19 inhabitants. It is the most populated town in the position #58 of the whole municipality. La Lagunilla is at 2,045 meters of altitude.
The Mexican census of 2020 decided to declare this community as uninhabited.
To locate this beautiful town within the municipality, you must know that La Lagunilla is located at 18.5 kilometers (in direction West) from the locality of Palo Alto, which is the one that has more inhabitants within the municipality. Thanks to our webpage and the satellite map that you can locate at the bottom, you can see the position and visit the surroundings of La Lagunilla.
Where is La Lagunilla? How to get there? Map
How to get to the town of La Lagunilla in Aguascalientes? Using this map, use the controls to zoom in and out on the village and others in the vicinity to see the direct route, and to be able to plan, for example, hiking activities in La Lagunilla.
Enjoy spending hours looking at satellite images to find your home or remembering places in a village? We have obtained an updated satellite photo of La Lagunilla and at this link you will navigate through its streets.
The population of La Lagunilla (Aguascalientes) is 19 inhabitants
|Year||Female Inhabitants||Male inhabitants||Total population|
|2010||10||9||19|
|2005||11|
According to the 2010 official census, in the town there were 9 males and 10 females. The female/male ratio is 1.111, and the fertility rate is 3.80 children per woman. Of the total population, 0.00% comes from outside the State of Aguascalientes. 21.05% of the population is illiterate (22.22% of men and 20.00% of women). The level of schooling is 2.73 (4.17 in men and 1 in women).Indigenous culture in La Lagunilla
0.00% of the population is indigenous, and 0.00% of the inhabitants speak one of the indigenous languages. 0.00% of the population speaks one of the indigineous languages, but not Spanish.Unemployment and the economy in La Lagunilla
57.89% of the inhabitants (more than 12 years) are economically active (77.78% of the men, and 40.00% of the women).Housing and infrastructure in La Lagunilla
In La Lagunilla there are 3 dwellings. 100.00% of the dwellings have electricity, 0.00% have piped water, 0.00% have toilet or restroom, 100.00% have a radio receiver, 100.00% a television, 33.33% a fridge, 33.33% a washing-machine, 0.00% a car or a van, 0.00% a personal computer, 0.00% a landline telephone, 33.33% mobile phone, and 0.00% Internet access.
Satellite photo of La Lagunilla
With the satellite map of La Lagunilla will I be able to look for my location? Yes, access the map, zoom in and see the surroundings of this town and the municipality of El Llano. Get free live access to satellite views of 2023 of La Lagunilla.
Photos of La Lagunilla
In order for you to enjoy nature around La Lagunilla, we have compiled a collection of sightseeing and monument photographs of the town and its surroundings. Access a completely free online image gallery of La Lagunilla, so you can even use it as a wallpaper to always remember this beautiful town.
Enjoy photos of La Lagunilla at this link
Vote for La Lagunilla. Opinions.
Do you like La Lagunilla? Or don't you like it much? Now you can vote for La Lagunilla so that everyone knows it. Use these stars ("0" you like little, "5" you like a lot) to rate with your opinion. | https://en.mexico.pueblosamerica.com/i/la-lagunilla-2/ |
Problem-solving is not only a prominent Maths activity, as shown in the Maths ability pyramid. It is also a discipline of its own, with its specific know-how. In other words, the specific skills of problem-solving can be learnt too. By doing so, students will not only learn to solve problems more efficiently, they will also make the best of problem-solving’s high educational value.
For Maths teachers, it means that it is possible to choose problems for students not only according to a particular Maths topic (fractions, algebra, trigonometry, etc.) but also with a view to practise one or several problem-solving skills.
In order to do this, it is necessary to identify and name these skills. This post covers 10 problem-solving skills, which you can see in action in UKMT JMC 2015 (cf. my JMC 2015 teacher’s notes).
- Economy: this means doing just what is necessary, and not more than is necessary. This is a highly educational problem-solving skill, as it not only helps students to save time, but it increases their capacity to focus on the essential.
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 4, students do not need to complete the whole pyramid in order to find the missing number.
- Additional note: Economy is often your best friend when it comes to proof. Suppose, for example, you want to prove the Sine rule (a/sinA = b/sinB = c/sinC) for any triangle. If you choose 2 vertices, say A and B, and prove that a/sinA = b/sinB, then it works for A and C, as well as B and C. Which means you can prove the Sine rule with one rectangle only.
- Alternative strategies: this is a skill you can use to push students further, especially the most able ones who find solutions quickly. It is also a way to get students to go beyond the obvious and access conceptually superior solutions.
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 3, finding an alternative strategy means (1) avoiding a tedious and unnecessary long division students, and (2) seeing the problem from 2 different angles: either eliminate arithmetically impossible answers or work out a quick estimate.
- Elimination: this is a particularly useful skill for UKMT Challenges and Kangaroos, and more generally for problems where students have to choose from a limited number of answers. It is the art of detective Dupin (and not Sherlock Holmes, as often miscredited): ‘once you have eliminated the impossible,…’
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 8, there are 2 smart elimination possibilities using properties of factors and multiples. This skill can be combined with the previous one (alternative strategies), for example: find 2 elimination strategies for this question.
- Deduction: as a skill, this is about training and strengthening the ability to sort out all the available information and use it in the right order. For students, I often compare deduction as a line of sugar lumps: once you tumble the first lump, all the other ones follow. Some experts argue that this should not be called ‘deduction’, but ‘induction’ or ‘inference’. I am not a logician, and therefore not in a position to put forward any argument for or against this choice of terminology. ‘Deduction’ is a convenient choice, as popularized by our old (and contemporary) role model Sherlock Holmes and his renowned ‘science of deduction’, which is essentially picking up bits of information and going some way with it.
- Example: JMC 2015 Question 6 provides a good example of 3 elementary deductions based on geometry.
- Name / Label: this skill refers to one of the essential rights of the problem solver: the right to name things — especially things you’re looking for. Sometimes, the naming or labelling is already done, like x° in the previously mentioned question (JMC 2015 Question 6). If not, students should be well aware that they are allowed to do it from their own initiative, either because they will have to solve an equation, or simply because it helps them clarify their own thinking. Many students go ‘blank’ just because they fail to name what they’re looking for.
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 12, it helps to name the weight of the fish (w, for example, or x, or whatever…), whether students will use fractions or algebra to solve the problem.
- Systematic list: this is a simple yet essential skill every time students tackle a question that involves numbers with specific properties within a limited range, for example: listing the first multiples of 4, or the first squares, of the first prime numbers, or cubes between 100 and 199, etc.
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 13, students have to list all multiples of 3 between 3 and 15; in Question 11, they need to list all prime numbers up to 23; Question 19 is about cubes up to 512.
- Tree: this skill is used to sort out information in a binary logic question (for example, statements from liars and truthful guys ,as in JMC 2015 Question 17). Students easily get lost in a succession of ‘if… then…’ and ‘if not… then…’. Or if they don’t get lost, they will bother everyone else with a wordy and totally incomprehensible solution. Sketching out a Logical Tree is the answer.
- Bar modelling: this skill is one of the core tools from what is now known as Singapore Maths. Bar modelling is a great visual tool to enable students to access conceptual thinking for all kinds of problems involving arithmetics. In a purely UKMT challenge context, bar modelling would not be advised because the key to a Gold medal and further is speed. But as the purpose of these teacher’s notes is to use UKMT questions for their educational value, i.e. learning to solve problems, bar modelling is an important piece of scaffolding. For more explanation about the principle of bar modelling and how it can be used in diverse contexts, see the Singapore Maths website and more particularly this presentation (Flash required).
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 12, it is possible to model the weight of the fish as one bar, which you subdivide into 2 sections (2 thirds and one third). Students will then more easily visualize that the first section of the bar (2 thirds of the total weight) is the 2kgs mentioned in the word problem.
- Easy way out: as a skill, this could be renamed ‘never overlook the obvious’. Sometimes, a problem comes up where the solution is made very simple just by noticing something ‘obvious’ — well, it’s obvious once you’ve seen it, obviously…
- Example: in JMC 2015 Question 18, noticing that both fractions are equivalent provides a shortcut to the solution.
- Complete the grid: this is typically used for patterns, tilings, fractional areas, etc. as in JMC 2015 Question 22. | https://mathsandeducation.com/2015/12/23/introducing-some-problem-solving-skills/ |
Survey results revealed that nearly half (46%) of U.S. young adults (ages 16 to 34) were unable to successfully complete moderately complex literacy tasks, as indicated by scoring below Level 3 proficiency on the PIAAC literacy subtest. Level 3 tasks require those surveyed to “identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information, and often require varying levels of inference.” Among those with college credentials, approximately one out of three associate’s degree holders and one out of five bachelor’s degree holders failed to meet this threshold of moderate proficiency.
Image: Literacy proficiency of U.S. young adults, Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (Figure 8a, p. 16).
Even more college graduates fell below Level 3 proficiency on the PIAAC numeracy subtest: nearly half (48%) of associate’s degree holders and one-third (30%) of bachelor’s degree holders. Numeracy is defined as “the ability to access, use, interpret, and communicate mathematical information and ideas, to engage in and manage mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life.” Similar shares of U.S. young adults underperformed on problem-solving tasks administered via computer. Even college-educated adults found it difficult to use digital technologies to evaluate information, effectively communicate with others, and perform routine tasks. More than half (52%) of associate’s degree holders and one-third (34%) of bachelor’s degree holders failed to meet Level 2 proficiency on digital problem-solving tasks of moderate difficulty (e.g., downloading music files on a portable music player).
In general, when compared internationally, the skills of U.S. adults were in the middle of the pack. Among the 22 OECD countries that participated in the first wave of the PIAAC survey, U.S. college-educated adults in their 20s scored about average in literacy, but below average in numeracy. For example, among adults in their 20s with at least an associate’s degree, the U.S. outperformed only one country (Slovakia) in numeracy scores and trailed leading countries such as Austria, Finland, and Sweden.
The low literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills of the youngest U.S. adult cohort present a challenge to America’s social and economic outlook. Compared to highly skilled adults, those with low skills are more likely to be unemployed or working in low-skill occupations that garner low wages, and these challenges ultimately limit the prospects for economic self-sufficiency and upward mobility. Low-skilled adults also report poorer physical and mental health and lower civic engagement, which directly affect a nation’s publicly funded health care programs and democratic processes.
The PIAAC assessment results are a sobering reminder that millions of U.S. adults—even those with college degrees—are ill-equipped to fully benefit from or participate in U.S. social and economic life. For example, technological advancements and global trade have transformed the U.S. economy and placed greater demands for new skills and competencies required for employment. Results from the 2018 Job Outlook survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers show that organizations are seeking job candidates with problem-solving skills, the most desired attribute recorded (83%). Other desirable qualities employers seek include written communication skills (80%), analytical/quantitative skills (68%), and verbal communication skills (68%).
So what does this mean for U.S. policy and educational practice? First, policymakers need to recognize that large segments of the young adult U.S. population are not proficient in key competencies that are necessary to successfully navigate work and life. Then, the country must make greater investments in developing the human capital of its residents through education and training. To combat low skill proficiency, OECD offers broad policy recommendations that include providing high-quality early childhood education and opportunities for lifelong learning so that low-skilled individuals may continue to develop proficiency in key competencies throughout their life.
While there is a positive association between level of education and skill proficiency, it is disconcerting that sizeable shares of college-educated young adults were found to be unable to carry out moderately difficult literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving tasks. These skill deficiencies raise questions about the validity of the college credential. Relying on measures of students’ demonstrated competencies rather than credit hours accrued might better define when students should receive a postsecondary credential and be ready to enter the workforce.
Ensuring that college credentials represent meaningful skill proficiency is important, but efforts to ensure skill development of individuals outside the formal U.S. higher education system are also important. Stakeholders from government and industry should invest in adult education programs that help low-skilled individuals become trained for success in the workplace and college. Walmart is a notable recent example of employer-assisted training; the company subsidized employees’ pursuit of online associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in business and supply chain management.
Too many U.S. young adults are ill-prepared for the demands of the globally competitive economy by lacking proficiency in required key competencies. The U.S. must do more to ensure all Americans benefit from high-quality educational experiences from early childhood though college and later adulthood.
Last modified on Oct. 15th, 2018 at 8:39am by Lisa Marie Patzer. | https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2667-higher-education-and-low-skills-are-us-college |
The SEVIS Systems Analyst is responsible for three primary functions: 1) serve as the lead technical developer for Pepperdine/SUNAPSIS/SEVIS systems for all users; 2) Manage student immigration processing functions, including SUNAPSIS user application configuration, and business process mapping; 3) oversight of technical process of reporting in a timely manner to ensure institutional compliance with federal immigration regulations and requirements, including SEVIS reporting.
Duties
The above information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.
Skills and Qualifications
Required: Bachelor's degree; strong IT skills with familiarity in all applications and platforms; U.S. citizenship or Permanent Resident status as required by federal regulations to serve as a Designated School Official (DS)) Thoroughness, reliability, flexibility, resourcefulness, and the ability to work under deadline essential; Attention to detail and strong interpersonal and communications skills; Inter-cultural competency, complex problem-solving abilities; exceptional organizational skills, evidence of updated competency with technology MS Office Suite (Excel), PeopleSoft, CRM, Etrieve, SEVIS, familiarity with electronic forms and integration with systems to assist with the automation of unit and university processes; Statistical reports/Data mining
Preferred: Master's degree in a related field; at least two years of relevant experience; familiarity with immigration policy; experience or formal training in International Higher Education as a SEVIS Designated School Official (DSO); Software implementation experience SUNAPSIS; Java client application; ColdFusion server operation; SQL, HTML, XML, Macintosh; Student Information Systems (PeopleSoft); Query writing in PeopleSoft, experience with imaging systems (Nolij); Computer system engineering, including client-server design, operating systems performance and network integration, security/privacy; Experience with SEVIS manual entry and SEVIS batch updates, Report writing in Salesforce.
Qualified individuals should be able to articulate a strong commitment to diversity, and have the ability to work effectively with individuals from different backgrounds.
Offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a criminal, education, and employment screening. Qualified individuals with criminal histories will be considered for employment in compliance with applicable laws.
This is a Regular, Exempt, 40 hour per week position.
Salary: $55,000-$60,000
Pepperdine University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate in employment practices on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, disability, or prior military service. Federal guidelines recognize the right of church-related institutions to seek personnel who will support the goals of the institution, including the right to select members of the church to which the institution is related. | https://careers.buildersassociation.com/jobs/13268183/systems-analyst |
IT Desktop Analyst Job at Sahara Group
Sahara Group nutures businesses in the energy sector. These companies operate essentially within the energy industry and its associated sub-sectors. The Group consists of individuals, who are determined to make a positive impact on the business environment.
We are recruiting to fill the below position:
Job Position: IT Desktop Analyst
Job Location: Ikoyi, Lagos
Job Type: Full Time
Purpose Statement
- The Role of the Desktop Support Analyst is to maintain and operate computer systems and/or network. The duties of an IT support analyst are wide-ranging and vary widely from one organization to another.
- The IT Department is charged with installing, supporting and maintaining desktop computing systems; planning for and responding to service outages and other problems that may arise.
- To perform the job well, the role holder must demonstrate a blend of technical skills in desktop operating systems Technologies, system administration and use of Microsoft Office tools. Other duties may include: End user education and IT Project implementation.
Key Deliverables:
- Provide first level technology support and escalate issues to Tier 2 and 3 support when necessary
- Monitor and evaluate data network infrastructure: Switches, routers, data network devices, Network links, GSM
- Boosters, PBX, IP telephones and implement changes as required in improving performance.
- Monitor and evaluate voice network infrastructure: IP PBX, IP Phones, VoIP gateways, E1 lines and implement changes as required to improve performance
- Manage & Support Websites/Domains/Application Servers/Databases/Intranet Portals
- Interface with 3rd party service providers
- Provide periodic reporting of IT Support operations
Minimum Qualification/ Experience
- A Bachelor's degree in the field of Computer Science/Engineering or any other relevant field
- 3 - 5 years qualitative experience in technology deployment or support
- Certifications will be an added advantage
- Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skill, ability to work virtually, fluency in English as a contract language
Knowledge/Skills:
- Good Knowledge of Windows 2008/2012/2016 Server Operating systems and Network Infrastructure (Active Directory, Group Policy, DHCP, DNS, File Services, etc.)
- Hardware and software troubleshooting skills
- Good understanding of Windows & Linux -based applications and their interaction with the underlying Operating system environment (Registry, System Services, Component application subsystem etc.)
- Dexterity in setting up and managing Switches and Routers
- Good report writing skills
- Good IT process understanding
- Ready to Travel when required
- Very good problem-solving skills – frequently under various sorts of constraints and stress
Personality Traits:
- Highly analytical, hard-working,
- Creative & Logical,
- Organized, Professional conduct,
- Resourceful,
- Good Interpersonal skills
Working Relationships: | https://www.jobgurus.com.ng/jobs/view/it-desktop-analyst-job-at-sahara-group |
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Information Technology Product Specialist
Information Technology Product Specialist
Posting Number
2018-4379
Location : Location
US-NY-New York
Posted Date
4/6/2018
Compensation Grade
Band 53
Union
N/A
School/Division
NYU IT (WS1170)
Department
Academic Applications
FT/PT
Full-Time
More information about this job
Position Summary
The IT Product Specialist will work as a part of the Academic Application Development team supporting the University’s enterprise academic applications. These applications support teaching and learning for NYU’s 60,000 students and 9,000 faculty members, across three campuses (New York City, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi). The Product Specialist will be responsible for ensuring a high-quality user experience for enterprise academic applications. The incumbent will advise and consult with NYU faculty, staff, and students to inform the design and development of enterprise applications, through requirements gathering, meetings with individuals and groups, structured usability testing sessions, and focus groups with faculty, students, and staff. The incumbent will (1) work closely with NYU IT developers and vendors in the design and development of new functionality and user experience (UX) enhancements; (2) conduct user experience testing and functionality testing as part of an iterative, Agile development cycle; (3) act as a product subject matter expert (SME) to multiple NYU IT projects and within Provost-sponsored governances committees; and (4) provide day-to-day application-level support of our academic services, which include WordPress, Google Apps for Education, Kaltura video streaming service, Sakai (Learning Management System), Box, and Atlassian Confluence.
Qualifications
Required Education:
Bachelor's degree in STEM field, Software User Experience, or equivalent experience
Preferred Education:
N/A
Required Experience:
4+ years experience as a product expert for user-facing application services. Experience with UX testing and Agile software development methodologies. Experience working in a collaborative team environment.
Preferred Experience:
Experience with the following: Google Apps for Education, WordPress, Kaltura video streaming service, Sakai (Learning Management System), Atlassian Confluence and JIRA, SQL, PHP, Python. Experience working in an academic environment.
Required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to work and communicate effectively in a collaborative team environment; UX testing; basic HTML and CSS skills; basic SQL skills
Preferred Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
N/A
Additional Information
EOE/AA/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity
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to let us know about your interest in an NYU Career. | https://uscareers-nyu.icims.com/jobs/4379/information-technology-product-specialist/job |
Congress of Vienna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria, from October 1, 1814, to June 9, 1815. Its purpose was to redraw the continent's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France the previous spring.
The discussions continued despite the ex-Emperor Napoleon I's return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815, and the Congress's Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat at Waterloo. Technically, one might note that the "Congress of Vienna" never actually occurred, as the Congress never met in plenary session, with most of the discussions occurring in informal sessions among the Great Powers.
The Congress was concerned with determining the entire shape of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms freedom of peace with France, which had already been decided by the Treaty of Paris, signed a few months earlier, on May 30, 1814.
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Contents
Participants
At the Congress, the United Kingdom was represented first by its Foreign Secretary, the Viscount Castlereagh; after February 1815, by the Duke of Wellington; and in the last weeks, after Wellington left to meet Napoleon, by the Earl of Clancarty. Austria was represented by Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Foreign Minister, and by his deputy, Baron Wessenberg. Prussia was represented by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor, and the diplomat and scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt. Louis XVIII's France was represented by its foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord. Although Russia's official delegation was led by the foreign minister, Count Nesselrode, Emperor Alexander I for the most part acted on his own behalf. Initially, the representatives of the four victorious powers hoped to exclude the French from serious participation in the negotiations, but Talleyrand managed to skillfully insert himself into their inner councils in the first weeks of the negotiations.
Because most of the work at the Congress was done by these five powers (along with, on some issues, the representatives of Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, and on German issues, of Hanover, Bavaria, and Württemberg), most of the delegations had nothing much to do at the Congress, and the host, Emperor Francis of Austria held lavish entertainments to keep them occupied. This led to the Prince de Ligne's famous comment that "le Congrès ne marche pas ; il danse." (The Congress does not walk; it dances.)
Waterloo campaign
The return to Paris of Napoleon Bonaparte from forced exile on the island of Elba interrupted the congress. For the Hundred Days between 20 March 1815, the date on which Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris and 28 June 1815, the date of the restoration of King Louis XVIII the representatives in Vienna waited on the outcome of military force.
On 13 March, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule.
Napoleon knew that, once his attempts at dissuading one or more of the allies from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the Allies put together an overwhelming force. If he could destroy the existing Allied forces in Belgium before they were reinforced, he might be able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war. This was a successful strategy he had used many times before.
The attempt ended on June 18 at the Battle of Waterloo where a combined allied army decisively defeated the French army commanded by Napoleon. The allies pursued the French army back to Paris, restored Louis XVIII to the French throne and exiled Napoleon to the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.
Territorial changes
- France was deprived of all territory conquered by Napoleon
- Russia was given most of Duchy of Warsaw (Poland)
- Prussia was given three fifths of Saxony, parts of Poland, and the Rhineland
- A Germanic Confederation of 39 states (including Prussia) was created from the previous 300, under Austrian rule
- Austria was given back territory it had lost recently, plus more in Germany and Italy
- The House of Orange was given the Dutch Republic and the Austrian Netherlands to rule
- Norway and Sweden were joined
- The neutrality of Switzerland was guaranteed
- Hanover was enlarged, and made a kingdom
- Britain was given Cape Colony, South Africa, and various other colonies in Africa and Asia
- Sardinia was given Piedmont, Nice, Savoy, and Genoa
- The Bourbon Ferdinand I was restored in the Two Sicilies
- The Duchy of Parma was given to Marie Louise
- The slave trade was condemned (at British urging)
- Freedom of navigation was guaranteed for many rivers
Polish-Saxon crisis
The most contentious subject at the Congress was the so-called Polish-Saxon Crisis. The Russians and Prussians proposed a deal in which much of the Prussian and Austrian shares of the partitions of Poland would go to Russia, which would create an independent Polish Kingdom in personal union with Russia with Alexander as king. In exchange, the Prussians would receive as compensation all of Saxony, whose King was a gayot considered to have forfeited his throne because he had not abandoned Napoleon soon enough. The Austrians, French, and British did not approve of this plan, and, at the inspiration of Talleyrand, signed a secret treaty on January 3, 1815, agreeing to go to war, if necessary, to prevent the Russo-Prussian plan from coming to accomplishment
Although none of the three powers was particularly ready for war, the Russians did not call the bluff, and an amicable settlement was soon worked out, by which Russia received most of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw as a "Kingdom of Poland" (called Congress Poland), but did not receive the district of Poznan (Grand Duchy of Poznan), which was given to Prussia, nor Kraków, which became a free city. Prussia received 40% of Saxony (later known as the province of Saxony), with the remainder returned to King Frederick Augustus I (kingdom of Saxony).
Other changes
The Congress's principal results, apart from its confirmation of France's loss of the territories annexed in 1795 - 1810, which had already been settled by the Peace of Paris, were the enlargement of Russia, (which gained most of the Duchy of Warsaw) and Prussia, which acquired Westphalia and the northern Rhineland. The consolidation of Germany from the nearly 300 states of the Holy Roman Empire (dissolved in 1806) into a much more manageable thirty-nine states was confirmed. These states were formed into a loose German Confederation under the leadership of Prussia and Austria.
Representatives at the Congress agreed to numerous other territorial changes. Norway was transferred from Denmark to Sweden. Austria gained Lombardy-Venetia in Northern Italy, while much of the rest of North-Central Italy went to Habsburg dynasts (The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena, and the Duchy of Parma). The Pope was restored to the Papal States. The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored to its mainland possessions, and also gained control of the Republic of Genoa. In Southern Italy, Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, was originally allowed to retain his Kingdom of Naples, but following his support of Napoleon in the Hundred Days, he was deposed, and the Bourbon Ferdinand IV was restored to the throne.
A large United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created for the Prince of Orange, including both the old United Provinces and the formerly Austrian-ruled territories in the Southern Netherlands.
There were other, less important territorial adjustments, including significant territorial gains for the German Kingdoms of Hanover (which gained East Frisia from Prussia and various other territories in Northwest Germany) and Bavaria (which gained the Rhenish Palatinate and territories in Franconia). The Duchy of Lauenburg was transferred from Hanover to Denmark, and Swedish Pomerania was annexed by Prussia. Switzerland was enlarged, and Swiss neutrality was guaranteed
The treaty also recognized Portuguese rights to Olivenza, but these were ignored, and the area remained under Spanish control.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland received parts of the West Indies at the expense of the Netherlands and Spain and kept the former Dutch colonies of Ceylon and the Cape Colony, and also kept Malta and Helgoland. Under the Treaty of Paris Britain obtained the protectorate over the United States of the Ionian Islands and the Seychelles.
oNE MUST NOT FORGET HOW sexually orientated these meetings were. group orgys happened 24/7 whcih explains why they chose to unite all the germanic states. even a crack whore could see that would lead to problems. talleyrand was know for his womanizing and was redported to catching 5 VD'S at this one congress
Holy Alliance
Not directly a part of the Congress, but associated with it, was the Holy Alliance, the brainchild of Alexander, in which the various sovereigns of Europe agreed to abide by Christian principles. Although widely derided by most of the statesmen at the Congress (Castlereagh called it "a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense" and Metternich a "loud-sounding nothing"), all of Europe's sovereigns agreed to it, except for the Pope, who would not form such an agreement with so many heretics; the Sultan, who was not particularly interested in Christian principles; and the Prince-Regent of the United Kingdom, who could not agree to such a treaty without ministerial involvement (he did sign on in his role as Regent of Hanover). Later, the Holy Alliance became associated with the forces of reaction in Europe, and particularly with the policies of Metternich.
The countries involved with the Congress also agreed to meet at intervals under Article VI:
- "To secure the execution of the present Treaty and to consolidate the connections which at the present moment so closely unite the Four Sovereigns for the happiness of the world they have agreed to renew their Meetings at fixed periods... for the consideration of measures for the repose and prosperity of Nations and for the maintenance of the Peace of Europe"
This led to the establishment of the Congress system and the subsequent congresses.
Later criticism
The Congress of Vienna was frequently criticized by 19th century and more recent historians for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling reaction on the continent. Indeed, this criticism was already voiced by the Whig opposition in the UK as soon as the Congress had concluded. The Congress of Vienna was an integral part in what became known as The Conservative Order in which peace and stability were traded for the liberties and civil rights associated with the French Revolution.
In the twentieth century, though, many historians have come to admire the work of the statesmen at the Congress, whose work, it was said, had prevented another European general war for nearly a hundred years (1818-1914). Among these is Henry Kissinger, whose doctoral dissertation was on the Congress of Vienna.
Further reading
- Henry Kissinger, A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822 (derived from his doctoral dissertation)
- Enno Kraehe, Metternich's German Policy, Vol. 2: The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815
- Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812-1822.
- Paul Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763-1848
- Sir Charles Webster, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh 1812-1815: Britain and the Reconstruction of Europe
Other meanings
Congress of Vienna is also the title of an early nineteenth century waltz. | https://epicroadtrips.us/2003/summer/nola/nola_offsite/FQ_en.wikipedia.org/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna.html |
Consequences of the Vienna Treaty of 1815
History knows many contracts that radically changed the course of events. The Vienna Treaty is one of them since it refers to the documents that define the new order in society and greatly affect the life and development of many countries. This paper describes the main objectives and the consequences of the Vienna Treaty of 1815.
The Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 years was a pan-European conference, during which the system was concluding agreements aimed at restoring the feudal absolutist monarchies that were destroyed by the French Revolution in 1789 and the Napoleonic wars. There were defined new borders of Europe. Representatives of all European countries except the Ottoman Empire attended the Congress chaired by Austrian diplomat Count Metternich. The talks were held in a secret and overt rivalry, intrigue collusion.
Decisions of the Congress of Vienna were collected in the Final Act. Congress authorized the inclusion of the territory of the Austrian Netherlands (today’s Belgium) in the new kingdom of the Netherlands, but all the other possessions of Austria came back under the control of the Habsburgs. Prussia got a part of Saxony, a large area of ??Westphalia and Rhineland. Denmark was deprived of Norway, which was given to Sweden. Italy restored an authority of the Pope over the Vatican and the Papal States, and the Bourbons returned to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There was also formed the German Confederation.
A part of the Duchy of Warsaw was included in the territory of the Russian Empire under the name of the Kingdom of Poland, and the Russian Emperor Alexander I became the Polish king. Austria received the southern part of Little Poland and part of the Red Rus. Western land Wielkopolska with Poznan and Polish Pomerania returned to Prussia. There was international recognition of the neutrality of Switzerland. The proclamation of the policy of neutrality had a decisive impact on the subsequent development of Switzerland. Because of neutrality, it managed to not only protect its territory from the devastating wars of 19th and 20th centuries, but also stimulate the economy, maintaining mutually beneficial cooperation with the warring parties.
A congress identified a new balance of power in Europe, the current at the end of the Napoleonic wars, for a long time, marking the leading role of the victorious powers - Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great Britain - in international relations. As a result of the Vienna Congress, a system of international relations developed, and The Holy Alliance of European states was created, which had the aim of ensuring the inviolability of European monarchies.
A Vienna system of international relations, or the Concert of Europe, was a system of international relations that developed after the Napoleonic Wars. It was regulatory secured by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Under this system, multilateral diplomacy was shaped, and the concept of the great powers was first formulated (Jarrett, 2013). Many researchers have called the Vienna system of international relations the first example of collective security that was true for 35 years, before the start of the Crimean War. There were also systematized and unified diplomatic ranks, such as the ambassador, envoy and charg? d'affaires, and four types of consular offices. Such concepts as diplomatic immunity and the diplomatic bag were defined.
The Congress of Vienna played a key role in the formation of a resistant paradigm of relations between the major European states. A Concert of Europe was based on the general agreement of large countries: Russia, Austria, Prussia, France, and Great Britain. Any worsening of relations between the countries could lead to the destruction of the international system.
One of the foundations of the Concert of Europe was the principle of maintaining a balance of power. Responsibility for this was taken by big countries. This responsibility has been implemented by holding a large number of international conferences to resolve the problems. Among these conferences were Paris Congress of 1856, the London Conference of 1871, and the Berlin Conference of 1878.
During the existence of the Concert of Europe, unified regulations on the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as well as the conduct of hostilities, the treatment of prisoners and other important issues, were formulated and accepted by all civilized nations,. The processes of modernization, the development of capitalist relations, and the bourgeois revolution took place during that time. It is interesting that at the Congress of Vienna, colonies were not formalized. One of the main causes of the First World War was a struggle for the redistribution of colonial empires.
The Holy Alliance was the Conservative Union of Russia, Prussia and Austria, created with the purpose of maintaining international order established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The application of mutual assistance by all Christian princes was signed on September 14, 1815, and then, all the monarchs of continental Europe gradually joined the treaty, except king of England, the Pope and the Turkish sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Although not formally, the Holy Alliance was viewed in the history of European diplomacy as a close-knit organization with sharply defined clerical-monarchist ideology, created on the basis of suppression of revolutionary sentiment, no matter where they were shown.
Marking the character of the epoch, the Holy Alliance was the main body of a Europe-wide reaction against the liberal aspirations. The practical significance of its actions resulted in a number of congresses, which developed a principle of interference in the internal affairs of other countries and led to the violent repression of all revolutionary movements and the maintenance of the existing system with its absolutist and clerical-aristocratic tendencies.
It is obvious that the Treaty of Vienna played an enormous role in the history of the European countries. It was the beginning of the development of modern international relations with entirely new Europe being created. | https://best-essay-service.org/essays/history/the-treaty-of-vienna.html |
When the south’s President Nicos Anastasiades addressed his parliament on Thursday he said the north wants to discuss the issue of territorial adjustments last for fear that leaks could derail the process. He did not say how this derailment was possible when the negotiations are supposed to create a document to be presented to both side’s electorate to vote in a referendum. It is what is in this document that will either result in the success or failure of the process, not rumours about the to and fro of negotiations.
It is obvious that for the Cyprus talks to move beyond where they have failed in the past, hard decisions will have to be made on issues such as territorial adjustments, power sharing and property rights. There is talk that the two presidents are working on a formula to resolve the issues of property, security guarantees and territorial adjustment that would create a united, federal Cyprus.
This talk of territorial adjustments are what is causing problems in the south. The very mention of there being a north and south, with the north giving up some of the land they currently occupy, is not acceptable to many Greek Cypriots. They do not want Turkish Cypriots to have any territory at all. A United Cyprus, in their eyes, is a Cyprus ruled by the Greek Cypriot majority with the Turkish Cypriot minority doing as they are told by what will be a democratically elected majority making up the rules.
So what Anastasiades is saying, as he comes up to the May elections, is that talk of their being a separate north will affect his chances of being re-elected. His only chance of saving his party is to pretend that he will secure a major return of land and hope that enough will be convinced that this shrinking of the north will be sufficient to allow him to continue with the negotiations after the May elections. Leaking information that he hasn’t may destroy him. In my opinion, that is why he wants territorial adjustments discussed at the end of negotiations and after the May elections. So, no early referendum then. | http://northcyprusfreepress.com/why-the-south-want-territorial-adjustments-discussed-last/ |
This is a lesson those who voted to leave the European Union obviously missed.
Britain’s exit from the EU does an incredible job at showing this ignorance. This was an absolutely terrible move that no one was prepared for. This is yet another step down Europe’s path to total war. The history books show as much.
Using the example of the Congress of Vienna — which was almost the exact same situation, step by step — we can see what is likely to occur next. First, Russia wanted control of the Black Sea. This resulted in Russia mobilizing its army and attacking its neighbors. Next, the other European Nations responded to try and stem Russia’s aggression, as well as help those affected by the onslaught. The immigrants that entered Europe brought different values to the fold and, as a result, gave rise to nationalism. Gaining pride in their homelands caused what was left of the Congress of Vienna to splinter, since neighbors stopped trusting each other on the political stage. This splintering resulted in a series of alliances between nations as territories sought to break away from larger countries and govern themselves. It was not long before all of Europe was at war to stop these rebellions.
Now, let’s fast-forward to today. Russia invaded Crimea for access to the Black Sea. Armies were mobilized to counter an assortment of threats that got intensified by aggression from Russia. There are currently multiple immigration crises all over Europe, with people fleeing from war-torn countries in both the Middle East and parts of Europe. As a result, nationalism is at an all-time high compared to the last few decades; a nationalism which has been born out of cultures clashing across the globe. And, right now, we have areas of Europe and the Middle East that seek to govern themselves. These territories seek to break up the established borders and create new nations. Neighbors are already breaking into factions and, while it looks to be solely an immigration in the EU, this is only the most visible source of conflict between these nations.
Now that I have drawn parallels that foreshadow the future of Europe should the union fall — a situation I forsee once Britain formally severs ties with the EU — let’s look at what happens next. Weapons for war have never been deadlier. Forgetting the obvious, nuclear arsenals, many countries have sophisticated biological and chemical weapons that are capable of bringing entire civilizations to their knees. These same nations also have working electromagnetic pulse weapons. Without electricity, chaos will ensue. War is absolutely the worst possible idea right now, and the breaking of the EU is a guaranteed pathway to such a situation.
But those are problems that affect all of Europe. I will close with the issues that will soon be plaguing Britain itself. This rise in nationalism has given way to a far more aggressive population. America has already shown what happens with a riled up populace. Economic failures are already happening in the country. As discontent grows, the most dangerous aspects of nationalism will grow in power. Going back to those same forgotten history books, when people think of World War II, they fixate on the word socialism. But socialism was not the deadly concept that led to countless lives being destroyed in Europe then. And the word nationalism, which happens to be what the “N” in a certain political movement of the time, Nazism, was the true cause of all the violence.
Europe is headed down a very dark road, and I fear to see the next dominoes fall.
Ross Ellison is a contributing columnist for the Central Florida Future.
In a vote that shocked the world, 52 percent of British citizens wanted to leave the European Union. I was very happy about this decision to make a large government smaller, allowing for the people of the United Kingdom to rule themselves. While there will be some short term economic consequences, I believe the long term rewards are well worth it.
The body of the EU that proposes legislation, the European Commission, is unelected. There is no way for EU citizens to vote out those politicians, and there is no way for citizens to repeal legislation that has been enacted. The rise of right-wing ideology in Europe is evidence enough that the people of Europe no longer want to be a part of the super government that is the EU. The EU is undemocratic and, frankly, the legislation they pass is very damaging to the people of Europe. Not to mention that one-third of EU bureaucrats get paid more than British Prime Minister David Cameron. Countries such as England, Germany and France pay more than their fair share in tax money to these unelected EU officials, while countries such as Portugal, Spain and Greece pay a lot less.
To put this in perspective, let’s say all of North and South America were part of some super government called the American Union. Let’s say that the American Union Commission was located in Panama. Let’s say you had no say in what legislation they propose, but that legislation affects you directly all the same. Unelected law makers in Panama would effectively be able to tell the US who they can and can’t trade with and force us to bail out other countries in the AU. If you don’t believe me, look at the EU, which does just that. The UK tax payers are paying for the mistakes of Greece and cannot make their own trade deals without EU approval. Now, Britain will be able to directly negotiate with foreign countries like China and the US.
Let’s talk about immigration. EU law guarantees that citizens of one EU country have the right to travel, live, and take jobs in other EU countries. There are currently five countries listed as candidate countries to join the EU, one of which is Turkey. Turkey is the country where a Russian plane was shot down, where the annual gay pride parade was canceled, where president Erdoğan is quoted as saying, “It’s against nature and Islam to put women on an equal footing of men,” and where prominent Imams and Muslim leaders have said they will spread Islam throughout Europe through immigration. Turkey is almost guaranteed a spot in the EU.
There’s currently a refugee migrant crisis in Europe.The migrants are coming from countries where women’s rights are non-existent and homosexuality is illegal. Many places in Germany now have gender-segregated pools. Migrants that will not assimilate to European culture have no business being there and shouldn’t be accepted into Europe. The EU, however, does not seem to care about the increased crime rate due to the mass influx of uncontrolled migration. They have proposed to fine member countries 250,000 euros per refugee that they don’t accept. If the EU sets a quota of 100,000 refugees, but Britain decides to take in just 50,000, they will be fined 12.5 billion euros. The citizens of the UK are tired of people who will not assimilate or follow their rules only to be protected by officials who are in fear of looking like bigots for simply enforcing laws.
Ian Hunt is a contributing columnist for the Central Florida Future. | https://ux.centralfloridafuture.com/story/opinion/2016/06/30/opposing-views-brexit/86501238/ |
Newcomers to Polish genealogy often start with a few misconceptions. Many Americans have only a dim understanding of the border changes that occurred in Europe over the centuries, and in fairness, keeping up with all of them can be quite a challenge, as evidenced by this timelapse video that illustrates Europe’s geopolitical map changes since 1000 AD. So it’s no wonder that I often hear statements like, “Grandma’s family was Polish, but they lived someplace near the Russian border.” Statements like this presuppose that Grandma’s family lived in “Poland” near the border between “Poland” and Russia. However, what many people don’t realize is that Poland didn’t exist as an independent nation from 1795-1918.
How did this happen and what were the consequences for our Polish ancestors? At the risk of vastly oversimplifying the story, I’d like to present a few highlights of Polish history that beginning Polish researchers should be aware of as they start to trace their family’s origins in “the Old Country.”
Typically, the oldest genealogical records that we find for our Polish ancestors date back to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which existed from 1569-1795. At the height of its power, the Commonwealth looked like this (in red), superimposed over the current map (Figure 1):1
Figure 1: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at its maximum extent, in 1619.1
The beginning of the end for the Commonwealth came in 1772, with the first of three partitions which carved up Polish lands among the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Empires. The second partition, in which only the Russian and Prussian Empires participated, occurred in 1793. After the third partition in 1795, among all three empires, Poland vanished from the map (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Map of the Partitions of Poland, courtesy of Wikimedia.2
This map gets trotted out a lot in Polish history and genealogy discussions because we often explain to people about those partitions, but I don’t especially like it because it sometimes creates the misconception that this was how things still looked by the late 1800s/early 1900s when most of our Polish immigrant ancestors came over. In reality, time marched on, and the map kept changing. By 1807, just twelve years after that final partition of Poland, the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw (Figure 3) was created by Napoleon as a French client state. At this time, Napoleon also introduced a paragraph-style format of civil vital registration, so civil records from this part of “Poland” are easily distinguishable from church records.
Figure 3: Map of the Duchy of Warsaw (Księstwo Warszawskie), 1807-1809. 3
During its brief history, the Duchy of Warsaw managed to expand its borders to the south and east a bit thanks to territories taken from the Austrian Empire, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Map of the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809-1815.4
However, by 1815, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Duchy of Warsaw was divided up again at the Congress of Vienna, which created the Grand Duchy of Posen (Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie), Congress Poland (Królestwo Polskie), and the Free City of Kraków. These changes are summarized in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Territorial Changes in Poland, 1815 5
The Grand Duchy of Posen was a Prussian client state whose capital was the city of Poznań (Posen, in German). This Grand Duchy was eventually replaced by the Prussian Province of Posen in 1848. Congress Poland was officially known as the Kingdom of Poland but is often called “Congress Poland” in reference to its creation at the Congress of Vienna, and as a means to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland which existed at various times in history. Although it was a client state of Russia from the start, Congress Poland was granted some limited autonomy (e.g. records were kept in Polish) until the November Uprising of 1831, after which Russia retaliated with curtailment of Polish rights and freedoms. The unsuccessful January Uprising of 1863 resulted in a further tightening of Russia’s grip on Poland, erasing any semblance of autonomy which the Kingdom of Poland had enjoyed. The territory was wholly absorbed into the Russian Empire, and this is why family historians researching their roots in this area will see a change from Polish-language vital records to Russian-language records starting about 1868. The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Kraków with its Territory (Wolne, Niepodległe i Ściśle Neutralne Miasto Kraków z Okręgiem), was jointly controlled by all three of its neighbors (Prussia, Russia, and Austria), until it was annexed by the Austrian Empire following the failed Kraków Uprising in 1846.
By the second half of the 19th century, things had settled down a bit. The geopolitical map of “Poland” didn’t change during the time from the 1880s through the early 1900s, when most of our ancestors emigrated, until the end of World War I when Poland was reborn as a new, independent Polish state. The featured map at the top (shown again in Figure 6) is one of my favorites, because it clearly defines the borders of Galicia and the various Prussian and Russian provinces commonly mentioned in documents pertaining to our ancestors.
Figure 6: Central and Eastern Europe in 1900, courtesy of easteurotopo.org, used with permission.6
Although the individual provinces within the former Congress Poland are not named due to lack of space, a nice map of those is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Administrative map of Congress Poland, 1907.7 (Note that some sources still refer to the these territories as “Congress Poland” even after 1867, but this name does not reflect the existence of any independent government apart from Russia.)
The Republic of Poland that was created at the end of World War I, commonly known as the Second Polish Republic, is shown in Figure 8. The borders are shifted to the east relative to present-day Poland, including parts of what is now Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. This territory that was part of Poland between the World Wars, but is excluded from today’s Poland, is known as the Kresy.
Figure 8: Map of the Second Polish Republic showing borders from 1921-1939.8
During the dark days of World War II, Poland was occupied by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. About 6 million Polish citizens died during this occupation, mostly civilians, including about 3 million Polish Jews.9 After the war, the three major allied powers (the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) redrew the borders of Europe yet again and created a Poland that excluded the Kresy, but included the territories of East Prussia, West Prussia, Silesia, and most of Pomerania.10, 11 At the same time, the Western leaders betrayed Poland and Eastern Europe by effectively handing these countries over to Stalin and permitting the creation of the Communist Eastern Bloc.12
To conclude, let’s take a look at how these border changes affected the village of Kowalewo-Opactwo in present-day Słupca County, Wielkopolskie province, where my great-grandmother was born. This village was originally in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but then became part of Prussia after the second partition in 1793. In 1807 it fell solidly within the borders of the Duchy of Warsaw, but by 1815 it lay right on the westernmost edge of the Kalisz province of Russian-controlled Congress Poland. After 1867, the vital records are in Russian, reflecting the tighter grip that Russia exerted on Poland at that time, until 1918 when Kowalewo-Opactwo became part of the Second Polish Republic. Do these border changes imply that our ancestors weren’t Poles, but were really German or Russian? Hardly. Ethnicity and nationality aren’t necessarily the same thing. Time and time again, ethnic Poles attempted to overthrow their Prussian, Russian or Austrian occupiers, and those uprisings speak volumes about our ancestors’ resentment of those national governments and their longing for a free Poland. As my Polish grandma once told me, “If a cat has kittens in a china cabinet, you don’t call them teacups.”
Sources:
1“Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at its maximum extent” by Samotny Wędrowiec, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, accessed 9 January 2017.
2 “Rzeczpospolita Rozbiory 3,” by Halibutt, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, accessed 9 January 2017.
3 “Map of the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807-1809,” by Mathiasrex, based on layers of kgberger, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0., accessed 9 January 2017.
4“Map of the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809-1815” by Mathiasrex, based on layers of kgberger, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, accessed 9 January 2017.
5 “Territorial Changes of Poland, 1815,” by Esemono, is in the public domain, accessed 9 January 2017.
6 “Central and Eastern Europe in 1900,” Topgraphic Maps of Eastern Europe: An Atlas of the Shtetl, used with permission, accessed 9 January 2017.
7 “Administrative Map of Kingdom of Poland from 1907,” by Qquerim, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, accessed 9 January 2017.
8 “RzeczpospolitaII,” is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, accessed 9 January 2017.
9 “Occupation of Poland (1939-1945),” Wikipedia, accessed 9 Janary 2017.
10 “Potsdam Conference,” Wikipedia, accessed 9 January 2017.
11 “Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II,” Wikipedia, accessed 9 January 2017.
12 “Western betrayal,” Wikipedia, accessed 9 January 2017. | https://fromshepherdsandshoemakers.com/2017/01/15/those-infamous-border-changes-a-crash-course-in-polish-history/comment-page-1/?replytocom=22160 |
- Russia, Relations with
- Only after the beginning of the 18th century was Tsarist Russia a problematic element in the foreign policy of the Habsburg monarchy. The ongoing expansion of the Romanov dynasty’s holdings to the west and southwest at the expense of two crumbling megastates, the kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire, posed a potential threat to the house of Austria’s eastern borders. The thrust of Vienna’s foreign policy toward Russia was to avoid warfare but curb its territorial ambitions. Habsburg rulers participated with Russia in 1772 and again in 1795 in the partitions of Poland. Where possible, the Habsburgs used mutual advantage to make Russia an ally. Russia fought for a time on the Austrian side against Prussia in the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) and joined Joseph II in a fruitless Balkan War between 1788 and 1791. Russia and Austria were part of the Grand Coalition that beat back Napoleon Bonaparte and cooperated with Imperial Chancellor Klemens von Metternich and Emperor Francis I in keeping Europe monarchical between 1815 and 1848. The armed intervention of Tsar Nicholas I (1796–1855) brought nationalist separatism in Hungary to a halt in 1849.The Habsburg Empire, however, did not always reciprocate. Russia expected the help of Emperor Franz Joseph during the Crimean War (1853–1856), but none was forthcoming. In the second half of the 19th century, relations between St. Petersburg and Vienna grew markedly more tense. Russia continued to press for military and naval advantage south to the Black Sea, where the Ottoman regime was often unable to resist. Nationalist movements in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and to a lesser extent, today’s Romania, where populations were primarily Eastern Orthodox, also opened the way for the Romanovs to serve as protector of peoples whose faith the Russian dynasty shared.Franz Joseph and his foreign ministers managed to embarrass Russia twice in this role: once at the Congress of Berlin (1878), where participants trimmed back a newly advantaged position following a Bulgarian uprising against Ottoman rule, and again in 1908, when the Habsburgs annexed Bosnia, to the great distress of the kingdom of Serbia and its Russian advocate.It was Russia’s support of Serbia that brought it into World War I in 1914. Losses for both sides on the eastern front were enormous. Perhaps the high point of the entire conflict for the Habsburg Empire was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), which yielded a great swath of territory to be divided among the Central Powers at Russian expense. These arrangements, however, were of purely academic interest following the conflict that brought an end to both empires. The Communist Party of Austria, founded in 1918, drew much of its inspiration from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Austrian foreign policy initiatives toward the new Soviet Union were negligible, however, partly on ideological grounds, partly because of more pressing tasks. World War II, however, put the Soviet Union squarely in Austrian territory as part of the occupation. In the 10 years before the signing of the Austrian State Treaty, Vienna’s treatment of the Moscow regime was exquisitely circumspect. Popular experience of Soviet occupation, particularly in its zone, convinced Austrians that they did not want to be part of the Soviet bloc. But even after the State Treaty was in place, Austria’s eastern boundary abutted on Soviet satellites, and Vienna treated the Communists of Moscow cautiously and often deferentially. The Soviet Union was quick to block any serious signs of Austrian cooperation with the European Community (EEC/EC) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1967, the Soviets would not allow Austria to join the European Common Market.Austria had other reasons to preserve good relations with the Soviet Union. It needed to reactivate trade with Eastern Europe generally. In 1956, Austria negotiated free passage down the Danube to the Black Sea with the Soviet Union. In 1960, Austria joined the Danube River Commission, a body completely dominated by the Communist Bloc. The only Western government represented in the group was the German Federal Republic, and only with observer status. Austria was also eager to have the Soviet Union as a market. In 1958, Vienna signed a set of protocols that expanded economic exchanges with Moscow. In 1979, Austria would be the first Western country to have free trade relations with the Soviet Union on the basis of completely convertible currencies. Austria also wanted to regain sovereignty over assets that the Soviets had commandeered during the occupation. After intense discussion, the Moscow government agreed in 1958 to reduce by 50 percent oil deliveries guaranteed to it in the State Treaty.The implosion of the Soviet Union in 1989 changed the tenor of Austrian–Russian relations dramatically. As it had done with Hungarian refugees in 1956 and their Czech counterparts in 1968, Austria opened its borders to East Germans fleeing to the West in 1989. This time, however, Moscow kept its armies at home. Indeed, as subsequent events showed that the Soviet government could not retain its territorial buffer in east central and southeastern Europe, Austria intensified its efforts to join the European Union (EU), a step that the Soviets would have once quickly challenged as a violation of Austria’s pledge of neutrality. Not until 1995, with Austria a member of the EU, did the Russian vice-minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Krylow, declare that Austria alone could determine the meaning of its neutrality in interstate relations. For its part, the Austrian foreign ministry recognized the new Russia as the legitimate successor of the Soviet Union, a measure that other members of the EU had taken one year earlier. Austria also promised to support Russian admission to the Council of Europe and relief from restrictions on trade many European countries had adopted on trade during the Cold War. Austrian and Russian foreign policies have since then differed sharply at crucial moments. Austria supported the military intervention of the United States in Kosovo in 1999; Russia, along with China, did not. Vitally interested in seeing a natural gas supply line run directly from the Caspian to central Europe without touching Russian territory, Austria, along with Great Britain, Sweden, and some of the former Soviet bloc countries, deplored Russian military incursions into Georgia in 2008. They made known their reservations about further integration of Russia into the EU. Some of the small states, most notably Lithuania, continued to oppose extensive EU cultivation of Russia. However, Benita-Ferrero Waldner (1948–), a one-time minister of foreign affairs for Austria who had become EU commissioner of external affairs in 2004, agreed in November 2008 that discussions with the Russians about economic, security, and energy matters should resume.See also Foreign Policy.
Historical dictionary of Austria. Paula Sutter Fichtner. 2014.
Look at other dictionaries: | https://hist_austria.academic.ru/246 |
Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared many similarities and differences to that of previous American ideals. In both cases of American expansionism, Americans used the theory of manifest destiny to justify their conquests for new territory. Later, Social Darwinism was added to the mix, which made Americans even more big-headed. Both of these theories caused Americans to believe that the United States was superior to other nations and that all lands were theirs for the taking. However, there were also many differences between the two expansionist periods because some people supported imperialism while others were highly opposed to the idea.
John Locke was an important person during the Enlightenment. He was someone who had many ideas. He played a good part in developing the world that we now live in. His writings and ideas made big impacts that affected a great deal of people in ways that affected big changes on the way these countries developed.
Since 1500, countries have pursued a policy of expansion known as imperialism for a variety of reasons. Those reasons lead to both negative and positive effects. The effects can be viewed from different perspectives. One country that was a major in Imperialism was Great Britain.
The explorations resulted in a dramatic boom, although might have affected some less, it did create more opportunities
During the age of imperialism Europe had a lot of advantages that lead to the success of the continent. Imperialism is when a country’s power is extended. The age of Imperialism was when new colonies were developed and expanded, this occurred during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Europe wasn’t only a more advanced area but there were also many geographic advantages. The Europeans were very capable of conquering most of the known world during the this time in history because of geographic luck also the animals that were in the continent and the weapons they had caused Europe to have a great advantage.
During the 1900s, many people took pride in their countries and wanted to prove the world how great their country is. And to do that, they would have to declare and win a war against their rivals. It led to the war for the reason that the overconfidence fueled their strength in militarism. This is probably why other countries such as Portugal and Italy joined the war- simply because of their confidence. There were downsides to it- it made the war longer then everyone thought it would be as there were so many countries fighting, hence being called World War 1.
Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It is a great way to strengthen the economy and gain power and territory for countries that practice it, though it often failed and resulted in war and the deaths of innocents. Four intellectuals that played a big part in influencing American imperialism were Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer and John Fisk. All of these influencers had different ideologies and came together to justify American imperialism. They believed America needed to expand power and gain territories.
He triggered three wars; with Denmark, Austria, and France; and attracted to German nationalism to create a strong new nation in the heart of Europe. These new nations transformed the stability of power in Europe, causing well-known nations like Britain and France worry that their own power was in danger. Even though this had the disadvantage of wars but it created a new nation. Nationalism, then, was urged on by a restoration of entrenched competition that European nations carried to the end. They competed with one another through trade, industrial invention, and colonization, setting up worldwide
Why War is Good We are Mariah, Jordan, Siri, Chong, and Kevin, and we believe that war is a good thing. We believe this because it has lead to many technological advances, it is good for the economy, and lastly it supports the theory of utilitarianism. Throughout human history we see examples of war being spurred by technology, but we also see technological jumps occurring during or following times of war.
Winston Churchill should get more praise for what he is doing, because he was an outstanding politician, wrote incredible speeches, and became prime minister for Britain and Won World war II. To start off with, Churchill was a very political man, and many of his successes in life had came from being part of British politics. Many people thought that once Churchill switched his view from conservative to liberal, that was disloyal and opportunistic. Churchill 's role in the political community was one of the many reasons in which how he had made an impact on our world today. Winston Churchill was known for a few major changes during his time.
Imperialism is the term used when a country expands its current power and influence through diplomacy or military force throughout other lands and countries that are weaker than their own. Some motives of imperialism is, economic reasons, like industries need resources, and customers to sell to. Another reason would be military factors, and nationalism. Imperialism in the US hasn 't been a failure. The goal was to increase the country 's influence, territory, power, and belief.
Even though both France and Britain had many colonies in Africa and Asia and Germany and Italy decided they wanted a colonial empire to,because the battle and struggle to divide borders between countries,even though Britain was the world’s dominant imperial power,disagreements about who owned different areas of the world created jealousy and
Imperialism is a policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries. It originated in the 1800’s but flourished in Europe during the 1900’s due to the British expansion towards foreign lands. The factors in fueling the 19th-century imperialism consisted of racism, economics, religion, and politics: Racism, in my opinion, is the most important in fueling the 19th-century imperialism because the motives for expansion expressed prejudice. Racism means the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. Most events during the era of imperialism illustrated a trait of racism, which fueled imperialism throughout Europe.
Killing people just so you can get an advantage is just not right. Imperialism is the state policy, practice,or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military force or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy. The age of Imperialism was late 1800s and early 1900s.
Before World War I began, imperialism was a growing idea in Europe. Imperialism is defined as when a dominant country exerts its power over a weaker country. Many European countries, including France, Britain, Germany, and Belgium, sought to dominate and gain imperialism over African countries for their natural resources. Germany’s chancellor Otto Von Bismark organized a meeting in Berlin to map out the European colonies in Africa. Britain grained control of the Suez Canal, placed a major naval base in Alexandria, and profited from the cotton cultivation. | https://www.ipl.org/essay/Imperialism-Advocacy-Of-Empire-PJUJQJ2BGZT |
granizadas en Cuba” (Havana, 1860-2): “Cuban Antiquities,” read before the American ethnological society: “Tableau chronologique des tremblements de terre,” “Travaux sur la météorologie et la phisique du globe,” “Mémoires sur les tempêtes electriques,” and “Le positivisme” (Paris, 1876). The last is an exposition of the principles of Auguste Comte's philosophical system, of which the author is an ardent follower.
POHL, Johann Emanuel, Austrian botanist, b. in Vienna, Austria, in 1784; d. there, 22 May, 1834. He was educated as a physician, and then devoted his attention to botany. In 1817 he accompanied the Archduchess Leopoldine to Brazil on the occasion of her marriage to Dom Pedro I., and then spent four years in exploring that country under orders from his government. On his return to Vienna he was appointed curator of the Brazilian museum. His works include “Tentamen floræ Bohemicæ” (2 vols., Prague, 1814); “Expositio anatomica organiauditus per classes animalium” (Vienna, 1819); “Plantarum Brasiliæ icones et descriptions” (2 vols., 1827-'31); “Beiträge zur Gebirgskunde Brasiliens” (1832); “Brasiliens vorzüglichste Insekten” (1832); and “Reise ins innere Brasilien” (1882).
POINDEXTER, George, senator, b. in Louisa county, Va., in 1779; d. in Jackson, Miss., 5 Sept., 1853. He was of Huguenot ancestry. He was left an orphan early in life, and became a lawyer in Milton, Va., but in 1802 removed to Mississippi territory, where he soon attained note, both at the bar and as a leader of the Jeffersonian party. In 1803 he was appointed attorney-general of the territory, and in this capacity he conducted the prosecution of Aaron Burr when the latter was arrested by the authorities in his first descent to New Orleans. His violent denunciations of Federalists resulted in a challenge from Abijah Hunt, one of the largest merchants in the southwest, whom Poindexter killed in the duel that followed. Poindexter was accused by his enemies of firing before the word was given, and bitter and prolonged controversies followed, but the charge was never substantiated. He became a member of the territorial legislature in 1805, and in 1807 was chosen delegate to congress, where he won reputation as an orator. Here he remained till 1813, when, notwithstanding the remonstrance of the majority of the territorial bar, he was appointed U. S. judge for the district of Mississippi. This office, contrary to general expectation, he administered firmly and impartially, doing much to settle the controversies that had arisen from conflicting land grants, and to repress the criminal classes. He had assisted to prepare the people of the territory for the war of 1812, and when the British invaded Louisiana he joined Jackson and served as a volunteer aide at the battle of New Orleans. During this service a soldier brought to him a piece of paper bearing the British countersign “Beauty and Booty,” which he had found on the field. Poindexter took it to Jackson, and it was the cause of much excitement through the country. The Federalists subsequently claimed that the paper had been forged by Poindexter. He was active in the Mississippi constitutional convention of 1817, being chairman of the committee that was appointed to draft a constitution for the new state, and, on its admission to the Union in that year, was elected its first representative in congress, serving one term. Here, in 1819, he made his best-known speech, defending Gen. Jackson's conduct in the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and in the occupation of the Spanish ports in Florida (see Jackson), and it was largely due to his efforts that Jackson was not censured by congress. At the end of his term he was elected governor of Mississippi, notwithstanding attempts to show that he had been guilty of gross cowardice at New Orleans. While he held this office the legislature authorized him to revise and amend the statutes, and the result was the code that was completed in 1822 and published as “Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi” (Natchez. 1824). In 1821 he resumed his practice at the bar, which he continued till his appointment to the U. S. senate in November, 1830, in place of Robert H. Adams, deceased. He was subsequently elected to fill out the term, and served till 1835. Here he gradually became estranged from Jackson, occupying, as he contended, a middle ground between Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, but his views were practically those of the latter. He especially resisted the appointment of the president's personal friends to office in Mississippi, and he also voted for Clay's resolution of censure. The breach widened, and Jackson finally suspected Poindexter of complicity in the attempt that was made on his life at the capitol. In 1835 he removed to Louisville, Ky., but was disappointed in his hopes of political promotion there, and, after being commissioned by President Tyler to investigate frauds in the New York custom-house, returned to Mississippi, where he affiliated with his old political friends. Poindexter had more than ordinary ability, but his career was marred by violent personal controversies and by dissipation, and he was embittered by domestic troubles and by the unpopularity that his opposition to Jackson aroused against him in Mississippi. See a “Biographical Sketch” of him (Washington, 1835). | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Appletons'_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_of_American_Biography_(1900,_volume_5).djvu/70 |
How was the peace restored and maintained after 1815? P.684
In 1815, Europe was in a chaotic state because of the course of the Napoleonic wars. Thus, the European countries needed to find a way to maintain peace within the countries. So, they founded the idea of peace on the principle that no single states can dominate Europe ever again, especially not France. The countries involved: Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain, also known as the quadruple alliance, decided to start searching for a way to hold France in line. The quadruple alliance had to create a number of new barriers against the french aggression. Thus, due to the country's’ self interest, traditional ideas, and views on balance of power, motivated the new and allied moderation toward France. Looking for ways to restore peace, these countries agreed to meet at Congress of Vienna to construct a lasting settlement that would ensure no war. At the Congress of Vienna, the country’s agreed that each country involved in the Napoleonic war would receive compensation in the form of territory. Therefore, Austria gave up territories in Belgium and Southern Germany, and took Venetia, Lombardy, Polish territories, and land near the Adriatic in exchange. Russia received a small kingdom from Poland, and Prussia took a part of Saxony. Now that fair agreements were reached by the country’s, they needed to find a way to maintain this peace amongst themselves. This emerged the new idea of a “congress system” between the countries which was a System that could create solutions through a conservative approach and it would uphold a balance of power. All countries agreed to give lenient terms towards France after napoleon's abdication in fear of an act of vengeance. Thus, the Treaty of Paris in 1792 gave France more boundaries than they had previously, also, the countries did not forced France to pay war reparations. Klemens Von Metternich, Diplomat of Austria, believed that in order to maintain peace, the country must follow the conservative movement. This idea was supported with evidence from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and it also supported the idea of autocracies. Later, other countries like Russia and the Ottoman empire began emulating Metternich by holding back liberalism and nationalism within their country. This upheld idea of conservatism by the autocracy formed a bond between the Holy Alliance which consisted from Austria, Prussia, and Russia, the defenders of conservatism. The Austrian and Prussian leadership followed through by using the diet to issue and enforce karlsbad decrees of 1819 which required that german states outlaw liberal groups, monitor freedom of speech, and send out spies which demonstrated the countries attempt to repress liberals. For example, in St. Petersburg Russia, on December 25, a group of 3,000 liberal officers began to protest against Tsar Nicholas 1. However, through military strength, secret police, imprisonment, execution, and harsh consequence, the Tsar was able to maintain conservative ways in Russia. Overall, the new Congress system was successful because France needed to pay for the actions of Napoleon, legal framework became the duty of diplomats rather than kings, between states, and because of the new economic view which voiced that industry and commerce would benefit all states and not one at the expense of the other. | https://www.essaysforstudent.com/History-Other/Ap-Euro-Reading-Questions-for-Revolutions-of-1848/105378.html |
H-Nationalism is proud to publish here the first post of its “Secessionism and Separatism Monthly Series,” which looks at issues of fragmentation, sovereignty, and self-determination from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Today’s contribution, by Associate Professor Aleksandar Pavković (Macquarie University, Sidney), introduces the concepts of secession, secessionism, separatism – and other related terms – examining their main features and typologies. Please feel free to participate in the discussion by commenting on the piece.
Secession and Secessionism
The concept of secession is highly contested; scholars still disagree on what should count as a secession. As the concept of secessionism appears to be less contested, we start by expanding J. R. Wood’s original definition as follows: secessionism is a political program based on the demand for a formal withdrawal of a bounded territory from an internationally recognized state with the aim of creating a new state on that territory, which is expected to gain formal recognition by other states (and the UN).
Secessionism clearly differs from separatism which aims only at a reduction of the central authority’s control over the targeted territory and its population; as Wood pointed out, political movements can and often do ‘oscillate’ between separatist and secessionist programs, initially starting with the former and ending up with the latter and vice versa. Irredentism, in contrast, aims at the withdrawal of territory but not at the creation of a new state. According to the 1960 UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Peoples, granting independence to colonies does not breach the ‘territorial integrity’ of UN member states; since a colony, accordingly, is not part of the territory of an existing state, decolonization is not a secessionist project.
In contrast to many decolonization movements which have had widespread support within the colony and outside it, secessionist movements usually face various obstacles in their efforts to mobilize the populations of the targeted territory for secession and to find support they need among other states. In some cases, many members of the majority national group on the targeted territory (which the secessionists are trying to mobilise) prefer to remain in the existing state to seceding; as a result, the secessionists may fail to gain majority support for secession (as they recently did in Scotland). Powerful states often find territorial fragmentation of the states they support contrary to their geostrategic interests; many states/governments also regard support for a secession from another state as a possible encouragement for secessionist ambitions of their own minorities. These are only some of the reasons why some (but not all) secessionists find it difficult to find support for their cause among outside states. Some central governments dilute support for secessionist projects in their states by appearing ready to accommodate almost any demand that secessionists make, short of the formal recognition of independent statehood. Others, on the contrary, appear ready to resist (and suppress if necessary) any secessionist demand – and armed secessionist insurrection – without any attempt, at least initially, to calculate the relative costs of such an open-ended resistance.
This highly selective sample of potential obstacles to a secessionist project suggests that such a project may be pursued in different political contexts by different means, ranging from popular mobilization for a secession referendum to organized violence and armed insurrection. Some secessionists are, by their ideology or religious conviction (such as a form of Islamic jihad), committed to the use of violence. Other secessionist programs refer to acts of violence or repression suffered by their target secessionist group, implying that a violent response may be needed to remedy those injustices. The secessionist programs offering to remedy past or present injustices by creating new states find support in contemporary academic remedial theories of secession: according to the latter, once a group has suffered a particular kind of injustice(s) in an existing state, it thereby gains a right to secede and to create a new state of its own; such a right may be defended by military force.
Unlike academic theories, secessionist programs often contain various nationalist narratives; for example, of how the dominant national group in the host state has oppressed, in various ways, the targeted national group; or how its ancestors were first to settle the territory or first to establish a state on it, and thus its current heirs are entitled to a state of their own; or how the dominant nation has a state of its own, while the target nation, equal to it in every respect, is left unjustly stateless – and thus deserves a state of its own.
But in the current, secessionist, Islamic State and in the imagined Caucasian Emirate (in Russia) those who are considered entitled to a state of their own are identified by their religious conviction, not nationality. Moreover, secessionist programs in some EU states and Canada have sought to mobilize support of all individuals and groups on the territory, not only the majority (target) nation. Their secessionist programs are not (or not only) narratives based on national identity. Nonetheless, national identity and related nationalist narratives still provide powerful instruments for secessionist mobilization. But they are not the only instruments – and they may be losing their previous central role at least in some secessionists’ programs.
There are then at least three key elements to secession: mobilization of a population in support for a new state, the formal withdrawal of a territory and the creation of a new state on it. A secession has been attempted when all three elements are present. It is fully successful if the new state is admitted to the UN; it may be successful enough, at least for its leaders, if a few important states formally recognize it. And even if not formally recognized at all (as Somaliland is not), its citizens may still consider their de facto (and thus fragile) state a better outcome than being a part of their former host state (e.g. Somalia). For the creation of a new state to be an attempt at secession, it matters not whether the host state agrees to it, resists it or dissolves in the process; nor whether it is brought about by violence or by negotiation. This view is contested: some – mostly international lawyers – require the host state to resist the attempt at secession (otherwise it would be a mere voluntary cession of territory) and others require the host state to retain its identity after secession (otherwise it would be state dissolution and not secession).
See Aleksandar Pavković ‘Secession: a much contested concept’ in Territorial Separatism in Global Politics, eds. D. Kingsbury and Costas Laoutides, London: Routledge, 2015, pp. 15-29.
John R. Wood ‘Secession: A Comparative Analytical Framework’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, vol. 14, No 1, (1981), p. 110.
For a discussion of normative remedial theories see chapters 4, 22, 24 and 25 in the The Ashgate Research Companion to Secession, eds. A. Pavković and P. Radan, Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. For a legal variant of a remedial theory see Peter Radan’s contribution to this series (to be published in November). | https://networks.h-net.org/node/3911/discussions/90459/secessionism-and-separatism-monthly-series-secession-and/ |
The Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative 2 has submitted observations and proposals on cross-border supervisory practices to a number of European authorities.*/ These focus on critical aspects of home-host cooperation, which are of particular importance for host countries in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe where locally systemic affiliates of foreign banks operate.
The aim is to provide input for the designing of the supervisory framework for Europe and to communicate systemic concerns of host countries. The proposals have been shared with the EBA, the ECB and the European Commission.
The document reflects the Steering Committee’s views on implementation of cooperation between national authorities in home and host countries during the crisis. It draws on discussions between home and host country supervisors, central banks, fiscal authorities and key parent banks, including at a workshop hosted by the EBRD in London on September 12, 2012. Frequent contacts with other national authorities and with the private banking sector have added further insights.**/
Some issues in supervisory practices are particularly relevant to European countries in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe which mainly host affiliates of the cross border banking groups from the EU that are systematically important for their financial sectors. The last years have shown that the viewpoint of home and host authorities can differ when assessing systemic risk of financial institutions, not least because subsidiaries may account only for a minor part of a banking group yet be systemic in host countries. These concerns can be even more pronounced in countries outside the EU where EU-based banks have systemic operations.
The proposals focus on:
The Vienna 2 is also preparing detailed comments on the new bank resolution proposal for submission to the relevant European authorities.
BACKGROUND ON THE VIENNA INITIATIVE The Vienna Initiative was established at the height of the global financial crisis of 2008/09 as a private-public sector platform to secure adequate capital and liquidity support by Western banking groups for their affiliates in CESEE. The initiative was re-launched as “Vienna 2” in January 2012 in response to renewed risks for the region from the Eurozone crisis. Its focus is now on fostering home and host authority coordination in support of stable cross-border banking and guarding against disorderly deleveraging. Western banking groups continue to play an important role in the Initiative, both by supporting the coordination efforts and doing their own part to avoid disorderly deleveraging. | https://ssl.nbp.pl/homen.aspx?f=/en/aktualnosci/2012/2vienna_26102012en.html |
"God is with us!"
|National Anthem:||"Polish: [[Poland Is Not Yet Lost|Mazurek Dąbrowskiego]]"|
|Official Languages:||Polish (until mid-1860s), Russian|
|Common Languages:||Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German|
|Religion:||Roman Catholic|
|Currency:|
|Stat Area1:||128500|
|Stat Pop1:||3,200,000|
|Stat Year1:||1815|
|Stat Pop2:||9,402,253|
|Stat Year2:||1897|
|Today:|
Congress Poland or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a sovereign Polish state. Until the November Uprising in 1831, the kingdom was in a personal union with the tsars of Russia. Thereafter, the state was forcibly integrated into the Russian Empire over the course of the 19th century. In 1915, during World War I, it was replaced by the Central Powers with the nominal Regency Kingdom of Poland, until Poland regained independence in 1918.
Following the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, Poland ceased to exist as an independent state for 123 years. The territory, with its native population, was split between the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire. An equivalent to Congress Poland within the Austrian Empire was the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also commonly referred to as "Austrian Poland". The area incorporated into Prussia and subsequently the German Empire had little autonomy and was merely a province – the Province of Posen.
The Kingdom of Poland enjoyed considerable political autonomy as guaranteed by the liberal constitution. However, its rulers, the Russian Emperors, generally disregarded any restrictions on their power. It was, therefore, little more than a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the country became governed by namiestniks, and later divided into guberniya (provinces). Thus, from the start, Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction.
The capital was located in Warsaw, which towards the beginning of the 20th century became the Russian Empire's third-largest city after St. Petersburg and Moscow. The moderately multicultural population of Congress Poland was estimated at 9,402,253 inhabitants in 1897. It was mostly composed of Poles, Polish Jews, ethnic Germans and a small Russian minority. The predominant religion was Roman Catholicism and the official language used within the state was Polish until the January Uprising when Russian became co-official. Yiddish and German were widely spoken by its native speakers.
The territory of Congress Poland roughly corresponds to modern-day Kalisz Region and the Lublin, Łódź, Masovian, Podlaskie and Holy Cross Voivodeships of Poland as well as southwestern Lithuania and part of Grodno District of Belarus.
Although the official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland, in order to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland, it is sometimes referred to as "Congress Poland".
The Kingdom of Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when the great powers reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars. The Kingdom was created on part of the Polish territory that had been partitioned by Russia, Austria and Prussia replacing, after Napoleon's defeat, the Duchy of Warsaw, set up by Napoleon in 1807. After Napoleon's 1812 defeat, the fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was dependent on Russia. Prussia insisted on the Duchy being completely eliminated, but after Russian troops reached Paris in 1812, Tsar Alexander I originally intended to annex to the Duchy the Lithuanian-Belarusian lands, now controlled by the Tsardom, which used to be a part of the First Polish Republic and to unite thus created Polish country with Russia. Both Austria and the United Kingdom disapproved of that idea, Austria issuing a memorandum on returning to the 1795 resolutions, this idea supported by the United Kingdom under George IV and Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson and the British delegate to the Congress, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, so in effect the Tsar, after the so-called Hundred Days, established the Kingdom of Poland and the 1815 Congress of Vienna approved. After the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland (with Warsaw) and, after crushing an insurrection in 1831, the Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished and Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and the closure of their own universities. The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be named for it. The Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced with the Privislinsky Krai (Russian: Привислинский Край). Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire. However, even after this formalized annexation, the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I.
Originally, the Kingdom had an area of roughly 128,500 km2 and a population of approximately 3.3 million. The new state would be one of the smallest Polish states ever, smaller than the preceding Duchy of Warsaw and much smaller than the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which had a population of 10 million and an area of 1 million km2. Its population reached 6.1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900. Most of the ethnic Poles in the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom, although some areas outside it also contained a Polish majority.
The Kingdom of Poland largely re-emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia. The Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the Emperor of Russia serving as the Polish King. His title as chief of Poland in Russian, was Tsar, similar to usage in the fully integrated states within the Empire (Georgia, Kazan, Siberia).
Theoretically the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi-autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian Emperor. The state possessed the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, one of the most liberal in 19th century Europe, a Sejm (parliament) responsible to the King capable of voting laws, an independent army, currency, budget, penal code and a customs boundary separating it from the rest of Russian lands. Poland also had democratic traditions (Golden Liberty) and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom. In reality, the Kings had absolute power and the formal title of Autocrat, and wanted no restrictions on their rule. All opposition to the Emperor of Russia was suppressed and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials. Though the absolute rule demanded by Russia was difficult to establish due to Poland's liberal traditions and institutions, the independence of the Kingdom lasted only 15 years; initially Alexander I used the title of the King of Poland and was obligated to observe the provisions of the constitution. However, in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, almost dictatorial powers. Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them. In 1819, Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventory censorship. Resistance to Russian control began in the 1820s. Russian secret police commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev started persecution of Polish secret organizations and in 1821 the King ordered the abolition of Freemasonry, which represented Poland's patriotic traditions. Beginning in 1825, the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret.
See main article: November Uprising, January Uprising, Alvensleben Convention and Vistula Land.
Alexander I's successor, Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, but he declined to swear to abide by the Constitution and continued to limit the independence of the Polish kingdom. Nicholas' rule promoted the idea of Official Nationality, consisting of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. In relation to Poles, those ideas meant assimilation: turning them into loyal Orthodox Russians. The principle of Orthodoxy was the result of the special role it played in Russian Empire, as the Church was in fact becoming a department of state, and other religions discriminated against; for instance, Papal bulls could not be read in the Kingdom of Poland without agreement from the Russian government.
The rule of Nicholas also meant end of political traditions in Poland; democratic institutions were removed, an appointed—rather than elected—centralized administration was put in place, and efforts were made to change the relations between the state and the individual. All of this led to discontent and resistance among the Polish population. In January 1831, the Sejm deposed Nicholas I as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailing of its constitutional rights. Nicholas reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland, resulting in the November Uprising.
Following an 11-month military campaign, the Kingdom of Poland lost its semi-independence and was integrated much more closely with the Russian Empire. This was formalized through the issuing of the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland by the Emperor in 1832, which abolished the constitution, army and legislative assembly. Over the next 30 years a series of measures bound Congress Poland ever more closely to Russia. In 1863 the January Uprising broke out, but lasted only two years before being crushed. As a direct result, any remaining separate status of the kingdom was removed and the political entity was directly incorporated into the Russian Empire. The unofficial name Privislinsky Krai (Russian: Привислинский Край), i.e., 'Vistula Land', replaced 'Kingdom of Poland' as the area's official name and the area became a namestnichestvo under the control of a namiestnik until 1875, when it became a Guberniya.
The government of Congress Poland was outlined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. The Emperor of Russia was the official head of state, considered the King of Poland, with the local government headed by the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Namiestnik), Council of State and Administrative Council, in addition to the Sejm.
In theory, Congress Poland possessed one of the most liberal governments of the time in Europe, but in practice the area was a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The liberal provisions of the constitution, and the scope of the autonomy, were often disregarded by the Russian officials.
Polish remained an official language until the mid-1860s, when it was replaced by Russian. This resulted in bilingual street signs and documents, however the full implementation of Cyrillic script into the Polish language failed.
See main article: Namiestnik of the Kingdom of Poland. The office of "Namiestnik" was introduced in Poland by the 1815 constitution of Congress Poland. The Viceroy was chosen by the King from among the noble citizens of the Russian Empire or the Kingdom of Poland. The Viceroy supervised the entire public administration and, in the monarch's absence, chaired the Council of State, as well as the Administrative Council. He could veto the councils' decisions; other than that, his decisions had to be countersigned by the appropriate government minister. The Viceroy exercised broad powers and could nominate candidates for most senior government posts (ministers, senators, judges of the High Tribunal, councilors of state, referendaries, bishops, and archbishops). He had no competence in the realms of finances and foreign policy; his military competence varied.
The office of "namiestnik" or Viceroy was never abolished; however, after the January 1863 Uprising it disappeared. The last namiestnik was Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg, who served from 1863 to his death in 1874. No namiestnik was named to replace him; however, the role of namestnik—viceroy of the former kingdom passed to the Governor-General of Warsaw —or, to be more specific, of the Warsaw Military District (Polish: Warszawski Okręg Wojskowy, Russian: Варшавский Военный Округ).
The governor-general answered directly to the Emperor and exercised much broader powers than had the namiestnik. In particular, he controlled all the military forces in the region and oversaw the judicial systems (he could impose death sentences without trial). He could also issue "declarations with the force of law," which could alter existing laws.
See main article: Administrative Council. The Administrative Council was a part of Council of State of the Kingdom. Introduced by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, it was composed of 5 ministers, special nominees of the King and the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland. The Council executed the King's will and ruled in the cases outside the ministers competence and prepared projects for the Council of State..
See main article: Administrative division of Congress Poland.
The administrative divisions of the Kingdom changed several times over its history, and various smaller reforms were also carried out which either changed the smaller administrative units or merged/split various subdivisions.
Immediately after its creation in 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was divided into departments, a relic from the times of the French-dominated Duchy of Warsaw.
On 16 January 1816 the administrative division was reformed, with the departments being replaced with more traditionally Polish voivodeships (of which there were eight), obwóds and powiats. On 7 March 1837, in the aftermath of the November Uprising earlier that decade, the administrative division was reformed again, bringing Congress Poland closer to the structure of the Russian Empire, with the introduction of guberniyas (governorate, Polish spelling Polish: gubernia). In 1842 the powiats were renamed okręgs, and the obwóds were renamed powiats. In 1844 several governorates were merged with others, and some others renamed; five governorates remained.
In 1867, following the failure of the January Uprising, further reforms were instituted which were designed to bring the administrative structure of Poland (now de facto the Vistulan Country) closer to that of the Russian Empire. It divided larger governorates into smaller ones, introduced the gmina (a new lower level entity), and restructured the existing five governorates into 10. The 1912 reform created a new governorate – Kholm Governorate – from parts of the Sedlets and Lublin Governorates. It was split off from the Vistulan Country and made part of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire.
Despite the fact that the economic situation varied at times, Congress Poland was one of the largest economies in the world. In the mid 1800s the region became heavily industrialized, however, agriculture still maintained a major role in the economy. In addition, the export of wheat, rye and other crops was significant in stabilizing the financial output. An important trade partner of Congress Poland and the Russian Empire was Great Britain, which imported goods in large amounts.
Since agriculture was equivalent to 70% of the national income, the most important economic transformations included the establishment of mines and the textile industry; the development of these sectors brought more profit and higher tax revenues. The beginnings were difficult due to floods and intense diplomatic relationship with Prussia. It was not until 1822 when Prince Francis Xavier Drucki-Lubecki negotiated to open the Polish market to the world. He also tried to introduce appropriate protective duties. A large and profitable investment was the construction of the Augustów Canal connecting Narew and Neman Rivers, which allowed to bypass Danzig (Gdańsk) and high Prussian tariffs. Drucki-Lubecki also founded the Bank of Poland, for which he is mostly remembered.
The first Polish steam mill was built in 1828 in Warsaw-Solec; the first textile machine was installed in 1829. Greater use of machines led to production in the form of workshops. The government was also encouraging foreign specialists, mostly Germans, to upkeep larger establishments, or to undertake production. The Germans were also relieved of tax burden. This allowed to create one of the largest European textile centres in Łódź and in surrounding towns like Ozorków and Zduńska Wola. These small and initially insignificant settlements later developed into large and multicultural cities, where Germans and Jews were the majority in the population. With the abolition of border customs in 1851 and further economic growth, Polish cities were gaining wealth and importance. Most notably, Warsaw, being associated with the construction of railway lines and bridges, gained priority in the entire Russian market.
Although the economic and industrial progress occurred rapidly, most of the farms, called folwarks, chose to rely on serfs and paid workforce. Only a few have experimented by obtaining proper machinery and plowing equipment from England. New crops were being cultivated like sugar beet, which marked the beginning of Polish sugar refineries. The use of iron cutters and plows was also favoured among the farmers. During the January Uprising the occupying authorities sought to deprive peasant insurgents of their popularity among landed gentry. Taxes were raised and the overall economic situation of commoners worsened. The noblemen and landowners were, on the other hand, provided with more privileges, rights and even financial support in the form of bribery. The aim of this was to weaken their support for the rebellion against the Russian Empire.
Congress Poland was the largest supplier of zinc in Europe. The development of zinc industry took place at the beginning of the 19th century. It was mostly caused by the significant increase of demand for zinc mainly in industrialized countries of Western Europe.
In 1899, Aleksander Ginsberg founded the company FOS (Fabryka Przyrządów Optycznych-"Factory of Optical Equipment") in Warsaw. It was the only firm in the Russian Empire which crafted and produced cameras, telescopes, objectives and stereoscopes. Following the outbreak of World War I the factory was moved to St. Petersburg.
Demographic composition in 1897, by language:
a Sources agree that after the fall of the January Uprising in 1864, the autonomy of Congress Poland was drastically reduced. They disagree however on whether the Kingdom of Poland, colloquially known as Congress Poland, as a state, was officially replaced by Vistula Land (Privislinsky Krai), a province of the Russian Empire, as many sources still use the term Congress Poland for the post-1864 period. The sources are also unclear as to when Congress Poland (or Vistula land) officially ended; some argue it ended when the German and Austro-Hungarian occupying authorities assumed control; others, that it ended with the creation of the Kingdom of Poland in 1917; finally, some argue that it occurred only with the creation of the independent Republic of Poland in 1918. Examples:
. The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812–1822 . Grove Press . New York . 2001 . 171 . 0-8021-3744-X . Harold Nicolson .
. Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph . Atlantic Monthly Press . Boston . 1997 . 7 . 0-87113-665-1 . Alan Warwick Palmer .
. Miłosz, Czesław . The history of Polish literature . University of California Press . Berkeley . 1983 . 196. 0-520-04477-0 . Czesław Miłosz . 2008-04-10.
. Nicolson, Harold George . The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812–1822 . Grove Press . New York . 2001 . 179–180. 0-8021-3744-X . Harold Nicolson . 2008-04-10. | http://everything.explained.today/Congress_Poland/ |
Treaty of San Stefano March 3, 1878
Russia and Turkey signed at Adrianople on January 31, 1878, a document (See Appendix I, 13) which combined with an armistice the " preliminary bases for peace," and provided for an autonomous Bulgaria, with a national Christian government and militia; the independence of Montenegro, Ronmania. and Serbia, with increases of territory; autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina; reforms in other Christian provinces of Turkey in Europe; an indemnity to Russia; and an understanding to secure the rights and interests of Russia in the straits. On February 5, 1878, the Austrian Government proposed a conference at Vienna of the powers signatory to the treaties of 1856 and 1871. Baden was substituted later as the place of meeting, and on March 7 it was proposed that not a conference but a congress be held, and that the place be Berlin. Bismarck announced, in a speech to the Reichstag on February 19, that he proposed to act as an " honest broker, " with no partiality in favor of any country.
Russian and Turkey agreed on a " preliminary treaty of peace " at San Stefano on March 3, 1878, which set forth, with annexed maps, new boundaries for Montenegro and Serbia. Bulgaria was laid out extensively, including all areas which were believed to contain a majority of Bulgarians. The plan proposed at the conference of Constantinople for the organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina was to be put into effect. Improvements and reforms were to be provided in Armenia. An indemnity of 1,410,000,000 rubles was to be paid by Turkey to'Russia, but in lieu of 1,100,000,000 rubles of this sum the Dobrudja and the districts of Ardahan, Kars, Batnm, iintl Bayazid were to be ceded. Ratifications were to be exchanged within 15 days. This treaty proposed an arrangement very favorable to Russian and Bulgarian interests. It was, however, as regards its disposition of tho Balkan peninsula, much more nearly conformable to the principle of nationality than was the Treaty of Berlin. While it has often been considered an attempt to "tie the hands of the Congress", it became very serviceable to that body in exact conformity with its denomination as a " preliminary peace."
There was a sharp exchange of views between the British and Russian Governments as to the extent to which this treaty should come before the congress for discussion, which was settled by Prince Gortchakoff conceding " full liberty of appreciation and action"' to all the powers to be represented. Gen. Ignatieff was sent to visit the European courts, and is supposed to have offered Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria. The Hapsburg power, however, was not pleased with the blocking of the road to Salonika by the interposition of the great Bulgaria, and asked special rights in Serbia and Montenegro, with control of Bosnia and Albania. Apparently it was this attitude of Austria that caused Russia to yield full discussion of the treaty.
Lord Salisbury issued a circular note on April 1, 1878, proposing modifications of the Treaty of San Stefano, in the direction of removing exclusive Russian advantages, protecting British interests, and securing, without impairing Turkish sovereignty, improvement in the position of the subject peoples of Turkey. Prince Gortchakoff answered this on April 9, asking for specific proposals, and adding comments in an annex. Russia's armies in Turkey were losing effectives rapidly. She was not prepared for a general war, nor was any ally in sight in case one should break out. She was therefore ready to make considerable concessions. | https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/russo-turkish-4.htm |
PR can do only so much; reputation management goes far deeper
Restoring a damaged brand takes a huge amount of work. You’re better off heading off unwise decisions at every staff level. Here’s how to avoid devastating blunders.
“You have a PR problem, because you have an actual problem.”
Leona Lansing, the fictional cable news executive on HBO’s “The Newsroom,” was on to something when she said that to a fellow exec.
The public has seen it—a lot:
Those organizations each resorted to a news conference, a press release, a catchy marketing slogan or TV interviews in the hope the problem would go away.
PR can minimize the damage caused by operational and managerial missteps, but it can’t fix stupid.
“I’ve often seen leaders think that a crisis can be resolved in a day or two, in the misguided belief that things can’t get worse,” said Stephanie Nora White, founder and managing partner of WPNT Ltd., an international communications consultancy. “While the acute phase of a crisis may end quickly, true change comes from living through it, as difficult as that may be. Much of the heavy lifting that will reveal the root cause and changes necessary to fix the problem usually don’t come until later and require real work and commitment.”
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Learn more about Ragan Insider. | https://www.ragan.com/pr-can-do-only-so-much-reputation-management-goes-far-deeper/ |
SEO or Search Engine Optimization has changed itself more than every other marketing medium over the past few years. Through a sequence of algorithmic expansion, SEO or search engine optimization has also continued as one of the establishments of a flourishing algorithmic strategy – SEO has entered into the mainstream Still, we should look into that...
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Cheerful new year to you all, Today being the first day in the year 2019, We bring to you, best tech quotes that shape the year 2018. Most tech lovers from around the world tag the just concluded year, 2018, as the year of surprises, From Mark Zuckerberg’s declaration in Congress, attempting to clarify the goals and what Facebook is all about to Brian Acton, asserting how he sold is users’ privacy to a bigger advantage.
According to the report collated by wired.com, Below are the tech quotes that shaped the year 2018.
1. “The red line is miles behind us now. It’s no longer in sight.”
—Helen O’Neill, Crispr expert, after the first Crispr’d babies were born. November 29
3. “Avoid at ALL COSTS any mention or implication of AI. Weaponized AI is probably one of the most sensitized topics of AI—if not THE most. This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google.”
—Fei Fei Li, an AI pioneer at Google, in an email to colleagues about the company’s controversial work on a Defense Department initiative called Project Maven. Published May 30
4. “I live with a beginner’s mind. I didn’t realize two weeks ago I was going to buy Time.”
—Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce and now the owner ofTime. September 17
5. “I would rather spend time with the people that are 100 percent aligned with what I want to do and the person that’s most aligned with what I want to do is me.”
—Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital, explaining the turmoil at his firm. September 20
6. “Nothing is ever real until he sends the tweet.”
—A member of the Trump administration, natch. November 13
7. (tie) “Senator, we run ads.”
—Mark Zuckerberg, in congressional testimony, explaining what the company actually does. The phrase quickly became a punchline at Facebook. April 10
8. “Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company.”
—Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, explaining why he can’t explain notifications on a device made by Apple. December 11
9. “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
—Sanofi, the maker of Ambien, responding to claims by Roseanne Barr that the drug may have inspired a Twitter rant. May 30
10. “We are now facing not just a technological crisis but a philosophical crisis.”
—Yuval Noah Harari, surely the most-read author in Silicon Valley, in conversation with Tristan Harris, surely one of the most influential voices of the past year. October 4
11. “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”
—Brian Acton, founder of WhatsApp, on his regrets. September 26
12. “A sense of open-ended mystery in reality and in life is absolutely core to being a good scientist or a good technologist or, for that matter, a good writer, a good artist, or just a good human being.”
—Jaron Lanier, the creator of VR, and now one of the philosophers of the industry. October 14
13. “How long is the wait usually to, um, be seated?”
—Google’s AI-powered Duplex, in a jaw-dropping demonstration of just how far voice-recognition has come. May 8
14. “He was that kind of guy. You know, an asshole. But a really gifted one. Our asshole, I guess.”
—A coworker at Google about Anthony Levandowski, the controversial self-driving car engineer. Published October 22
Bottom Line
As we anticipate so abounding predicted surprises that should dominate the tech industry this new year 2019, Let us know if you any suggestion or quotes that you think should have been added to the above list. Once again, Happy New year.
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Olaotan Richard Ceo Aims Digital Network Speaks On 5 Powerful Tips To Digital Marketing Success
Digital marketing is unarguably one of the most effective and strategic marketing tools that the internet has brought to our doorstep. Businesses all over the world are churning in millions and even billions in returns each year. Digital Expert Richard Olaotan, the CEO of Aims Digital Network, gives some powerful and winning business tips for digital marketing.
1. Visual Elements
Everyone is attracted first by what they see. Having visual elements in business is key because people can only buy what they see. And on the average, a prospective client has got to see your product or service ad about seven times before they make a purchase. Whether it is your business logo, mascot, color theme or font you are choosing, the whole idea is to catch the attention of the audience, while also maintaining that attention enough for them to remember your brand. When advertising on social media, visual creativity is key. You must, at all times, ensure that whatever it is you are putting out there is as relevant as it is eye-catching. Your digital ads must appeal to the aesthetics of viewers and will be remembered. Using images that have consistent aesthetic and gives your campaign that familiarity every time it pops up is key.
2. Invest wisely
Truth is there are several digital marketing tools and services out there, but not all of them will create the same level of impact you desire for your kind of business. So, take time to analyze your business and the service or product you wish to put out there, the age demographic you are targeting, and the location too. Afterward, you can go through the various digital marketing platforms available and select the ones that will most effectively achieve what you desire.
3. Understand the buyer process
If you can understand the journey of a buyer, you will know what marketing strategy to present at each stage. Through buyer analytics, you can deduce the actions a visitor takes throughout your website, and use this information garnered to make the buying process easier for them. For instance, Google analytics gives user history that can help you better understand where they are in their buying phase.
4. Understand your target audience
Before delving into employing digital marketing tools, it is highly advised that you have a clear understanding of who you are targeting to make your bulk purchasing audience. Everyone is a potential buyer of your product or service; however, an age range or designated people of certain classes are the best benefactors of your product or service. Those are your target audience, and in digital marketing, you engage marketing tools strategically to send unique ads to this audience.
5. Analyze your social media metrics
To see the digital marketing tool that is most effective for your product or service, Olaotan Richard advises that you analyze your data and tie it back to the direct result it produces. The best SEO company in Chicago or anywhere else would first help you find what promotes engagements for your business niche. With their finding, they can easily suggest which tool or ad style is most effective for you.
Business
Here is Why You Should Use Web Content Filtering
In today’s hyperconnected era, the internet has become critical for your business performance. It allows your staff members to seek information, collaborate, and share files in real-time. There are also many web-based platforms that can simplify almost any aspect of your business operations, from bookkeeping to project management.
However, do your employees always use the internet the way they should?
To take a break from their complex daily activities, even your most diligent employees will surf the web, share videos, and quickly scan their social media accounts.
Even though taking a selfie and posting it on Instagram or responding to a friend request on Facebook takes only a few seconds, stats say that these activities may harm the overall workplace performance and cause greater costs. According to Office Team, employees spend 5 hours weekly on non-work activities, which may lead to a worrying loss of $15.5 billion in lost productivity.
One of the most effective solutions to this problem is web content filtering.
Web Content Filtering Defined
When you’re filtering online content, you’re using a piece of software to identify and exclude any forms of inappropriate or dangerous content for your company. These tools recognize character strings that, if matched, indicate that the content is not appropriate for your organization. These could be suspicious files, spammy website content, pornographic content, and even social networks.
Now, let’s see what the benefits of web content filtering are for your business.
Tightened Network Security
The number of cyberattacks is growing. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that this trend will die down in the next few years. Namely, today’s online hacks have evolved, which makes them harder to predict and recognize.
Above all, most of them target small businesses. Research says that more than 70% of companies that are hacked are SMBs. The reason for that is simple – small businesses still don’t understand the importance of cybersecurity and are not equipped to fight sophisticated online threats.
One of the most frequent types of cyber threats is phishing attacks. The hacker’s goal is to deceive a user to steal their valuable data. This form of online breaches involves a myriad of tactics that are carried out through emails, social networks, IM platforms, etc. Some well-versed cybercriminals even build fake sites that look trustworthy and then ask users to provide their sensitive data.
Unsurprisingly, employees’ negligence is the greatest cybersecurity risk. Most of them will click on spammy ads, odd links, and download files from unreliable resources without thinking about the consequences of these activities.
This is where web filter solutions help. Namely, they provide services like information control, URL filters, traffic control, proxy control, behavior analyses, and online bandwidth management to prevent infected files from reaching your employees’ inboxes. And, even if an employee receives a malicious file or link, web filters will instantly block their access to such content.
Greater Workplace Productivity
Social networks are often being referred to as workplace productivity killers.
Still, is banning them a good option? Probably not.
First, this may hurt employee satisfaction and indicate that you don’t trust them enough.
Second, social networks are important for building brand awareness. When reposted on your company’s profile, your employees’ behind-the-scenes photos and videos may help you humanize your brand.
However, web content filtering lets you set stricter rules on what kind of content should be accessed at work. You don’t have to block social networks, but you can always filter out not-suitable-for-work (NSFW) websites, such as online shopping platforms, as well as gambling, torrent, gaming, or entertainment sites.
Maintaining Brand Reputation
Your employees’ lack of knowledge may not only hurt your network’s security, but also ruin the reputation your company has been building for years. Just remember that U.S. Airways’ social media manager accidentally published an X-rated photo on the company’s Twitter account. Even though they reacted fast by deleting the photo and apologizing, they still received lots of negative press.
Therefore, web content filtering may be one of the most effective ways to maintain a spotless brand reputation in the digital world packed with spam. URL filtering and real-time monitoring of online activities will reduce the disasters caused by employees misusing the internet, such as publishing offensive content, illegal file downloads, or publishing inappropriate content on your corporate accounts.
Conclusions
The power of web content filtering goes far beyond improving cybersecurity. This is one of the most effective ways to limit your employees’ access to non-work sites and, in this way, increase their productivity and prevent them from sharing any inappropriate content.
Sure, to get the most out of this strategy, don’t forget to educate your employees. They need to know how their use of the internet impacts the overall image of the organization. Most importantly, they should be aware of the major cyber threats and know what to do if they come across them.
Hope this helps!
Business
5 Tips to Improve Customer Experience
One of the biggest challenges that a lot of Australian enterprises are struggling with is the question of how to improve your overall customer experience without changing too much of their current business model. The reason why this is so important is due to the fact that a customer experience tends to be the number one reason why people return to your business and there’s an estimate that it’s five times cheaper to retain a customer than gain a new one. In order to make all of this work to your benefit, here are five tips to improve your overall customer experience.
1. Simple navigation
From the moment people enter your website, they need to be able to discern what is what and where they should go next. Some people make a mistake of presenting website visitors with too many clickable elements and information early on, in fear that they won’t be able to see all that their website has to offer. The problem is that this only makes it harder for people to make up their minds. One study shows that the more option you present a person with, the less likely they are to actually make a choice. With that in mind, make sure to let them explore your domain one step at a time.
2. Listen to customer feedback
The next thing that you should consider when you decide to improve customer experience is asking people what they want. Sometimes you don’t even have to ask, seeing as how people might already be actively complaining about what your business lacks. So, check out some reviews and social media comments with your brand mentions in order to see what people want. Other than this, polls and surveys can also be a great source of information and you should never neglect this vast potential. This way you can get the answers on questions that you find relevant, thus gaining actionable information instead of raw data.
3. Look for professional help
In the past, entrepreneurs, especially those running digital businesses had to face all of these ordeals on their own. Nowadays, on the other hand, both locally and globally, it’s quite easy to find affordable professional help. For instance, as an entrepreneur behind an NSW-based enterprise, you can just look up management consulting firms from Sydney and schedule a meeting. Due to the fact that these agencies specialize in improving your company’s interaction with its customers, the improvement to the customer experience is both immediate and easily noticeable.
4. Be consistent
The next thing you need to understand is the concept of nostalgia and the fact that people tend to be emotionally entangled with familiarity. In order to exploit this phenomenon to your own advantage, you need to learn how to become more consistent. For this to work, your brand needs to have its own identity and even if you decide to change a thing or two in order to stay in touch with the time, this change shouldn’t be too drastic. People don’t usually react positively to change, especially if it’s drastic or sudden. For your content marketing, make sure that you have the same people behind it all the time.
5. Don’t be too pushy
There’s a saying that if you love something, you should let it go. The same principle applies in the business world, as well. You see, by being too aggressive with your post-sale follow up you’ll scare people away. People are always interested in what they need and rarely in what others need from them. The fact that you want them to come back means nothing to them, however, if you make a good first impression, once they need you, they’ll be sure to come back.
Conclusion
As you can see, each of the above-listed tips is fairly easy to implement and it doesn’t require you to deviate too far from the path that you’re already on. In other words, you gain quite a bit without having to make unnecessary sacrifices or compromises. This is a clear win-win scenario and a great boost for your business model. | https://techcribng.com/15-best-tech-quotes-that-dominated-the-year-2018/ |
In the material world you may have fire extinguishers and intruder alarms. You need to consider the electronic equivalent in the Cyber World.
Cyber security and the protection of information can be a challenge for companies of all sizes. It is important to note that hackers are not the only threat. Modern businesses rely heavily if not totally on their computers and a computer does not have to be online to be open to abuse. Having so said, any system on the internet for services such as online marketing, sales, administrative functions, account management, credit card processing, etc. is particularly vulnerable.
Any intrusion that disrupts any of your business activities can, in addition to loss of turnover, lead to brand and reputation damage, issues with regulation, shareholder/director dissatisfaction, and ultimately financial loss.
All Businesses are faced with an increasing number of cyber threats including some of the following:
Completing the on-line proposal form will do two things: | http://bgi.uk.com/cyber-risk-management/insurance-crm/ |
Cazarin is a web design firm committed to principles of communication, collaboration, connection, and community. To make things happen on behalf of our clients, we adopt a synergistic approach to the world of internet marketing by offering several helpful, business-building tactics and techniques that will make your brand increasingly visible. Some of the strategies we're skilled in offering include social media optimization, link building, online reputation management, content creation, and mobile optimization. If you're interested in facilitating long-term success and a growing body of loyal customers, Cazarin is the company to call. Our team is comprised of brand specialists, developers, geeks and dreamers who are passionate about thinking big and realizing the client's objectives. | https://www.10bestdesign.com/firms/2015/january/cazarin/ |
Insight 213: Qatari Foreign Policy and the Exercise of Subtle Power08 Oct 2019
Small states are generally assumed to be on the receiving end of power in the international arena rather than a source of it. But, from the late 1990s to mid-2013, when Sheikh Hamad Al Thani ruled the country, Qatar became endowed with a form of power that did not conform to either traditional conceptions of “hard power”, or “soft power”, rooted in the attraction of norms, or even a combination of the two, “smart” power. Qatari foreign policy then comprised four primary components: hedging, military security and protection, branding and hyperactive diplomacy, and international investments. Combined, they bestowed Qatar with a level of power and influence far beyond its status as a small state and a newcomer to regional and global politics. This form of power, consisting of often behind-the-scenes agenda setting, can be best described as “subtle power”.
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By Mehran Kamrava
That Qatar, in the latter years of the rule of former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (r. 1995–2013), was able to create a distinct niche for itself on the global arena, that it played on a stage significantly bigger than its stature and size warranted, that it emerged as a consequential player not just in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula but indeed across the Middle East and beyond all bespeak its possession of a certain type and degree of power. By definition, that power cannot be “hard” or “soft” power, or their combination, “smart” power. Flush with inordinate wealth, Qatar could be easily thought of as endowed with economic power, which the country certainly had then and still does. But there was more to Qatar’s international standing and its place and significance within the world community than simple economic power. At least insofar as Qatar is concerned — and perhaps for comparable countries with similar sizes, resources, and global profiles, such as Switzerland and Singapore — a different conceptualisation of power may be more apt. From the late 1990s to 2013, Qatar may be said to have acquired for itself what may best be viewed as “subtle power”. This paper examines what subtle power is and how Qatar has deployed it.
No form of power lasts forever, and subtle power is no exception. When Sheikh Hamad stepped down from power in June 2013, his son and successor, Sheikh Tamim, began pursuing a deliberately different foreign policy strategy that both reoriented his country’s international relations and slowly put an end to its subtle power.
Varieties of power
There are four key components to subtle power (see Table 1). The first involves safety and security as guaranteed through physical and military protection. This does not necessarily involve force projection and the imposition of a country’s will on another through coercion or inducement. This sense of security may not even be internally generated but could come in the form of military and physical protection provided by a powerful patron — say, the United States. It simply arises from a country’s own sense of safety and security. Only when a state is reasonably assured that its security is not under constant threat from domestic opponents or external enemies and adversaries can it then devote its attention and resources to building up international prestige and buying influence. A state preoccupied with setting its domestic house in order, or paranoid about plots by domestic or international conspirators to undermine it, has a significantly more difficult time trying to enhance its regional and global positions than a state with a certain level of comfort about its stability and security. The two contrasting cases of Iran, whose intransigent regime is under constant threat of attack from Israel or the United States, and that of Qatar, which is confident of US military protection but aggressively pursues a policy of hedging, are quite telling.
Table 1. Key elements of subtle power
Source Manifestation
Physical and military protection >> Safety and security
Marketing and branding efforts >> Prestige, brand recognition, and reputation
Diplomacy and international relations >> Proactive presence as global good citizen
Purchases and global investments >> Influence, control, and ownership
A second element of subtle power is the prestige that derives from brand recognition and developing a positive reputation. Countries acquire a certain image as a result of the behaviours of their leaders domestically and on the world stage, the reliability of the products they manufacture (especially automobiles and household appliances), their foreign policies, their responses to natural disasters or political crises, the scientific and cultural products their export such as movies, the commonplace portrayals of a country and its leaders in the international media, and the deliberate marketing and branding efforts they undertake. When the overall image that a country thus acquires is positive — when, in Nye’s formulation, it has “soft power” — then it can better position itself to capitalise on international developments. By the same token, soft power enables a country to ameliorate some of the negative consequences of its missteps and policy failures.
Sometimes a positive image builds up over time. Global perceptions of South Korea and Korean products is a case in point. Despite initial reservations by consumers when these products first broke into American and European markets in the 1980s, today Korean manufactured goods enjoy generally positive reputations in the United States and Europe. At other times, as in the cases of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, political leaders try to build up an image and develop a positive reputation overnight. They hire public relations firms, take out glitzy advertisements in billboards and glossy magazines around the world, buy world-famous sports teams and stadiums, sponsor major sporting events that draw world-renowned athletes and spectators from across the world, spare no expenses in putting together national airlines that consistently rank at or near the top, spend millions of dollars on international conferences that draw to their shores world leaders and global opinion-makers, and build entire cities and showcase buildings that are meant to rival the world’s most magnificent landmarks.
This positive reputation is in turn reinforced by a third element of subtle power, namely, a proactive presence on the global stage involving a deliberately crafted diplomatic posture aimed at projecting — in fact, reinforcing — an image of the country as a global good citizen. This is also part of a branding effort, but it takes the form of diplomacy rather than deliberate marketing and global media advertising. In Qatar’s case, this diplomatic hyperactivism was part of a hedging strategy, as compared to bandwagoning or balancing, that has enabled the country to maintain open lines of communication, if not altogether friendly relations, with multiple international actors that are often antagonistic to one another (such as Iran and the United States). What on the surface may appear as paradoxical, perhaps even mercurial, foreign policy pursuits was actually part of a broader, carefully nuanced strategy to maintain as many friendly relationships around the world as possible.
Not surprisingly, in the late 1990s and the early 2000s Qatar sought to carve out a diplomatic niche for itself in a field meant to enhance its reputation as a global good citizen, namely, mediation and conflict resolution. In a region known for its internal and international crises and conflicts, Qatar until recently had, largely successfully, carved out an image for itself as an active mediator, a mature voice of reason calming tensions and fostering peace. The same imperative of appearing as a global good citizen were at work in Qatar’s landmark decision to join NATO’s military campaign in Libya against Colonel Qaddafi beginning in March 2011. Speculation abounded at the time as to the exact reasons that prompted Qatar to join NATO’s Libya campaign. Clearly, as with its mediation efforts, Qatar’s actions in Libya were motivated by a hefty dose of realist considerations and calculations of possible benefits and power maximisation. But the value of perpetuating a positive image through “doing the right thing”, at a time when the collapse of the Qaddafi regime seemed only a matter of time, appears to trump other considerations.
The final and perhaps most important element of subtle power is wealth, a classic hard power asset. Money provides influence domestically and control and ownership over valuable economic assets spread around the world. This ingredient of subtle power is the influence and control that is accrued through persistent and often sizeable international investments. As such, this aspect of subtle power is a much more refined and less crude version of “dollar diplomacy”, through which regional rich boys seek to buy off the loyalty and fealty of the less well endowed. Although by and large commercially driven, these investments are valued more for their long-term strategic dividends than for their shorter term yields. So as not to arouse suspicion or backlash, these investments are seldom aggressive. At times, they are framed in the form of rescue packages that are offered to financially ailing international companies with well-known brand names. Carried through the state’s primary investment arm, the sovereign wealth fund (SWF), international investments were initially meant to diversify revenue sources and minimise the risk from heavy reliance on energy prices. The purported wealth and secrecy of SWFs has turned them into a source of alarm and mystique for Western politicians and has ignited the imagination of bankers and academics alike.
Qatar and the pursuit of subtle power
Qatar’s emergence as a significant player in regional and international politics was facilitated through a combination of several factors, chief among which were a very cohesive and focused vision of the country’s foreign policy objectives and its desired international position and profile among the ruling elite, equally streamlined and agile decision-making processes, immense financial resources at the hands of the state, and the state’s autonomy in the international arena to pursue its foreign policy objectives.
It is important to see what, if any, generalisable conclusions can be drawn from the Qatari example concerning the study of power and also small states. Insofar as power is concerned, the Qatari case demonstrates that traditional conceptions of power, while far from having become altogether obsolete, need to be complemented with other elements arising from new and evolving global realities. For some time now, observers have been speculating about the steady shift of power and influence away from its traditional home for the last 500 years or so — namely, the West — in the direction of the East. In Zakaria’s words, the “post-American world” may already be upon us. Whatever this emerging world order will look like, it is obvious that the consequential actions of a focused and driven wealthy upstart like Qatar cannot be easily dismissed. Even if the resulting changes are limited merely to the identity of Qatar rather than to what it can actually do, which they are not, they are still consequential far beyond the small sheikhdom’s borders. Change in the identity of actors — in how they perceive themselves and are perceived by others — can lead to changes in the international system. Qatar may not have re-drawn the geostrategic map of the Middle East — and whether that was what it indeed sought to do is open to question. But its emergence as a critical player in regional and global politics is as theoretically important as it was empirically observable.
Qatar’s location in an ever-changing and notoriously unpredictable region introduced several imponderable variables. Clearly, one of the primary reasons for Qatar’s ability to exercise subtle power in the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s was the regional context: Iraq was both internationally isolated and marginalised and simply incapable of exerting much power beyond its own borders; Iran was not in a much better position and could only buy the loyalty of non-state actors near and far; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE were all saddled with stale and ageing leaderships that had neither the wherewithal nor the desire to exert regional leadership; and revenues from gas and oil sales only kept rising. Qatar, in other words, was enjoying a fortuitous “moment in history.”
The regional context had already begun to change by the time the chief architects of Qatar’s subtle power departed from the scene in 2013. The 2011 Arab uprisings jolted the Saudi leadership into action, prompting them to take the lead in a counter-revolution of sorts to reverse the tide of the Arab Spring in order to ensure the survival of their own and Bahrain’s monarchies. In Syria and Iraq, the Arab Spring, whose early manifestations Qatar so triumphantly capitalised on, turned into a nightmare of a religious extremism that put Al-Qaeda to shame. By 2015, with political leadership having effectively passed into the hands of a younger and more restless generation in both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and the UAE rallied other Arab allies to join them in a relentless (though not fully successful) military campaign in Yemen — the most direct and violent form of hard power — despite continuing, and drastic, drops in the price of oil and gas in global markets.
Qatar’s young emir, only in his early 30s, found his country in a regional environment that was decidedly different from the one his father had enjoyed in his final years of rule. This evolving regional context shaped emir Tamim’s decision not to actively pursue policies that foster subtle power. Thus, after 2013, Qatar’s subtle power came to an end.
About the author
Mehran Kamrava is Professor and Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including, most recently, Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (Cornell University, 2018); Inside the Arab State (Oxford University Press, 2018); The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (Yale University Press, 2016); The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd ed. (University of California Press, 2013); and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 5.
Referring to two highly popular American television shows, van Ham makes the following observation: “As long as America presents the world with its Desperate Housewives and Mad Men, it seems to get away with policy failures like Iraq.” Peter van Ham, Social Power in International Politics (London: Routledge, 2010), 164.
Consumers tend to form attitudes towards products based on perceptions of the products’ country of origin, and, vice versa, their perceptions of products originating from a particular country tend to influence their attitudes towards that country. There are “structural interrelationships between country image, beliefs about product attitudes, and brand attitudes.” C. Min Han, “Country Image: Halo or Summary Construct?” Journal of Marketing Research 26, (May 1989): 228.
See, Mehran Kamrava, “Mediation and Qatari Foreign Policy,” Middle East Journal 65, No. 4 (Autumn 2011): 1–18.
Peter Beaumont, “Qatar accused of interfering in Libyan affairs,” Guardian, 4 October 2011, 22.
Reuters, “Qatar’s Big Libya Adventure,” Arabianbusiness.com, June 13, 2011; Andrew Hammond and Regan Doherty, “Qatar hopes for returns after backing Libyan winners,” Reuters.com, 24 August 2011.
A number of studies have empirically demonstrated that the sizes of SWFs have often been grossly exaggerated. See, for example, Jean-Francois Seznec, “The Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds: Myths and Reality,” Middle East Policy 15, No. 2 (Summer 2008): 97–110; Jean-Francois Seznec, “The Sovereign Wealth Funds of the Persian Gulf,” in The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf, ed. Mehran Kamrava (New York, Columbia University Press, 2012), 69–93; and, Christopher Balding, “A Portfolio Analysis of Sovereign Wealth Funds,” in Sovereign Wealth: The Role of State Capital in the New Financial Order, eds. Renee Fry, Warwick J McKibbin, and Justin O’Briens (London: Imperial College Press, 2011), 43–70.
Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).
Richard Ned Lebow, A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 442.
Mehran Kamrava, Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015), 165.
Mehran Kamrava, “The Arab Spring and the Saudi-Led Counterrevolution,” Orbis 56, No. 1 (Winter 2012) 96–104. | https://mei.nus.edu.sg/publication/insight-213-qatari-foreign-policy-and-the-exercise-of-subtle-power/ |
VP of Marketing and Sales, Harlem Globetrotters
Sunni Hickman is the creative powerhouse behind the Harlem Globetrotters 2021 relaunch. Orchestrating a team of hand-picked specialists, she ushered the iconic brand through a renewed focus on Black culture, baller life and social justice, engaging new and existing audiences with contemporary updates to the team’s look, games, and cultural commitments. Prior to joining the Globetrotters as the VP of Marketing and Sales, Hickman led an extensive career in entertainment brand marketing, including roles with Herschend Family Entertainment and The Dollywood Company.
Delivered in a case study format, the session will share how Sunni Hickman, VP of Marketing and Sales for the Harlem Globetrotters, brought in masters of basketball culture, Black excellence, and live show punch to create an entirely new Globetrotters experience. She’ll share how you can apply similar rebranding tactics to drive renewed loyalty and engagement with your target audience. | https://www.sloansportsconference.com/people/sunni-hickman |
What is cyberwarfare, and how can you protect your business against it?
Cyberwarfare is an ongoing digital conflict between two or more nations or actors. It’s a new type of warfare that’s constantly evolving, making it a difficult threat to protect against. Businesses are often the target of cyberattacks, as they can be used to gain access to sensitive information or cripple critical infrastructure. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to defend your business against cyberwarfare. In this blog post, we’ll explore what cyberwarfare is and how you can safeguard your organization against it.
What is cyberwarfare?
Cyberwarfare is a term used to describe the use of digital tools and tactics in order to achieve a political or military goal. It’s a relatively new concept, as the first recorded cyberattack took place in 1988. Since then, the nature of cyberwarfare has evolved considerably, making it a potent threat to businesses and other organizations.
Effectively, cyberwarfare is a type of warfare that’s fought in the digital realm. Tactics used in cyberwarfare can include everything from hacking and data theft to website defacement and DDoS attacks.
Why are businesses targeted?
Businesses are often targeted by cyberattacks because they hold valuable information that can be used for financial gain or to damage the company’s reputation. Additionally, businesses typically have more resources than individuals, making them a more attractive target for attackers. Businesses can also be used as a way to gain access to other organizations or critical infrastructure.
What form can it take?
Cyberwarfare can take many different forms, depending on the attackers’ goals. Some common examples of cyberattacks include:
Hacking: This involves accessing and manipulating data without permission. Hackers may target businesses in order to steal sensitive information, such as customer data or trade secrets.
Data theft: This is similar to hacking, but specifically refers to the unauthorized access and theft of data. Attackers may steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers or passwords.
Website defacement: This is where an attacker hacks a website and changes its contents, usually for political reasons.
DDoS attacks: This is when an attacker floods a website with requests, causing it to crash or become unavailable to legitimate users.
What are the consequences of an attack?
The consequences of a cyberattack can vary depending on the type of attack and the targets involved. However, some common consequences include financial loss, damage to reputation, and loss of critical data or infrastructure. In some cases, cyberwarfare can even lead to physical damage or loss of life.
How can you protect your business?
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect your business against cyberattacks. Some basic cybersecurity measures include:
Implementing strong security controls: This includes using firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and data encryption to make it more difficult for attackers to gain access to your systems.
Creating a security policy: This should outline how employees are supposed to handle sensitive information and should be reviewed and updated regularly.
Training employees: Employees need to be aware of the risks of cyberattacks and how to protect themselves and the company.
Regularly updating software: This includes keeping your antivirus software up-to-date and installing patches for known vulnerabilities.
Backing up your data: This can help you recover your data in the event of a cyberattack.
Conclusion
Cyberwarfare is a growing threat to businesses and other organizations. However, by taking some basic precautions, you can reduce your risk of being targeted by an attack. Remember that the best defense is a good offense, so make sure you have a comprehensive cybersecurity plan in place. Thanks for reading!Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV : | https://www.nyasatimes.com/what-is-cyberwarfare-and-how-can-you-protect-your-business-against-it/ |
Corps de l’article
1.
About a quarter of a century ago, the concept of “intertextuality” sounded as intellectually sharp and as promising all over the international world of the humanities as I imagine the word “intermediality” must sound in the ears of German scholars today (for the interest in “media” and “materialities” of communication is much more of a specifically German phenomenon than German colleagues seem to imagine). And what does the shift of fascination from “intertextuality” to “intermediality” indicate ? Perhaps we can say that the long vanished enthusiasm for Intertextuality marked the peak and the near end of a time when the paradigm of the “readability of the world” dominated the Humanities without any competition. Regardless of whether they opted, in a more tradition-oriented style, for “hermeneutics” or, with more modernist ambitions, for “semiotics,” all scholars in humanities, during the 1970s and 1980s, shared the—hardly ever mentioned—premise that whatever object they would consider worthy of their attention had to be dealt with as a “text.” This premise had generated the subsequent expectation that the different parts making up the objects/texts in question referred to each other within the rules of one or the other “grammar,” a grammar whose understanding would allow the observer to decipher the very objects/texts in question as surfaces, and that all these surfaces would ultimately yield some meaning. Music or food, behavior or painting, machine or plant—there was nothing, in the heydays of intertextuality, that did not look like a text to us, a text that, based on a grammar, would carry a meaning. At the same time, it was the much cherished utopian dream of the humanists, twenty or thirty years ago, to bring together all these different “types of texts”—music-“texts” and food-“texts,” behavior-“texts” and even linguistic texts—in some meta-grammar of culture that we somehow imagined to become the equivalent of a cosmology.
2.
Seen from an historical angle, there was a hidden legacy of intellectual repression behind those humanistic dreams of universal readability and of multiple grammars. The motif of “readability” had first emerged at the dawn of Western modernity, when men abandoned the self-referential idea of inhabiting a cosmos that they had considered to be the work of divine creation and began to think of themselves as the eccentric observers of a world that was an ensemble of material objects. This very shift produced the subject/object-paradigm within which the subject would think of himself (or herself) as a disembodied entity capable of conveying meanings to the objects constituting the world. To the disembodied subject-interpreter of early Modernity, the world of objects must indeed have looked like a book. It was not before the early 19th century that the world-observing and world-interpreting Subject became obsessively self-reflexive; following a proposal by Niklas Luhmann, we can distinguish the early modern Subject as a “first order observer” from a 19th century “second order observer” who was privileged (or condemned) to observe himself or herself in the act of observation. One of many consequences stemming from the new and seemingly unavoidable habit of self-observation was the re-discovery of the human body and of the human senses as a condition of self-observation, a condition which, since early Modernity, had been bracketed by the subject’s self-image as a disembodied entity. If, however, the senses and sensual perception began to matter again, this implied that, as long as the world continued to be regarded “as a book”, this book was—metaphorically speaking—a book whose materiality could no longer be overlooked. And yet, we all know that there was no corresponding scholarly interest in the “materialities of communication” during those 19th century decades when the second order observer became an institutionalized epistemological condition. Why did the new epistemological framework and the direction of scholarly interest not converge ? I believe what explains this astonishing—although hardly ever mentioned—non-contemporaneity between the emergence of the second order observer and a lack of interest in the material aspects of culture, was the growing importance of hermeneutics, i.e. the growing importance of the philosophical reflection on the conditions of interpretation within the academic disciplines called “the Humanities and Arts,” “les sciences humaines,” or “die Geisteswissenschaften.” When, around 1900 and under the decisive influence of Wilhelm Dilthey, the University of Berlin began to officially conceive of the disciplines united in the “Philosophische Fakultät” as “Geisteswissenschaften,” it was both understood that interpretation would be the one and only core practice for all of them and that this concentration on interpretation would exclude any attention given to material or empirical frame conditions. Thus, the Geisteswissenschaften were born under the condition of an enforced distance from the dimension of empirical objects and facts. Or, from a different perspective: the cross-disciplinary elevation and canonization of Hermeneutics extended the dominance of the paradigm of the “readable world” within the academic humanities, and it did so in a non-academic environment that had long abandoned the idea of “the world as a book.”
3.
My mini-history carries a potential answer to the initial question about the reasons for the shift of fascination from “intertextuality” to “intermediality,” as it has occurred during the past decades (especially in Germany). I think we can safely assume that this shift was part of a development within which Hermeneutics and the paradigm of the “readable world” lost their total control over the humanities. Now this transformation does by no means imply that interpretation has become irrelevant or obsolete altogether. On the contrary, the humanities would miss a perhaps unique opportunity of intellectual complexification if they simply tried to replace the traditionally exclusive concentration on meaning and interpretation through an equally exclusive concentration on media and materialities. Therefore, independently of the specific direction for which one decides to opt within the future conceptual development of the humanities, it is imperative to avoid any return to a monistic paradigm. In a way, the step from a monism based on the concept of meaning to a bipolarity between meaning and “materiality” is a legacy that connects us with the emergence of the second order observer. We should thus avoid two extremes: we should avoid all those media-concepts that can be subsumed under purely hermeneutic premises; but we should also avoid those other media concepts that tend to completely absorb the dimension of meaning. To give an example: in the long run, Friedrich Kittler’s provocative (and quite beautiful) aphorism “there is no software” (to be translated into: “there is no meaning dimension”) misses the contemporary opportunity for the humanities of reaching a higher level of complexity, and it does so as much as the traditional hermeneutic paradigm of the “world as a book.” To produce and preserve intellectual complexity is the reason why we should conceive of the relation between “sense” and “materiality,” between “meaning” and “media,” as a relation of tension or of oscillation—and not as a relation of complementarity or as a relation of mutual exclusiveness. In my own, more recent work, I have proposed to transform this tension into the configuration of an irreducible oscillation between meaning production and production of presence, and I imply that “production of presence” refers to the physical and spatial conditions of tangibility which, knowingly or not, we develop with each object that we encounter. But there is no need to further pursue this proposal within our critical discussion of the concept of “intermediality.”
4.
At this point, I should confess that I have yet to understand the absolute need and pertinence of the concept of “intermediality”—especially if we resist the temptation of abandoning the new paradigm of a tension between meaning and materiality in favor of a new monism. On the other hand, not to know exactly why a concept should be absolutely pertinent does not mean to condemn the use of this concept as impossible. Once a paradigm of tension between meaning and materiality (meaning and presence) is established, understood and institutionalized, I see two different levels on which the concept of “intermediality” can turn out to be more or less helpful. We may call these two levels “level of transposition” and “level of interference.” “Level of transposition” would refer to the classical question of how certain motifs, meanings, or plots undergo transformations as they become articulated in different media: in books or on the stage, in films or in TV-features. In this context, I think it would be a good idea to assume a continuity on the meaning-side (i.e. to assume—counterfactually—that one self-identical meaning remains unchanged throughout all the different media in which it becomes articulated), and to proceed to the question what different effects the different tensions between this stable meaning and different types of materiality / different media can possibly produce. The “level of interference,” in contrast, would deal with those cases where the dimension of meaning is in a complex relationship with not just one but with several dimensions of materiality at the same time. Perhaps we should simply describe this difference between the “level of transposition” and the “level of interference” as a difference between different degrees of descriptive preciseness that a scholar wants to invest. For, if we only take time to look closely enough, we will find very few cases, if any, where meaning will oscillate with just one dimension of materiality. A book, for example, is not meaning and materiality—but meaning and pages, characters, a cover, (very often) pictures, impressions of touch, impressions of smell, and more.
5.
Once this relatively modest configuration of (“theoretical”) concepts and dimensions is established around the concept of “intermediality”, I think one should abandon the expectation that it will yield sweeping results of grandiose theoretical elegance. Rather, this configuration invites for a long overdue change in intellectual style. For should the Germanico-academic fascination with media and materialities of communication ever want to transcend, finally, its—still likeable but no longer so new—state of youthful enthusiasm, it is high time to switch from an intellectual style of very general statements to a culture of patient historical and empirical research. Yes, it would be interesting to find out, for example, how our daily use of electronic mail has changed and will change our ways of writing and even of thinking. But, frustrating as this may be, convincing answers to questions of this type will not come from just playing with concepts that are as broad as those which made authors like Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, or Giorgio Agamben famous. Rather, it will come from detailed empirical (and certainly often enough: quite cumbersome) research. Personally, I do not find the prospect of such empirical research without a prospect of philosophical redemption terribly appealing. But for those who have written the big word of “intermediality” on their banners, it seems to be the one worthwhile—and perhaps even the one legitimate—future that I can see. A programmatic goal for such empirical research could be to find out whether there exists any specific configuration of “intermedial” phenomena within the cultures of the Iberian peninsula and of South America (or within any other specific national, regional, or historical cultures). For while it is hard to imagine that one culture could be “more intermedial,” in general, than any other culture, there is some reason to expect that certain historical periods and certain genres may have pushed certain possibilities of the intermedial dimension further than others.
6.
This said, I will insist, one final time, on what I think is the one single most important condition to keep in mind for any future work in the dimension of intermediality. It must avoid, on the phenomenal side of “media” or “materiality,” any concepts that are not clearly and indeed ontologically separated from concepts of meaning. As soon as we subsume “genres,” “discourses,” or “cultures” under the concept of “media,” we have given up the new, post-hermeneutic and post-semiotic intellectual complexity that the humanities have a chance to reach. The same is true for a widespread tendency to allow or even to indulge in easy analogies. Speaking, for example, of “filmic metaphors,” means that we “read” films as if they were “texts,” and once we do so, we have abandoned the one dimension of epistemological difference that can make Intermediality interesting. Rather than assuming that something like “filmic metaphors” does exist, one should ask what phenomenon, in a film, could possibly have a status of heteronomy comparable to the status of a metaphor, i.e. of a visual association overriding a conceptual structure, in a text. So what is most required, perhaps, is an active eagerness to find new problems without any guaranteed solutions, an eagerness to spot problems which would have to replace the now prevailing attitude of always acting as if easy, almost formulaic solutions were at hand. Under this condition, “intermediality” could be a (slightly pompous) word for a truly challenging intellectual future. Otherwise, without that passion for the truly unknown, it will most likely degenerate into yet another field of academic complacency.
Parties annexes
Note biographique
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht est Albert Guérard Professor in Literature à Stanford University. Il est également directeur d’études associé à l’EHESS à Paris, professeur attaché au Collège de France, et membre de l’American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Ses recherches portent principalement sur l’histoire des littératures nationales en langues romanes, mais aussi sur la littérature allemande. Il a récemment publié After 1945: Latency as Origin of the Present (2013).
Notes
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Niklas Luhmann, “Sthenographie”, in Niklas Luhmann et al. (eds.), Beobachter. Konvergenz der Erkenntnistheorien?, Munich, Fink, 1990, p. 119-137.
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Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Production of Presence. What Meaning Cannot Convey, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2004, p. 21-59.
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Friedrich Kittler, “There is No Software”, Stanford Literature Review, vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1992, p. 81-90.
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See Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Production of Presence : What Meaning Cannot Convey. | https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/im/2012-n20-im01243/1023524ar/ |
This collection of literary works, strategically aligned with each Common Core State Standard, takes the national rhetoric regarding literary text complexity and makes it actionable, observable, and replicable.
Moreover, since the demands of the Common Core State Standards require that students have the ability to engage in careful, sustained interpretation of a variety of texts (across genres, eras, and cultures). These texts diminish teacher planning time which would otherwise be consumed with locating appropriate texts and guarantees that students are exposed to reading processes with a greater emphasis on the particular over the general with strategic attention to individual words; syntax; intended meaning; and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they are read. | https://educationalepiphany.com/product/complex-texts-for-teaching-and-assessing-the-common-core-state-standards-literary-texts-grade-9-workbook/ |
How to Write a Commentary
What is a Commentary?
A commentary is a detailed, line-by-line “explication” of a text. From Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, several commentaries were commentaries were written on a wide variety of ancient texts, each with the aims of (1) explaining difficult aspects of the text for novice readers, (2) resolving textual ambiguities, and (3) exploring the philosophical, literary, or historical questions raised by the text. For similar reasons modern “critical editions” of ancient texts are also often accompanied by commentaries.
The Structure of a Commentary
Commentaries can differ significantly in organization and focus depending on the commentator’s interest, whether it is the literary character of a text, its historical transmission, its connection with other ancient literature, or its philosophical content. But whatever its focus, any commentary will have something like the following structure:
- The commentary will begin by introducing the text, giving its overall context, aims, and reception by ancient and modern readers.
- The commentator then proceeds slowly through the text, section-by-section, line-by-line, (a) clarifying the meaning of and (b) raising questions about the text, (c) making cross-references to other relevant passages, and (d) discussing alternative interpretations of the text.
- Each new section to be discussed is introduced by a lemma, an abbreviated quotation of a line of the text that introduces the issues to be discussed.
- Paraphrase is discouraged; claims referenced from the text are cited by page and line number (e.g., Stephanus pages for Plato’s works, Bekker lines for Aristotle’s)
Requirements for Your Philosophical Commentary
You will be writing a philosophical commentary. This means that your commentary will be dedicated to explicating the philosophical content of the text you choose. Here are some features your philosophical commentary must include:
- Avoid paraphrase. It will be more helpful to your reader if you explain the meaning of a passage, rather than put the same claim into different words.
- Break down the text into its logical components; dedicate a section of your commentary to each component of the text.
- Consider alternative readings. Many sentences will be ambiguous. Pointing out the ambiguities and discussing the implications of alternative readings will help you and your reader understand the text.
- Reference other passages, especially those which illuminate the context of the passage or contain more in depth discussion of ideas referenced in the text.
- Keep the context in focus. What is the author’s project in the local context of the passage? What is the project of the containing work as a whole? How ought the context influence our interpretation of the text on which you are commenting? | https://www.roberthowton.com/course-hylomorphism/assignments/commentary/ |
Available Online April 2018.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2991/mehss-18.2018.81How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- the translator’s subjectivity; intertextuality; literary translation.
- Abstract
- The theory of intertextuality emphasizes that the formation of a text can not be a closed or self-sufficient system. All the texts are related to one another, producing textual interaction, where texts always point to the past, reflect the present, and find the traces in the relevant text. Therefore, a translator, acting as a reader, an interpreter and an author, plays a decisive role in the transmission of the meaning of the original text and the generation of the translation. However, from the original text to the target text, as different translators have different cultural backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, etc, their understanding of the original meaning, inheritance of the original and the creative development of the original text differ greatly. Through the comparative study of the two English versions of lantern riddles in A Dream of Red Mansions, this paper explores the translator’s subjectivity in the process of translation with the application of intertectuality.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license. | https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/mehss-18/25895534 |
Taking inspiration from something old for the sake of creating something new does not mean lack of originality; on the contrary, it means giving credit to the original piece and paying tribute to its creator. This is precisely what this article focuses on – enhancing the meanings of a new literary work by taking inspiration from a classic play through intertextuality. Consequently, we are going to look at two texts, i.e. The Collector (1963), a novel by John Fowles at the level of which there are many intertextual elements from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610/11), inasmuch as one can only assume the author’s inspiration for his novel and, most importantly, its characters. This is not an interpretation of Fowles’ novel, it rather focuses, firstly, on the importance of intertextuality in general and its relevance to Fowles’ novel, and, secondly, on the relationship between the characters in Shakespeare’s play and the ones in The Collector. Two protagonists in each text, Clegg and Caliban respectively, provide ample opportunity to understand the use value of intertextuality given their striking resemblance and the (nick)name coincidence. Moreover, they also show how the two texts, even if totally different in terms of genre, are linked to each other. | http://msa.usv.ro/2022/08/31/character-intertextuality-interplay-tempest-w-shakespeare-collector-j-fowles/ |
The fundamental at the germinal stage of consideration of this author is due to his charisma in the Malay literature realm. Based on the readings of S. Othman Kelantan’s preceding novels, it is commonly observed that S. Othman Kelantan has a propensity to “reiterate” several components or subjects such as themes, questions, plots, backgrounds and characters in the short story, to his novels later. It is assumed that déjà vu or already written effect allows S. Othman Kelantan a distinctive authorship mode in building up his creativity. Hence, this study addresses three chief issues; what are the changes that take place in the novel, how they are transformed and why they are created by the author. These three dimensions promote insights into the form of Malay authorship depicted by Kelantan, S. O. The purpose of the previous texts in reference to the production of later texts concerned a series of processes that formed the “new” work not only in terms of manifestation, but also the facet of meaning that was affected by the style authorship of S. Othman Kelantan.
Research Questions
There are two important research questions in this study. Firstly, what are the principles of intertextuality that will be implemented in the studied? Secondly, how to perceive the creative process of Kelantan, S. O.?
Purpose of the Study
This study accentuates elements of the relationship between short and novel from the intertextual dimension. Ergo, the objectives are as follows:
To identify the principles of intertextuality relevant for usage as an analytical framework based on the text studied.
To demonstrate the creative process of S. Othman Kelantan intrinsically employing the principles of intertextuality.
To establish the factors that impact the manifestation of “textual relationships” in S. Othman Kelantan’s novels.
Research Methods
“Intertextuality” is derived from the Latin word intertexto, which means mesh yarn during weaving. It is broadly argued that the theory of intertextuality was the consequence of the early work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussur. Saussure engages a debate on the fundamental question of language signals that are classified in two categorizations specifically concept (signified) and sound image (signifier). Semiotics is particularly efficient for analysing abstract and absurd literatures. With the feeling that there was a flaw in the structuralism of Saussure’s concept of evaluating Russian works in his day, motivated Mikhail Bakhtin to exploit another approaches to interpret Russian works. Bakhtin started to implement the features of language onto the literary genre around the 1920s ( as cited in Sikana, 2006). In his book of The Dialogic Imagination, Bakhtin employs the dialogic concept. The fundamental of Bakhtin’s “dialogue” theory is that past speech impacts today’s or there is no speech without any connection with another speaker.
Julia Kristeva is a figure who further develops Bakhtin’s dialogical theory. Kristeva no longer employs the phrase “dialogic” but instead replaces it with “intertextuality”. The theory of “intertextuality” was first coined by Kristeva to a French literary audience in the 1960s through her writing “
Kristeva’s intertextual formulation proposes that the creative process of an author commences from the earlier text by some process of alteration, absorption or excerpts. Kristeva regards a text created from multiple of earlier texts, elaborating on three elements: what was the process happened, how it was done, and why it was created by the author. As claimed by Kristeva, an individual’s creativity is determined by the external and internal components that govern their thinking. In the upper structure of the mind, all external elements accumulate, while the inner elements reside within the subordinate structure of the mind. External elements comprise author experience, culture, religion, beliefs, traditions, social aspects, history, morals, education, philosophy, attitudes, ideologies and everything else that promotes the production of a literary work. While the interior elements engage the aesthetics, imagination and illusion of the author him/ herself.
The mixture of the two ingredients, external and internal, will affect the creativity of the author throughout the process of creation. External factors will impact his/her thinking in terms of theme selection, background and character appearances in the creative works created by the writer. Even though intertextuality interprets a work as a reflection of the author, everything in the mind of the author flows into his/ her literature in the course of the creation process since the external elements cannot be removed during the process of creation. As a matter of fact, all of these features are absorbed into the text created by the author and can be traced in his/ her writing. This process is vital to observe the function and significance of the presence of the text ( Safei, 2009).
Short-story shift to a novel concerns a process of creating new works not only in terms of form but also meaning. This phenomenon is regarded as one of the idiosyncrasies of Kelantan, S. O’s authorship that tends to experiment specifically with the recreation of the early texts and his persistence in introducing the theme of Malay life in Kelantan in majority of his works.
Findings
It is recognized that S. Othman Kelantan is in the process of transferring and developing the story of “Me and My son” into a new form titled
The textual work or text input by Kelantan, S. O. through the expression of thoughts and methods of storytelling in the Ruang Perjalanan (1989) is obviously different from his other conventional novels. S. Othman Kelantan adopts his knowledge in philosophy and Islam to strengthen the subject of the story ( Abdullah, 1993b). As being mentioned by Safei ( 2009), such novels are complicated to comprehend through one reading and are not favoured by readers who commonly opt for conventional storytelling. Nevertheless, preparatory thinking is needed to help the audience to react to the novel and to avoid boredom ( Zakaria, 1990). It is proposed that these details are ground-breaking from the context of creativity, challenging innovation and eventually delivering a different meaning than the original text.
Kelantan ( 2003) has mentioned that in
“… And that is what I am waiting for to urge it with thoughts of the past in the integrated education system; true knowledge, philosophical debate and Islamic guidance. Real knowledge emerges from the Qur’an, philosophical debate grows from the depth of faith and understanding of the absolute truth based on all the teachings of Islam…” (p. 91).
“… While in the integrated education system, knowledge is still beneficial to people in all fields including science and technology, but human beings still have a sense of humanity that can associate with one another in the true philosophical manner, and that truth is founded from the teachings of Islam. Therefore, that knowledge is not just favourable but it also positions people in the proper disposition; and that truth develops from the Qur’an, which is the truth of Islam…” (p. 93).
S. Othman Kelantan is observed as embodying a philosophy of science. As Safei (2010a, 2010b) proposes, literature is not only “beautiful” in terms of language and style of storytelling but also the knowledge it offers. Kelantan S. O. works to blend knowledge in the “issue impacts” and delivery mode. S. Othman Kelantan’s knowledge of science is highly related to his personal background as a scholar. His vast wisdom of philosophy field has been employed in writung this novel. In fact, it is admitted by himself that all the learning and ideas about philosophy acquired during his university years are introduced in this novel.
The character “me” was established by the author as “a retired literature lecturer” (p. 22). The academic competency of “me” is used to make “My son realizes” (p. 13). The “me” background is from a group of humanities researchers blended with some religious studies experience as a result of Shah Waliullah al Dihlawi’s thought (p. 236). Motivated from this mixed disciplines, “me” is portrayed as seeking to awaken “My son”. Meanwhile, the character of “My son” is reflected by the author as a smart child (p. 41), being educated in the science stream since childhood and grew up in the culture of Western secular education and philosophy (p. 39) reaching to a point of total abandonment of religious role ( Zakaria, 1990).
In the opinion of Tahir ( 1990), The novel
This novel is actually a dream; the dream of a “will” (future) world that has the potential to happen, in fact, it is already taking place now. In point of fact, a “will” (future) started from the current age that is being observed and experienced by the author. Hence, the anticipated future may happen at least three centuries from now, or it may be earlier than that. Advancement is not only evident in the realm of science and technology but also in the elements of socialization and human life itself ( Tahir, 1990).
Chapter three onwards suggests to be the beginning of a dream (not as a dream but a flashback). The entire story is a world, a life that “will” (future) happen. After that, the whole thing is solely a dream. The author never suggested that he was awake from his dream. This proposed the readers that the whole story is a dream comprising “me”, “my son” and my “grandchild”. This is apparent when the author mentions that “I will dream like this” (p. 32).
Tahir ( 1990) felt that this technique unveiled the author’s weakness. The usage of the words “will” such as “I will dream”, “I will say” and “my son” will answer” entails that something that will occur in the future or may not happen at all. At the same time, the author’s daily notes are not futuristic in nature. Nevertheless, S. Othman Kelantan appears to contradict this claim by mentioning that this dialogue technique is exploited as an argumentative tool for signifying their truth without using external action. Additionally, Kelantan, S. O. mentions that, the difficulty for a writer like him in creating a work lies in the techniques of presentation and language creation. This is because readers will be wearied of the same writing techniques as well as restricting the creativity of an author.
With reference to Islamic literature, it is an evaluation that refers to the demands of Islam in working ( Sikana, 2006). As a holistic religion, Islam too promotes the world of literary creation in accordance with the teachings,
The writings produced by non-Muslims is regarded as a “Islamic work”. Hence, it is proven that
S. Othman Kelantan is observed to insert several
“… Is it not the position of my grandson in this world serves as development of the human mechanism in the form of thesis, antithesis and then synthesis? My son creates an early thesis as a man. His wife forms the existence of antithesis. That thesis and antithesis is what produces synthesis and the outcome is my sweet and educated grandchild. As a synthesis, my grandchild, of course, inheriting both his/ her parents in terms of looks and beauty, as well as their intelligence ... ”(p. 105).
It is through this thesis, antithesis and synthesis that the character of “me” becomes the motivating force of the story. This was acknowledged by the author of
Islamic purity is promoted by S. Othman Kelantan through the wisdom and capacity of “me” character who balances traditional and modern religious and secular knowledge and attempts to portray that in the synthesis phase that man will succeed if Islam is acquired, appreciated and acclimatized accordingly with the times. Through this novel, the author elaborates the role of Islam in the future of science and technology. This proves that the author believes that religion is the best alternative to modern times ( Zakaria, 1990).
Conclusion
It is generally suggested that throughout this novel, S. Othman Kelantan desires to produce a novel that is futuristic and disparate from other conventional novels. Through its intertextual work, the novel is equipped with more Islamic values and philosophy. The intertextual processes convened in the
References
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Cite this article as: | https://www.europeanproceedings.com/article/10.15405/epsbs.2020.03.03.65 |
I believe that this flashcard set was meant for 6th grade vocabulary. I'm not sure cause it wasnt saved and I just restored it. If u know for sure, then name it correctly. Thanks!
Terms in this set (26)
subduction
the process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench adn back into the mantle at a convergent boundary.
transform boundary
A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions.
mid-ocean ridge
An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary.
deep ocean trench
A deep valley along the ocean floor where oceanic crust slowly sinks back into the mantle.
plate tectonics
The theory that pieces of Earth's lithospheric plates are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle.
plate
A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental crust and oceanic crust.
mercalli scale
A scale that rates earthquakes according to their intensity and how much damage they cause at a particular place.
seismogram
The record of an earthquake's seismic waves produced by a seismograph.
richter scale
A rating of an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of the earthquake's seismic waves.
seismograph
An instrument used to record and measure seismic waves.
crust
The layer of rock that forms Earth's outer surface.
mantle
The layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core.
core
The inner most layer of Earth that has great pressure.
asthenosphere
The soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats on.
lithosphere
A rigid layer made of the uppermost part of the mantle.
divergent boundary
The place where two plates diverge.
convergent boundary
Where two plates come together or converge.
surface wave
A type of seismic wave that forms when P waves and S waves reach Earth's surface.
S-wave
Seismic wave that vibrates side to side as well as up and down.
P-wave
Seismic wave that compresses and expands like an accordian.
epicenter
The point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquakes' focus.
focus
The point beneath Earth's surface where rock breaks under stress and causes an earthquake.
earthquake
The shaking that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface.
strike slip fault
A type of fault in which rocks on either side move past each other sideways with litttle up or down motions.
reverse fault
A type of fault where the hanging wall slides upward; caused by compression in the crust.
normal fault
A type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward, caused by tension in the crust.
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the movement of a fluid, caused by differences in temperature, that transfers heat from one part of the fluid to another.
asthenosphere
the soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats
lithosphere
a rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust.
continental drift
the hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth's surface.
convergent boundary
a plate boundary where two plates move toward each other.
subduction
the process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
magnetic stripes
magnetized stripes that hold a record of reversals in Earth's magnetic field; it occurs on the ocean floor
sea-floor spreading
the process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor
rift valleys
a deep valley that forms where two plates move apart.
divergent boundary
a plate boundary where tow plates move away from each other
transform boundary
a plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions
fault
a break in Earth's crust where slabs of rock slip past each other
pangaea
the name of the single landmass that broke apart 200 million years ago and gave rise to today's continents
plates
a section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust.
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Last month, Doug Wiens, professor of earth and planetary science in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and two students were cruising the tropical waters of the western Pacific above the Mariana trench aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson.
The trench is a subduction zone, where the ancient, cold and dense Pacific plate slides beneath the younger, lighter high-riding Mariana Plate, the leading edge of the Pacific Plate sinking deep into the Earth’s mantle as the plates slowly converge.
Taking turns with his shipmates, Wiens swung bright-yellow ocean bottom seismometers and hydrophones off the fantail, and lowered them gently to the water’s surface, as the ship laid out a matrix of instruments for a seismic survey on the trench.
The survey, which Wiens leads together with Daniel Lizarralde of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will follow the water chemically bound to the down-diving Pacific Plate or trapped in deep faults that open in the plate as it bends. The work is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Scientists have only recently begun to study the subsurface water cycle, which promises to be as important as the more familiar surface water cycle to the character of the planet.
Hydration reactions along the subducting plate are thought to carry water deep into the Earth, and dehydration reactions at greater depths release fluids into the overlying mantle that promote melting and volcanism.
The water also plays a role in the strong earthquakes characteristic of subduction zones. Hydrated rock and water under high pressure are thought to lubricate the boundary between the plates and to permit sudden slippage.
Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 9, working day and night, watch-on and watch-off, the Thompson laid down 80 ocean bottom seismometers and five hydrophones.
The hydrophones, which detect pressure waves and convert them into electrical signals, provide less information than the seismometers, which register ground motion, but they can be tethered four miles deep in the water column where the bottom is so far down seismometers would implode as they sank.
The Thompson sailed over some of the most famous real estate in the world, the Mariana trench, which includes the bathtub-shaped depression called the Challenger Deep, to which Avatar director James Cameron plans to plunge in a purpose-built one-man submersible called the Deep Challenger.
Seven miles down, the pressure in the Deep is 1,000 atmospheres (1,000 times the pressure at sea level on dry land) or roughly 8 tons per square inch. Seismometers, says Wiens, only go down four miles.
The trench is created by the subduction of some of the world’s oldest oceanic crust, which plunges underneath the Mariana Isalnds so steeply at places that it is going almost straight down.
After the Thompson returned to Guam and Wiens flew back to St. Louis to resume his less romantic duties as chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth began to sail transects above the matrix of seismometers, firing the 36-airgun array on its back deck.
The sound blasts reflected from the boundaries between rock layers a few miles beneath the ocean floor were picked up by an five-mile-long “streamer,” or hose containing many hydrophones, towed just beneath the surface behind the ship.
This was the “active” stage of a seismic survey with a “passive” stage yet to come.
After the seismic survey, the Langseth returned to pick up 60 seismometers, leaving behind 20 broadband seismometers and the hydrophones that will listen for a year to the reverberations from distant earthquakes, allowing the seismologists to map structures as deep as 60 miles beneath the surface.
In the meantime Patrick Shore, a research scientist in earth and planetary science, and two Washington University students had set sail across the ocean in a tiny vessel, the Kaiyu III, to install seismometers on the Mariana islands that will also supply data for the “passive” stage of the survey.
When water is carried into the mantle, the mantle rock undergoes a low-temperature metamorphic process in which it is oxidized and hydrolyzed to form serpentinite, a rock named for its scaly surface.
Water plays a completely different role at depth than it does on the surface of the Earth. Water infiltrating the mantle through faults hydrates the mantle rock on either side of the fault.In a low temperature process called serpentinization, it transforms mantle rock such as the green periodotite into serpentinite, a rock with a dark scaly surface like a serpent’s skin.
As the slab plunges yet deeper, dehydration reactions release water, which at such great pressure and temperature exists as a supercritical fluid that can drift through materials like a gas and dissolve them like a fluid. The fluid rises into the overlying mantle where it lowers the melting point of rock and triggers the violent eruptions of magma that created the Mariana Islands, to which Shore was sailing.
“We think that much of the water that goes down at the Mariana trench actually comes back out of the earth into the atmosphere as water vapor when the volcanos erupt hundreds of miles away,” Wiens says.
The scientists will map the distribution of serpentinite in the subducting plate and overlying mantle, by looking for regions where certain seismicwaves travel more slowly than usual.
Tracing the water cycle within subduction zones will allow the scientists to better understand island-arc volcanism and subduction-zone earthquakes, which are among the most powerful in the worldBut the role of subsurface water is not limited to these zones. Scientists don’t know how subduction got started in the first place, but water may be a necessary ingredient. Venus, which is in many ways similar to Earth, has volcanism but no plate tectonics, probably because it is bone dry. | https://source.wustl.edu/2012/03/seismic-survey-at-the-mariana-trench-will-follow-water-dragged-down-into-the-earths-mantle/ |
A convergent boundary is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other causing a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a plane where many earthquakes occur, called the Benioff Zone. These collisions happen on scales of millions to tens of millions of years and can lead to volcanism, earthquakes, orogenesis, destruction of lithosphere, and deformation. Convergent boundaries occur between oceanic-oceanic lithosphere, oceanic-continental lithosphere, and continental-continental lithosphere. The geologic features related to convergent boundaries vary depending on crust types.
Plate tectonics is driven by convection cells in the mantle. Convection cells are the result of heat generated by radioactive decay of elements in the mantle escaping to the surface and the return of cool materials from the surface to the mantle. These convection cells bring hot mantle material to the surface along spreading centers creating new crust. As this new crust is pushed away from the spreading center by the formation of newer crust, it cools, thins, and becomes denser. Subduction initiates when this dense crust converges with the less dense crust. The force of gravity helps drive the subducting slab into the mantle. Evidence supports that the force of gravity will increase plate velocity. As the relatively cool subducting slab sinks deeper into the mantle, it is heated causing dehydration of hydrous minerals. This releases water into the hotter asthenosphere, which leads to partial melting of asthenosphere and volcanism. Both dehydration and partial melting occurs along the 1000 °C isotherm, generally at depths of 65 – 130 km.Some lithospheric plates consist of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. In some instances, initial convergence with another plate will destroy oceanic lithosphere, leading to convergence of two continental plates. Neither continental plate will subduct. It is likely that the plate may break along the boundary of continental and oceanic crust. Seismic tomography reveals pieces of lithosphere that have broken off during convergence.Geology of the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean evolved in the Mesozoic from the Panthalassic Ocean, which had formed when Rodinia rifted apart around 750 Ma. The first ocean floor which is part of the current Pacific Plate began 160 Ma to the west of the central Pacific and subsequently developed into the largest oceanic plate on Earth.The tectonic plates continue to move today. The slowest spreading ridge is the Gakkel Ridge on the Arctic Ocean floor, which spreads at less than 2.5 cm/year (1 in/year), while the fastest, the East Pacific Rise near Easter Island, has a spreading rate of over 15 cm/year (6 in/year).Guam
Guam ( (listen); Chamorro: Guåhån [ˈɡʷɑhɑn]) is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States, along with the Northern Mariana Islands. The capital city of Guam is Hagåtña and the most populous city is Dededo. The inhabitants of Guam are called Guamanians, and they are American citizens by birth. The indigenous Guamanians are the Chamorros, who are related to other Austronesian natives of Eastern Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Guam has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983.
In 2016, 162,742 people resided on Guam. Guam has an area of 210 square miles (540 km2; 130,000 acres) and a population density of 775 per square mile (299/km2). In Oceania, it is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia. Among its municipalities, Mongmong-Toto-Maite has the highest population density at 3,691 per square mile (1,425/km2), whereas Inarajan and Umatac have the lowest density at 119 per square mile (46/km2). The highest point is Mount Lamlam at 1,332 feet (406 m) above sea level. Since the 1960s, the economy has been supported by two industries: tourism and the United States Armed Forces.The indigenous Chamorros settled the island approximately 4,000 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, while in the service of Spain, was the first European to visit the island, on March 6, 1521. Guam was colonized by Spain in 1668 with settlers, including Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic Jesuit missionary. Between the 16th century and the 18th century, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons. During the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21, 1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10, 1898. Guam is among the 17 non-self-governing territories listed by the United Nations.Before World War II, there were five American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean: Guam and Wake Island in Micronesia, American Samoa and Hawaii in Polynesia, and the Philippines.
On December 7, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, who occupied the island for two and a half years. During the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to beheadings, forced labor, rape, and torture. American forces recaptured the island on July 21, 1944; Liberation Day commemorates the victory.An unofficial but frequently used territorial motto is "Where America's Day Begins", which refers to the island's proximity to the International Date Line.How the Earth Was Made
How the Earth Was Made is a documentary television series produced by Pioneer Productions for the History channel. It began as a two-hour special exploring the geological history of Earth, airing on December 16, 2007. Focusing on different geologic features of the Earth, the series premiered on February 10, 2009, and the 13-episode first season concluded on May 5, 2009. The second season premiered on November 24, 2009, and concluded on March 2, 2010.Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc
The Izu–Bonin–Mariana (IBM) arc system is a tectonic-plate convergent boundary. The IBM arc system extends over 2800 km south from Tokyo, Japan, to beyond Guam, and includes the Izu Islands, Bonin Islands, and Mariana Islands; much more of the IBM arc system is submerged below sealevel. The IBM arc system lies along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea Plate in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is the site of the deepest gash in Earth's solid surface, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.
The IBM arc system formed as a result of subduction of the western Pacific plate. The IBM arc system now subducts mid-Jurassic to Early Cretaceous lithosphere, with younger lithosphere in the north and older lithosphere in the south, including the oldest (~170 million years old, or Ma) oceanic crust. Subduction rates vary from ~2 cm (1 inch) per year in the south to 6 cm (~2.5 inches) in the north.
The volcanic islands that comprise these island arcs are thought to have been formed from the release of volatiles (steam from trapped water, and other gases) being released from the subducted plate, as it reached sufficient depth for the temperature to cause release of these materials. The associated trenches are formed as the oldest (most western) part of the Pacific plate crust increases in density with age, and because of this process finally reaches its lowest point just as it subducts under the crust to the west of it.
The IBM arc system is an excellent example of an intra-oceanic convergent margin (IOCM). IOCMs are built on oceanic crust and contrast fundamentally with island arc built on continental crust, such as Japan or the Andes. Because IOCM crust is thinner, denser, and more refractory than that beneath Andean-type margins, study of IOCM melts and fluids allows more confident assessment of mantle-to-crust fluxes and processes than is possible for Andean-type convergent margins. Because IOCMs are far removed from continents they are not affected by the large volume of alluvial and glacial sediments. The consequent thin sedimentary cover makes it much easier to study arc infrastructure and determine the mass and composition of subducted sediments. Active hydrothermal systems found on the submarine parts of IOCMs give us a chance to study how many of earth's important ore deposits formed.List of tectonic plates
This is a list of tectonic plates on the Earth's surface. Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere. The plates are around 100 km (62 mi) thick and consist of two principal types of material: oceanic crust (also called sima from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon and aluminium). The composition of the two types of crust differs markedly, with mafic basaltic rocks dominating oceanic crust, while continental crust consists principally of lower-density felsic granitic rocks.Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas) are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the western North Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. They lie south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea and east of the Philippines, demarcating the Philippine Sea's eastern limit. They are found in the northern part of the western Oceanic sub-region of Micronesia, and are politically divided into two jurisdictions of the United States: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and, at the southern end of the chain, the territory of Guam. The islands were named after the influential Spanish queen Mariana of Austria following their colonization in the 17th century.
Spanish navigators were the first Europeans to arrive in the early 16th century and eventually Spain annexed and colonized the archipelago with the capital in Guam. These were the first islands Magellan found after crossing the Pacific and the fruits found here helped the crew fight scurvy. The indigenous inhabitants are the Chamorro people. Archaeologists in 2013 reported findings which indicated that the people who first settled the Marianas arrived there after making what may have been at the time the longest uninterrupted ocean voyage in human history. They further reported findings which suggested that Tinian is likely to have been the first island in Oceania to have been settled by humans.Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest trench in the world. It is a crescent-shaped trough in the Earth's crust averaging about 2,550 km (1,580 mi) long and 69 km (43 mi) wide. The maximum known depth is 10,984 metres (36,037 ft) (± 25 metres [82 ft]) at the southern end of a small slot-shaped valley in its floor known as the Challenger Deep. However, some unrepeated measurements place the deepest portion at 11,034 metres (36,201 ft). By comparison: if Mount Everest were placed into the trench at this point, its peak would still be over two kilometres (1.2 mi) under water.At the bottom of the trench the water column above exerts a pressure of 1,086 bars (15,750 psi), more than 1,000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. At this pressure, the density of water is increased by 4.96%, so that 95.27 of any unit of volume of water under the pressure of the Challenger Deep would contain the same mass as 100 of those units at the surface. The temperature at the bottom is 1 to 4 °C (34 to 39 °F).The trench is not the part of the seafloor closest to the center of the Earth. This is because the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not a perfect sphere; its radius is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) smaller at the poles than at the equator. As a result, parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are at least 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) closer to the Earth's center than the Challenger Deep seafloor.
In 2009, the Marianas Trench was established as a United States National Monument. Xenophyophores have been found in the trench by Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers at a record depth of 10.6 kilometres (6.6 mi) below the sea surface. Data has also suggested that microbial life forms thrive within the trench.Micronesia
Micronesia ((UK: , US: ); from Greek: μικρός mikrós "small" and Greek: νῆσος nêsos "island") is a subregion of Oceania, composed of thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with two other island regions: Polynesia to the east and Island Melanesia to the south; as well as the wider Austronesian peoples.
The region has a tropical marine climate and is part of the Oceania ecozone. There are five main archipelagos—the Caroline Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Line Islands, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands—along with numerous outlying islands.
Politically, the islands of Micronesia are divided between six sovereign nations: the Caroline Islands are divided between the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, the latter often shortened to "FSM" or "Micronesia" and not to be confused with the overall region; the Gilbert Islands and the Line Islands comprise the Republic of Kiribati, except for three of the Line Islands that are United States territories (Palmyra Atoll being noteworthy as the only current incorporated U.S. Territory); the Mariana Islands are in union with the United States, divided between the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; Nauru is a fully sovereign nation, coextensive with the island of the same name; and the Republic of the Marshall Islands is coextensive with that island group. Also noteworthy is Wake Island, which is claimed by both the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the United States, the latter having actual possession under immediate administration of the United States Air Force.
Human settlement of Micronesia began several millennia ago. There are competing theories about the origin(s) and arrival of the first Micronesians. The earliest known contact with Europeans occurred in 1521, when Spanish ships landed in the Marianas. The term "Micronesia" is usually attributed to Jules Dumont d'Urville's use of it in 1832, but Domeny de Rienzi had used the term a year previously.Oceanic trench
Oceanic trenches are topographic depressions of the sea floor, relatively narrow in width, but very long. These oceanographic features are the deepest parts of the ocean floor. Oceanic trenches are a distinctive morphological feature of convergent plate boundaries, along which lithospheric plates move towards each other at rates that vary from a few millimeters to over ten centimeters per year. A trench marks the position at which the flexed, subducting slab begins to descend beneath another lithospheric slab. Trenches are generally parallel to a volcanic island arc, and about 200 km (120 mi) from a volcanic arc. Oceanic trenches typically extend 3 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 mi) below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor. The greatest ocean depth measured is in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 11,034 m (36,201 ft) below sea level. Oceanic lithosphere moves into trenches at a global rate of about 3 km2/yr.Outline of oceanography
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Oceanography.Outline of plate tectonics
This is a list of articles related to plate tectonics and tectonic plates.Philippine Sea Plate
The Philippine Sea Plate or the Philippine Plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of the Philippine Mobile Belt, which is geologically and tectonically separate from the Philippine Sea Plate.
Philippine Sea plate is bordered mostly by convergent boundaries:
To the north, the Philippine Sea Plate meets the Okhotsk Plate at the Nankai Trough. The Philippine Sea Plate, the Amurian Plate, and the Okhotsk Plate meet at Mount Fuji in Japan. The thickened crust of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc colliding with Japan constitutes the Izu Collision Zone.
To the east, Philippine Sea Plate meets the Pacific Plate, subducting at the Izu-Ogasawara Trench. The east of the plate includes the Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin) and the Mariana Islands, forming the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc system. There is also a divergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the small Mariana Plate which carries the Mariana Islands.
To the south, the Philippine Sea Plate is bounded by the Caroline Plate and Bird's Head Plate.
To the west, the Philippine Sea Plate subducts under the Philippine Mobile Belt at the Philippine Trench and the East Luzon Trench. (The adjacent rendition of Prof. Peter Bird's map is inaccurate in this respect.)
To the northwest, the Philippine Sea Plate meets Taiwan and the Nansei islands on the Okinawa Plate, and southern Japan on the Amurian Plate.South Chamorro Seamount
South Chamorro Seamount is a large serpentinite mud volcano and seamount located in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc, one of 16 such volcanoes in the arc. These seamounts are at their largest 50 km (31 mi) in diameter and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) in height. Studies of the seamount include dives by the submersible dives (DSV Shinkai, 1993 and 1997), drilling (Ocean Drilling Program, 2001) and (International Ocean Discovery Program, 2016-2017), and ROV dives (2003, 2009).The seamount and its nearby peers were created by the movement of crushed rock, resulting from plate movement, upwards through fissures in the Mariana Plate. South Chamorro is the farthest of the mud volcanoes from the trench, at a distance of 85 km (53 mi), resulting in high-temperature flows rich in sulfate and methane. The seamount suffered a major flank collapse on its southeastern side, over which the present summit was probably formed. The summit supports an ecosystem of mussels, gastropods, tube worms, and others, suggesting that it is an active seeping region.
|Major|
|Minor|
|Other|
|Historical|
Tectonic plates of East and North Asia (Eurasian Plate-Pacific Plate Convergence Zone)
|Large|
|Small|
|Faults and rift zones|
|Trenches and troughs|
|Other|
This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by authors
(here).
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses. | https://howlingpixel.com/i-en/Mariana_Plate |
The lithosphere is divided in tectonic plates resulting from the decrease in temperature of the Earth since its formation: just as in a lava lake where the surface cools before the internal parts of the lake and cracks. The capacity of the asthenosphere to deform, allows the plates to be created at the mid ocean ridges location, to move slowly at the world surface, and to sink into the mantle, at the subduction zones.
We all can see the similarity between some continents’ coasts. Antoine Wegener (1880-1930) went farther and discovered identical fossils on the coasts of South America, Africa, India, the Antarctic, and Australia. This would be the case only if continents had been connected together in the past and had been separated later. Wegener therefore demonstrated the theory of plate tectonics and proposed the name « Pangea » for this ancient supercontinent. Did you know? Now you do!
But what happens along the plates limits?
Depending on the direction in which neighboring tectonic plates move, their boundaries converge or diverge. At the level of the ocean ridges, the convection movements of the mantle bring up hot rock from depth. When the pressure is low enough (as this is the case at lower depth), the rock melts and oceanic crust is created. In the subduction zones, the older oceanic plate has become denser and, driven by its own weight, it sinks into the less dense asthenosphere. We will come back to this…
Because indeed, on Earth, volcanoes are everywhere but not anywhere ! They are mainly located along the plates limits, and it is not by accident. Only the hotspots (like Hawaii or Reunion Island) contradict this rule and pop up in the middle of the plates. Why? We don’t really know but in this case, the magma comes from very deep : at the limit between the mantle and the core. Anyway, all the volcanoes are some kind of relief valves of the Earth releasing energy in the form of heat, from the Earth interior to the surface.
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Navigate this page:
Layers of the Earth
Oceanic-oceanic collisions.
Oceanic-continental collisions
Deep Ocean Trenches
Terrigenous (land-derived) sediments
Global positioning system
Chapter 10
Plate Tectonics
The planet's hard surface is relatively tin and composed of a series of interlocking rigid pieces,
plates
, that move atop a layer of hotter, more fluid material. The interior of the Earth is composed of several concentric
layers
. These layers can be divided in two ways - by their chemical composition or their physical properties. Earth is composed of three main layers: an outer crust (0-50 km), an intermediate rocky mantle (50-2900 km), and inner metallic core (2900-6378 km. The outermost layer,
the crust
, is relatively thin and includes all that we see on land or beneath the sea. Relative to the rest of the Earth, the crust is but a thin sheath covering the planet, much like the outer skin of an apple. The continental crust is less dense, thicker and composed of lighter minerals than oceanic crust. Like the portion of an iceberg that is hidden beneath the sea surface, the continents also have thick "root" of buoyant rock that keeps them sitting high above the underlying layer. Beneath the Earth's crust lies the
rocky mantle
, a thick layer of dense, sometimes semimolten rock, rich in iron and magnesium. A dividing line, called the
Mohorovicic discontinuity
, or simply the Moho, marks the division between the crust and mantle. Based on seismic wave data and rocks uplifted on land or collected at sea, it is believed that the mantes composition is similar to that of a mineral called peridiotite (a light to dark green silicate (SiO
2
) rock, rich in magnesium and iron). Below the mantle, some 2900 kilometers form
the surface
, is the
core
. Calculations from measurements of gravity, earthquake data, and the composition of meteorites suggest that the core is composed of a very dense metallic material, probably a mixture of iron and lead. Increasing temperature and pressure alters he physical state of Earth's internal layering. Laboratory experiments suggest that the temperature of the outer core hovers around 5000°C. Outside of the core, Earth's layers insulate the surface form its hot interior, like the lining of a thermos. Two important types of
seismic waves
are primary or P-waves and secondary or S-waves. Primary waves are compressional and pass through materials by jiggling molecules back and forth, parallel to the direction of travel. An important property of P waves is that as the density of the surrounding material increases, so does their speed. P waves can pass through both solids and liquids. Shear or secondary waves propagate by deforming a material or shifting the molecules from side to side. S-waves can pass through solids. By studying how both P-waves and S-waves travel through Earth, scientists can estimate the relative hardness or fluidity of Earth's internal layers (Prager & Early '00: 149-151).
Near the surface, the crust and upper mantle together form a rigid hard layer called the
lithosphere
. The lithosphere extends from the surface to a depth of approximately 100 km beneath the oceans and 100 to 200 km below the continents. Below the lithosphere, a relatively thin zone exists in which both P-waves and S-waves slow. This low-velocity layer, approximately 100 km thick, is called the
asthenosphere
. The slowing of seismic waves in the asthenosphere suggests that it is partially molten or fluid-like, able to deform plastically, something similar to tar or asphalt. Below the asthenosphere, the mantle appears to harden, but its exact nature remains uncertain. Seismic discontinuities, or changes in seismic wave speed, occur at depths of 410 and 670 kilometers within the mantle and are believed to reflect changes in mineral structure (not composition). The base of the mantle, the
core-mantle boundary
, a 5 to 50 kilometer-thick layer exists in which seismic velocities are also reduced. S-waves cannot pass through the outer part of the
Earth's metallic core
; therefore, it is believed that the outer portion of the core is liquid and the inner, solid.
Earth's magnetic field
is thought to derive from the planet's rotation about its axis and the subsequent motions of the outer, metallic, liquid core (Prager & Early '00: 151, 152).
Layers of the Earth
Earth's surface is divided into about
15 lithospheric plates
that are internally rigid and overlie the more mobile asthenosphere. The plate are irregular in shape, vary in size, and move relative to one another over the spherical surface. A single plate can contain oceanic crust, continental crust, or both.
They are continually in motion
, in relation to each other and to Earth's rotation. At their boundaries, the plates constantly jostle and grind against one another, creating huge mountain chains or deep-sea trenches. At the border of the plates are generated the majority of the world's earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. A
divergent boundary
occurs where two lithospheric plates are moving away from one another. The mid-ocean ridge system, the most extensive mountain chain on Earth, is a consequence of plate divergence. At the crest of a mid-ocean ridge. Lithospheric plates move apart and molten rock from deep within the planet wells upward. When it is beneath Earth's surface, molten rock is called magma; when it erupts or oozes out above ground, it is called lava. Magma is generally a mixture of melted or crystallized minerals an dissolved gases . It is typically less dense than surrounding materials, so buoyancy drive it upward. At a mid-ocean ridge, magma rises toward the surface and erupts onto the seafloor to create new ocean crust. Here, deep in the sea, when hot lava meets cold seawater, it cools very quickly and creates dark, glassy pillow basalts. The separation of plates at a mid-ocean ridge and the creation of new oceanic crust are called seafloor spreading (Prager & Early '00: 152, 153).
Seafloor spreading
occurs intermittently and at varying rates. In the Pacific Ocean, along the East Pacific Rise, new seafloor is created at a rate of approximately 6 to 17 centimeters per year. In contrast, in the Atlantic, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, spreading is slower, and estimated 1 to 3 centimeters per year. Variations in heat flow, the chemical composition of upwelled magma, and the structure of a ridge along its axis appear related to the spreading rate. At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a slow-spreading ridge, the magma is blocky, relatively viscous,
and forms a steep
, rocky terrain with a topographic low or valley along the rift axis. At the East Pacific Rise, a fast-spreading ridge, molten material is thinner, less viscous, and forms a flat, broad ridge with a topographic high at its center. Scientists speculate that beneath fast-spreading ridges there exists a narrow zone of high heat and melting. Seismic evidence and three-dimensional imaging suggest that 1 to 2 kilometers beneath the East Pacific Rise lies a thin horizontal layer of molten materials that feeds the spreading center At slow-spreading ridges the axis appears to be cooler, thicker, and subject to greater faulting and earthquake activity. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs smack through the middle of Iceland. Consequently, in Iceland scientists are availed an uparalleled look at the processes of rifting along a slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge. Rifting occurs by a slow widening and sinking at the ridge axis, until a breaking point is reached and fractures occur. Cracks being to form parallel to the rift, earthquakes jolt the region, and lava erupts through some of the fissures. Along the world's mid ocean ridges and their associated fracture zones are sites of active hydrothermal activity, known as deep-sea vents (Prager & Early '00: 153, 154).
New crust continually forms at the mid-ocean ridges, but Earth's size has not changed significantly for millions, if not, billions of years. Crust destruction occurs where two lithospheric or
tectonic plates collide
. There are essentially three types of collisions: (1)
Continental-continental collisions
. When two plates collide and each is composed of continental crust, towering mountains are created. When India crashed into Asia some 50 million years ago, the crumping and crashing of the edges of the plates created the towering Himalayan Mountains. (2)
Oceanic-oceanic collisions.
The Marianas Trench off the coast of the Philippine Islands in the Pacific Ocean is some 11 kilometers deep, the deepest site in the sea. Beneath the Marianas Trench two plates of oceanic crust are colliding, the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate. When two oceanic plates converge, usually the older, denser plate is driven beneath the younger, less dense plate. (As ocean crust ages and spreads away from a mid-ocean ridge, it cools and its density increases). However, exceptions do occur; the younger Caribbean plate is inexplicably being driven beneath the other, it is called subduction, and the area in
which this occurs is called a
subduction zone
. Ocean trenches are the surface expression of a subduction zone. During the subduction process, water deep within Earth is thought to be an important lubricating agent, allowing one plate to slide over another. Even so, the subduction of Earth's crust produces the planet's largest and most devastating earthquakes. These earthquakes and the associated deformation of the seafloor can also spawn towering tsunamis. Additionally, high temperature deep in the subduction zone melts the down-going slab and generates molten rock. Driven by buoyancy the hot magma flows upward through fractures in the overlying rock and can erupt at the surface to form a chain or arc of active volcanoes behind the subduction zone An arc of volcanoes known as the "Ring of Fire" rims the Pacific Ocean. Seventy-five percent of Earth's active volcanoes and most of the planet's earthquakes and tsunamis occur within the Pacific's infamous Ring of Fire. (3)
Oceanic-continental collisions
. Since oceanic crust is denser than continental crust, when the two collide oceanic crust is forced downward beneath continental crust. For instance, at the Peru-Chile trench the oceanic Nazca plate is being driven beneath the South American continent, part of the South American plate. Behind the subduction zone, great upheavals of the land and slow continuous uplift have created the lofty Andes Mountains. During collisions of oceanic and continental crust, or oceanic and oceanic crust, some of the sediment and rock on the down-going slab may be scraped off and pasted onto the overriding plate. The island of Barbados is built on a wedge of material scraped off the Caribbean plate as it dives beneath the South American plate (Prager & Early '00: 155-157).
Transform faults
are where two plates slide in opposite directions past one another. Across the mid-ocean ridges transform faults create numerous fracture zones. Shallow earthquakes are common along transform faults. The most famous - or infamous, as the case may be - transform fault is California's San Andreas fault. Here, the Pacific plate, which includes part of California, is moving approximately 1 to 6 centimeters per year northwest against the southeast moving North American plate, which includes the rest of the state. If plate motion continues, sometime in the distant future San Francisco and Los Angeles will reside at the same latitude. There are fixed places inside Earth's mantle that are unusually hot. Here, rising heat and erupting magma generate a series of volcanic features such as sea-mounts or volcanic islands that trace the movement of the plate over the hot spot. The Hawaiian Island chain is the most well- known product of a hot spot. As the Pacific plate moves over an underlying hot spot, the Hawaiian Island are created. Hawaii is a relatively recent hot-spot creation, but now a new submerged volcano, name Loihi, is forming to its southeast. By dating rocks on the island, scientists have determined that the Pacific plate has moved an average of 8.6 centimeters per year for at least 70 million years. A bend in the island chain suggests that some 40 million years ago, the movement of the Pacific plate changed direction, from north to northwest.
Hot spots
occur less commonly under the continents. The famous geysers, boiling mud pools, and steaming landscapes of Yellowstone National Park are thought to result from a hot spot underlying the North American continent. Hot-spot activity was five to ten times greater 100 million years ago (Prager & Early '00:157-159).
Plate motion
appears to be driven mainly by convection within Earth's mantle layer and pull from plate subduction. The asthenosphere, a thin layer in the upper mantle, is believed to be partly molten. Heat from deep within the planet is thought to cause very slow convection currents. The heat source for convection within the asthenosphere comes from deep in Earth's interior, fueled by the decay of naturally radioactive materials (e.g. uranium, plutonium, thorium) and heat from the early formation of the planet. Uneven heating causes thermal plumes to rise at midocean ridges and cooling near the surface creates descending plumes at subductin zones. In between, the asthenosphere moves horizontally from beneath a spreading center - a ridge - to a subduction zone - a trench. Friction between the lithosphere and the
asthenosphere acts like glue
, and the lithospheric plates are dragged along by the motion of the underlying asthenosphere. At subduction zones, gravity pulls the slabs of cold, dense oceanic crust down into the mantle (Prager & Early '00: 160, 161).
Deep Ocean Trenches
The
deepest trenches
occur in the Pacific: the Marianas, 10.9 km; the Tonga, 10.8 km, the Philippine, 10 km. Trenches are shallower where sediments spill into and pile up within the undersea crevasses: the Puerto Rico Trench, 8.6 km deep. Between the continents, trenches, and mid-ocean ridges lie broad, flat undersea plains speckled with underwater peaks and seamounts. This is the realm of the abyssal plain, the flattest region on Earth. Here, sediments raining down from above bury the rough, underlying volcanic terrain and form a smooth, low seafloor that averages about 3 to 5 kilometers in depth. In some areas, the abyssal plains are dotted with domes or elongated hills made up of volcanic rock with a thin veil of overlying sediment. Seamounts which were once active volcanoes, may rise steeply above the seafloor and occur singly, as a chain, or a in a cluster of peaks. Some seamounts are flat-topped. Along the edge of the ocean lies the continental margin, the interface between land and sea. Here the land begins to slope into the abyss, sediment flows form the continents offshore, and ancient rivers and underwater avalanches carve out deep submarine canyons. In some area, the land slopes gradually into the sea, forming a broad, flat shelf, while in other settings the transition is quick and narrow. The continental shelf, a flat brim bordering the ocean, averages about 60
kilometers in width
, though it can be as wide as 1000 kilometers in the Arctic Ocean or as narrow as a few kilometers along the Pacific coast of North and South America. At a depth of about 130 to 200 meters, the continental shelf steepens to form the continental slope. Sediments worn form the land pile up beneath the continental shelf and slope, and in some areas, huge submarine canyons cut deep submarine canyons into their surface, that act as chutes, transporting sediments from the land into the sea. The continental rise can extend into the deep ocean for hundreds of kilometers, reaching depths of some 4000 meters and the abyssal plains (Prager & Early '00: 163, 164).
Ocean
sediments
cover most of the seafloor, forming a geologic cloak that hides the dark underlying volcanic crust . Undersea mountain peaks appear as if snow-topped, while the ocean's edges are often lines with sparkling grains of sand. Marine sediments are particles of organic or inorganic matter that accumulate in the ocean in a loose, unconsolidated form. Depending on their size, sediments are called mud (0.001-0.032 mm) sand (0.063-2 mm) or gravel (2-10 cm). Mud can be further divided into clay (0.001-0.004 mm) and silt particles (0.004-0.063 mm). The size, shape, and density of a grain determines how it moves in the ocean. Over time compaction, crystallization and cementation can transform the sea's loose sediments into hardened rock. In the shallow sea and at its edges, sediments can accumulate relatively fast, on the order of 5 to 30 centimeters per 1000 years, and reefs can grow even faster, up to 10 meters per 1000 years. In the deep sea, however, where sediments rain down in an endless underwater snowfall, accumulation rates are very slow, on the order of 1 to 25 millimeters per 1000 years. It may take 50 years for an individual particle to descend form the surface to the seafloor. Due to the chemistry of the oceans, silica tends to dissolve near the surface and calcium carbonate in the deeper sea. For a biologic ooze to accumulate there must be a great abundance of organisms growing in the overlying water, and the depth and chemistry of the sea must be conducive to preservation (Prager & Early '00: 165, 177, 179).
Marine sediments are generally divided into four groups: glacial, terrigenous, siliceous, and calcareous.
Glacial sediments
, those associated with the frigid grip of ice, tend to accumulate mainly in a broad band of gravel encircling the shores of Antarctica. Other much small regions of glacial debris are found in the far north, for instance, just east of Greenland
Terrigenous
(land-derived) sediments
rim the continents are of particular abundance where rivers enter the sea.
Siliceous sediments
, primarily diatom and radiolarian oozes, occur in three distinct stripes, along the equator and at high latitudes, both north and south. The distribution of silica-rich sediment in the sea reflects mainly the depth and fertility of the overlying waters. In zones of upwelling, great quantities of siliceous shells rain down from above, and become part of the sediment. In deep regions red-brown clay coats the seafloor. The distribution of
calcium carbonate
in deep marine sediments differs from either silica or clay and coincides with the location of the mid-ocean ridges. It is the whitish, calcareous oozes that produce the "snow-tipped" peaks of the underwater realm. Silica tends to dissolve near the surface, calcium carbonate dissolves in the deeper sea. The increase in pressure and decrease in temperature with depth causes calcium carbonate to dissolve. On average, below about 4 to 5 kilometers, almost all calcium carbonate is dissolved. Consequently, on those areas of the seabed that rise above a depth of 4 to 5 kilometers, such as the peaks of undersea mountains, are blanketed by the white of millions of tiny calcium carbonate shell. The level at which complete dissolution of calcium carbonate occurs is shallower in the Pacific than in the Atlantic. In a core sample where the sediment layers are intact and undisturbed, younger sediments overlay older sediments. The thickness of a sediment layer is a measure of time and the process that produces it. The sediments near the bottom of a core will have been compressed more than those near the top. Mixing by marine organisms can blur layering (Prager & Early '00: 183, 184).
Sediment sampling
is often done with a towed dredge or a mechanical scoop dropped from a ship. Sediments may also be collected using SCUBA gear, submersibles, remotely operated vehicles, or a sediment trap. Sediment traps typically consist of an open funnel-shaped top attached to an underlying collecting up. These simple but effective devices are placed on the seafloor or hanging within the water and left over time to collect marine sediments as they rain down from above. The first major
seafloor coring
was done by the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and is now being accomplished by its successor, the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). Today, the ODP has drilled throughout the world's oceans, including in water depths of almost 6000 meters in the oldest part of the Pacific Ocean, and cores have reached some 2111 meters below the surface of the seabed.
Global positioning system
(GPS) lets scientists accurately map sampling sites in the ocean. Using one receiver on Earth's surface, the precision of GPS is on the order of meters. However, GPS does not work underwater, so positions must be located at the sea surface and then correlated to sites on the seabed (Prager & Early '00: 180, 181).
The Federal government did not largely regulate natural gas and oil exploration and development activities in the offshore regions of the United States from the 1880s, when
offshore oil production first began, through the mid-1900s. Today, there are around 4,000 platforms producing in Federal waters up to roughly 7,500 feet deep and up to 200 miles from shore. The offshore has accounted for about one-quarter of total U.S. natural gas production over the past two decades and almost 30 percent of total U.S. oil production in recent
years. Hydraulic fracturing is used after the drilled hole is completed. Fractures are created by pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure down a wellbore and into the target rock formation. Hydraulic fracturing fluid commonly consists of water, proppant and chemical additives that open and enlarge fractures within the rock formation. These fractures can extend several hundred feet away from the wellbore.
The proppants - sand
, ceramic pellets or other small incompressible particles - hold open the newly created fractures. The first use of hydraulic fracturing to stimulate oil and natural gas wells in the United States was in the 1940s. Coalbed methane production began in the 1980s; shale gas extraction is even more recent. The main enabling technologies, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have opened up new areas for oil and gas development, with particular focus on natural gas reservoirs such as shale, coalbed and tight sands. Hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling has turned previously unproductive organic-rich shales into the largest natural gas fields in the world. The Marcellus Shale, Barnett Shale and Bakken Formation are examples of previously unproductive rock units that have been converted into fantastic gas or oil fields by hydraulic fracturing. Experts believe 60 to 80 percent of all wells drilled in the United States in the next ten years will require hydraulic fracturing to remain operating. A variety of environmental risks are associated with offshore natural gas and oil exploration and production, among them such things as discharges or spills of toxic materials whether intentional or accidental, interference with marine life, damage to coastal habitats owing to construction and operations of producing infrastructure, and effects on the economic base of coastal communities (Mastrangelo '05).The use of hydraulic fracturing to open underground natural gas formations has a low risk of triggering earthquakes. There's a higher risk of man-made seismic events when wastewater from the fracking process is injected back into the ground, Earthquakes attributable to human activities are called “induced seismic events” or “induced earthquakes.”(1) the process of hydraulic fracturing a well as presently implemented for shale gas recovery does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events; (2) injection for disposal of waste water derived from energy technologies into the subsurface does pose some risk for induced seismicity, and (3) Carbon Capture Storage (CCS), due to the large net volumes of injected fluids, may have potential for inducing larger seismic events.
An earthquake is a shaking of the ground caused by a sudden release of energy within the
Earth. Most earthquakes occur because of a natural and rapid shift (or slip) of rocks along
geologic faults that release energy built up by relatively slow movements of parts of the Earth’s
crust. The numerous, sometimes large earthquakes felt historically in California and the
earthquake that was felt along much of the East Coast in August of 2011 are examples of
naturally occurring earthquakes related to Earth’s movements along regional faults (see also
Section 1.2). An average of ~14,450 earthquakes with magnitudes above 4.0 (M>4.0) are
measured globally every year. This number increases dramatically—to more than 1.4 million
earthquakes annually—when small earthquakes (those with greater than M 2.0) are included.Earthquakes result from slip along faults that release tectonic stresses that have grown high enough to exceed a fault’s breaking strength. Strain energy is released by the Earth’s crust
during an earthquake in the form of seismic waves, friction on the causative fault, and for some
earthquakes, crustal elevation changes. Seismic waves can travel great distances; for large
earthquakes they can travel around the globe. Ground motions observed at any location are a
manifestation of these seismic waves. Seismic waves can be measured in different ways:
earthquake magnitude is a measure of the size of an earthquake or the amount of energy
released at the earthquake source, while earthquake intensity is a measure
of the level of ground
shaking at a specific location. The distinction between earthquake magnitude and intensity is
important because intensity of ground shaking determines what we, as humans perceive or feel
and the extent of damage to structures and facilities.magnitude is also closely tied to the earthquake rupture area, which is defined as the surface area of the fault affected by sudden slip during an earthquake. A great earthquake of M 8 typically has a fault-surface rupture area of 5,000 km2 to 10,000 km2 (equivalent to ~1931 to 3861 square miles or about the size of Delaware which is 2489 square miles). In contrast, M 3 earthquakes typically have rupture areas of roughly 0.060 km2 (about 0.023 square miles or about 15 acres, equivalent to about 15 football fields). “Felt Earthquakes” are generally those with M between 3 and 5, and “Damaging Earthquakes” are those with M>5.Most naturally occurring earthquakes occur near the boundaries of the world’s tectonic plates where faults are historically active. However, low levels of seismicity also occur within the tectonic plates. A larger magnitude earthquake implies both a larger area over which crustal stress is released, and a larger displacement on the fault. Most existing fractures in the Earth’s crust are small and capable of generating only small
earthquakes. Thus, for fluid injection to trigger a significant earthquake, a fault or faults of
substantial size must be present that are properly oriented relative to the existing state of crustal
stress and these faults must be sufficiently close to points of fluid injection to have the rocks
surrounding them experience a net pore pressure increase. (National Research Council '12).
More than 700,000 different wells are currently used for the underground injection of
fluids in the United States and its territories. Underground nuclear tests, controlled explosions in connection with mining or construction, and the impoundment of large reservoirs behind dams can each result in induced seismicity. Energy technologies that involve injection or withdrawal of fluids from the subsurface also have the potential to induce seismic events that can be measured and felt. Globally there have been 154 reported induced seismic events, in the United States there have been a total of 49 induced seismic events documents ,respectively caused by Waste water injection 11 (9); Oil and gas extraction (withdrawal) 38 (20); Secondary recovery (water flooding) 27 (18); Geothermal energy 25 (3); Hydraulic fracturing (shale gas) 2 (1); Surface water reservoirs: 44 (6) and Other (e.g. coal and solution mining) 8 (3). There have probably been other events, including catastrophic intentionally caused earthquakes such as the one that levelled Port au Prince in Haiti in 2010 and the Japanese tsunami in 2011.
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Veja grátis o arquivo matematica para economistas soluções simon & blume enviado para a disciplina de Economia Matemática Categoria: Outros – Baixe grátis o arquivo matematica para economistas – soluções – simon & blume. pdf enviado por Thomas no curso de Engenharia de Produção na UFOP. 6 Oct Veja grátis o arquivo matematica para economistas soluções simon & blume enviado para a disciplina de Economia Matemática Categoria.
Thus f is concave on the interval 0, 4 and convex elsewhere. Please re-enter recipient e-mail address es. Unknown by Carl P.
Substituting into the first equation gives. So the equation system always has a solution.
Thisfunctionis alwayspositive, so f matejatica. Suppose k is even. As x con- verges to 0 from above, f x tends to 1, whereas x tends to 0 from below, f x converges to The y-intercept is at 0, 0.
Write a review Rate this item: Inflection points are at 2. In the row echelon form this appears as the second equation 5 0. Please enter your name. Assume true for n 5 k: Recall that given the value of f x at two points, m equals the change in f x divided by the change in x. Aulas — Get this from a library! Parte 1 de 2 Answers Pamphlet for Carl P.
Then, w0 is an interior critical point of f — contradicting the hypothesis economistxs x0 is the only critical point of f0. Citations are based on reference standards. If q 5 1 and p 5 0, the equation system has infinitely many solutions with economstas 5 1 2 y ; otherwise it has a unique solution.
Please create a new list with a new name; move some items to a new or existing list; or delete some items. The function is decreasing between these two points and increasing elsewhere. You may send this item to up to five recipients. Thus f matematlca 5 x26 3 is not differentiable at x 5 0.
Applying the quotient rule. Thus f matematica para economistas simon blume 5 x 26 3 is not differentiable at x 5 0. Any econoistas to the first equation solves the second equation as well, and so simin are infinitely many solutions. Since this is never satisfied, matematica para economistas simon blume are no solutions to the equation system. Foundations 1 Chapter 3 One-Variable Calculus: The tangent line goes through the point x 0f x 0 5 39so b solves 9 5 6?
To prove smon remaining case, let f x 5 x2m6 n where m, n are positive integers. Simno x is small near its vertical asymtote at x 5 0, it behaves as 16 x. Don’t have an account? Solving the second equation for Y in terms of r gives Y 5 h 6 m r. Reviews User-contributed reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers.
Skip to content You are here: If k 52 1, the second equation is a multiple of the first. G We have seen that G is true matematica para economistas simon blume n 5 1, 2, 3. Thus, it goes from 0 to 2 as x goes from 2 to 21, from 1 to 2 as x goes from 21 matematica para economistas simon blume 1, and from 1 to 0 as x goes from 1 to 1.
Thus f is concave on the interval 04 and convex elsewhere. Search WorldCat Find items in libraries near you.
If q 5 1a nd p 5 0, the equation system has infinitely many solutions with x 5 1 2 y; otherwise it has a unique solution. The E-mail Address es field is required.
Decreasing functions include demand and marginal utility. By the lemma, 3 mmatematica p. Profit can always be increased by increasing output beyond this point. Functions with global critical points matematica para economistas simon blume average cost functions when a fixed cost is present, and profit functions. WorldCat is the world’s largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
Functions with global critical points include average cost functions when a fixed cost is present, and profit functions. Thus praa is concave on the interval 0, 4 and convex elsewhere. Remember me on this computer.
Portuguese View all editions and formats. Simon Lawrence Blume W. For a given y they are the solutions to x2 1 x 1 2 lbume y. | http://lcso.cc/matematica-para-economistas-simon-blume-28/ |
The goal of this task is to consider a group of fractions that are presented within a symmetrical, continual sequence, and also to find a standard statement to get the pattern.
The presented pattern is:
Line 1
1 1 Row 2
you 32 1 Row several
1 64 64 you Row 5
1 107 106 107 1 Line 5
you 1511 159 159 1511 1
Step 1 : This design is known as Lascap's Fractions. En(r) will be used to represent the ideals involved in the style. r presents the factor number, beginning at r=0, and n represents the row amount starting in n=1. Therefore for instance, E52=159, the second factor on the sixth row. Additionally , N will represent the significance of the numerator and D value in the denominator.
To begin with, it is very clear that to be able to obtain a general statement to get the routine, two distinct statements will probably be needed to incorporate to form one particular final affirmation. This means that you will have two several statements, the one that illustrates the numerators and another the denominators, that is come together to obtain the general statement. To start your initial pattern, the pattern is usually split into two different habits; one demonstrating the numerators and one other denominators.
2: This style demonstrates the pattern from the numerators. It is clear that all of the numerators in the nth row will be equal. Such as all numerators in line 3 are 6. you 1
a few 3 a few
6 six 6 six
10 twelve 10 10 10
15 15 12-15 15 15 15
Row number (n)| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5
Numerator (N)| 1| 3| 6| 10| 12-15
N(n+1) - Nn| N/A| 2| 3| 4| five
Table you: The elevating value in the numerators in relations for the row number. From the desk above, we can see that there is a downward style, in which the numerator increases proportionally as the row amount increases. It is usually found the fact that value of N(n+1) -- Nn raises proportionally as the collection continues.
The relationship between the line number as well as the numerator is definitely graphically drawn and a quadratic in shape determined, employing loggerpro.
Determine 1: The equation with the quadratic match is the marriage between the numerator and the line number. The equation intended for the fit can be: N= 0. 5n2+0. 5n or n2+n2, n> 0 Equation 1 In this formula, N identifies the numerator. Therefore , N= 0. 5n2+0. 5n or perhaps n2+n2, n> 0 is known as a statement that represents 2 and also the first step.
3: In relation to desk 1 and step 2, a pattern may be drawn. The between the numerators of two consecutive rows is one more than the difference between the previous numerators of two progressive, gradual rows. This can be expressed within a formula N(n+1) - N(n) = N(n) - N(n-1) + 1 ) For instance, N(3+1) - N(3) = N(3) - N(2) +1. That way, numerator of 6th and 7th row can be determined. To get the 6th row's value, n should be connected as 5 so that N(6) can be found. Concerning the seventh row's numerator, n should be plugged in since 6. 6th row numerator is as a result: N(5+1) -- N(5) sama dengan N(5) - N(4)+1 N(6) – 15 = 15 – 10+1
N(6) sama dengan 15+6
N(6) sama dengan 21
7th row numerator is for that reason: N(6+1) - N(6) sama dengan N(6) - N(5)+1 N(7) – 21 years old = 21 years old – 15 +1
N(6) = 42 – 12-15 + you
N(6) = twenty eight
Not only with this method, although from the equation found in 2, figure 1, 6th and 7th row numerator is found also. 6th row numerator: N(6)=0. 5×62+0. 5×6 N(6)=0. 5×36+3... | https://edugamingconference.com/math-ib-ia-sl/08108-math-ib-ia-sl-essay.html |
A textbook or reference for applied physicists or mathematicians; geophysicists; or civil, mechanical, or electrical engineers. It assumes the usual undergraduate sequence of mathematics in engineering or the sciences, the traditional calculus, differential equations, and Fourier and Laplace transforms. It explains how to use those and the Hankel transforms to solve linear partial differential equations that are encountered in engineering and sciences. No date is noted for the first edition; the second includes numerical methods and asymptotic techniques for inverting particularly complicated transforms.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 2 and (1.1.2) Equation 1.1.2 is the Fourier transform of f(t) while Equation 1.1.1 is the inverse Fourier transform, which converts a Fourier transform back to f(t). If, following Hamming,1 we imagine that f(t) is a light beam, then the Fourier transform, like a glass prism, breaks up the function into its component frequencies ω , each of intensity F(ω). In optics, the various frequencies are called colors; by analogy the Fourier transform gives us the color spectrum of a function. On the other hand, the inverse Fourier transform blends a function's spectrum to give back the original function. If f(t) is an even function, we can replace Equation 1.1.1 with the Fourier cosine transform (1.1.3) with (1.1.4) On the other hand, if f(t) is an odd function, then Equation 1.1.1 can be replaced with the Fourier sine transform (1.1.5) with (1.1.6) Fourier cosine and sine transforms are also useful when f(t) is only defined on the semi-infinite interval [0, ). Clearly, for a Fourier transform to exist, then the integral in Equation 1.1.2 must also exist. A sufficient condition is that f(t) is absolutely integrable on (- , ), or (1.1.7) Some of the simplest functions, such as f(t)=sin(at) and f(t)=cos(at), violate this condition and appear not to have a Fourier transform. Actually, they do exist but it requires the use of the Dirac delta function to express them. To avoid the use of generalized functions, some investigators argue that all physical processes suffer a certain amount of dissipation. For that 1Hamming, R.W., 1977: Digital Filters. Prentice-Hall, p. 136.
The Fundamentals 3 reason, the Fourier transform should include a damping factor e - t so that the definition of the Fourier transform becomes (1.1.8) where ω′=ω-i , >0. In this modified form, the inverse Fourier transform is (1.1.9) • Example 1.1.1 Let us find the Fourier transform of (1.1.10) when we include a small amount of damping >0. From the definition of the Fourier transform, (1.1.11) Direct integration yields (1.1.12) For those familiar with Laplace transforms, this is the same answer as the Laplace transform of cos(bt) with s replaced by iω′. For this reason, Van der Pol and Bremmer2 have called the transform pair Equation 1.1.8 and Equation 1.1.9, a two-sided Laplace or bilateral transform. On the other hand, from the definition of the inverse Fourier transform (1.1.13) In principle, we can compute any Fourier transform from the definition. However, it is far more efficient to derive some simple relationships that 2Van der Pol, B., and H.Bremmer, 1955: Operational Calculus Based on the Two-Sided Laplace Integral. Cambridge University Press, 415 pp. See Equation 11 in Chapter 2.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 6 The Fourier transform of f(t)*g(t) is (1.1.27) (1.1.28) (1.1.29) and the convolution theorem holds. • Example 1.1.4 For our final example,3 let us find the inverse f(x) of the Fourier transform (1.1.30) using the convolution theorem where c, t and are positive and real. We begin by noting that (1.1.31) and (1.1.32) From the convolution theorem, (1.1.33) if . Then, if x>ct, (1.1.34) For |x|≤ct, (1.1.35) 3Taken from Tanaka, K., and T.Kurokawa, 1973: Viscous property of steel and its effect on strain wave front. Bull. JSME, 16, 188--193.
The Fundamentals 7 Finally, if x<-ct, (1.1.36) In Section 3.1 and Section 5.1 we will discuss the inversion of Fourier transforms by complex variables. In this section, we have given a quick overview of Fourier transforms. For greater detail, as well as drill exercises, the reader is referred to Chapter 5 of the author 's Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLAB.4 1.2 LAPLACE TRANSFORMS Consider a function f(t) such that f(t)=0 for t<0. Then the Laplace integral (1.2.1) defines the Laplace transform of f(t), which we write [f(t)] or F(s). The Laplace transform of f(t) exists, for sufficiently large s, provided f(t) satisfies the following conditions: 4Duffy, D.G., 2003: Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLAB. Chapman & Hall/ CRC, 818 pp. • Example 1.2.1 Let us find the Laplace transform for the Heaviside step function: (1.2.2) The Heaviside step function is essentially a bookkeeping device that gives us the ability to "switch on" and "switch off" a given function. For example, if we want a function f(t) to become nonzero at time t=a, we represent this process by the product f(t)H(t-a). From the definition of the Laplace transform, (1.2.3) • f (t)=0 for t<0, • f (t) is continuous or piece-wise continuous is every interval, • tn|f(t)|< as t→0 for some number n, where n<1, • e-sot|f(t)| < as t→ , for some number s0. The quantity s0 is called the abscissa of convergence.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 8 • Example 1.2.2 The Dirac delta function or impulse function, often defined for computational purposes by (1.2.4) plays an especially important role in transform methods because its Laplace transform is (1.2.5) (1.2.6) (1.2.7) (1.2.8) A special case is [δ(t)]=1. The Fourier transform of δ(t-a) is similar, namely e-iaω. • Example 1.2.3 Although we could compute Equation 1.2.1 for every function that has a Laplace transform, these results have already been tabulated and are given in many excellent tables.5 However, there are four basic transforms that the reader should memorize. They are (1.2.9) (1.2.10) (1.1.11) (1.2.12) 5 The most complete set is given by Erdélyi, A., W.Magnus, F.Oberhettinger, and F. G.Tricomi, 1954: Tables of Integral Transforms, Vol I. McGraw-Hill Co., 391 pp.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 10 by integration by parts. If f(t) is of exponential order, 6 e-st f(t) tends to zero as t→ , for large enough s, so that (1.2.18) Similarly, if f(t) and f′(t) are continuous, f′′(t) is piece-wise continuous, and all three functions are of exponential order, then (1.2.19) In general, (1.2.20) on the assumption that f(t) and its first n-1 derivatives are continuous, f(n)(t) is piece-wise continuous, and all are of exponential order so that the Laplace transform exists. Consider now the transform of the function e-at f(t), where a is any real number. Then, by definition, (1.2.21) or (1.2.22) Equation 1.2.22 is known as the first shifting theorem and states that if F(s) is the transform of f(t) and a is a constant, then F(s+a) is the transform of e-at f(t). • Example 1.2.4 Let us find the Laplace transform of f(t)=e-at sin(bt). Because the Laplace transform of sin(bt) is b/(s2+b2), (1.2.23) where we have simply replaced s by s+a in the transform for sin(bt). • Example 1.2.5 Let us find the inverse of the Laplace transform (1.2.24) 6 By exponential order we mean that there exist some constants, M and k, for which |f(t)|≤Me kt for all t>0.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 12 • Example 1.2.6 Let us find the convolution between cos(t) and sin(t). (1.2.37) (1.2.38) (1.2.39) (1.2.40) The reason why we introduced convolution derives from the following fundamental theorem (often called Borel's theorem7). If (1.2.41) then (1.2.42) In other words, we can invert a complicated transform by convoluting the inverses to two simpler functions. • Example 1.2.7 Let us find the inverse of the transform (1.2.43) (1.2.44) Therefore, (1.2.45) (1.2.46) (1.2.47) (1.2.48) 7Borel, É., 1901: Leçons sur les séries divergentes. Gauthier-Villars, p. 104.
The Fundamentals 13 In this section, we have given a quick overview of Laplace transforms. For greater detail, as well as drill exercises, the reader is referred to Chapter 6 of the author's Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLAB.8 1.3 LINEAR ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS Most analytic techniques for solving a partial differential equation involve reducing it down to an ordinary differential equation or a set of ordinary differential equations that is hopefully easier to solve than the original partial differential equation. From the vast number of possible ordinary differential equations, we focus on second-order equations. All of the following techniques extend to higher-order equations. Consider the ordinary differential equation (1.3.1) where a, b and c are real. For the moment let us take f(x)=0. Assuming a solution of the form y(x)=Aemx and substituting into Equation 1.3.1, (1.3.2) This purely algebraic equation is the characteristic or auxiliary equation. Because Equation 1.3.2 is quadratic, there are either two real roots, or else a repeated real root, or else conjugate complex roots. At this point, let us consider each case separately and state the solution. Any undergraduate book on ordinary differential equations will provide the details for obtaining these general solutions. Case I: Two distinct real roots m1 and m 2, (1.3.3) Case II: A repeated real root m1, (1.3.4) Case III: Conjugate complex roots m1=p+qi and m2=p-qi, (1.3.5) 8Duffy, op. cit.
The Fundamentals 15 because cos2(x)=[1+cos(2x)]/2. Substituting Equation 1.3.12 into Equation 1.3.11 and equating coefficients for the constant, cosine and sine terms, we find that A=1/2, B=-3/50 and C=2/25. The remaining task is to compute the arbitrary constants in the homogeneous solution. In this book we always have conditions at both ends of a given domain, even if one of these points is at infinity. We now illustrate the procedure used in solving these boundary-value problems. • Example 1.3.3 Solve the boundary-value problem (1.3.13) where s>0. The general solution to Equation 1.3.13 is (1.3.14) We have chosen to use hyperbolic functions because the domain lies between x=0 and x=1. Now, (1.3.15) and (1.3.16) Solving for A and B, (1.3.17) Therefore, (1.3.18) Problems 1. Solve the boundary-value problem where a and s are real and positive.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 16 1.4 COMPLEX VARIABLES Complex variables provide analytic tools for the evaluation of integrals with an ease that rarely occurs with real functions. The power of integration on the complex plane has its roots in the basic three C's: the Cauchy- Riemann equations, the Cauchy-Goursat theorem and Cauchy's residue theorem. The Cauchy-Riemann equations have their origin in the definition of the derivative in the complex plane. Just as we have the concept of the function in real variables, where for a given value of x we can compute a corresponding value of y=f(x), we can define a complex function w=f(z) where for a given value of we may compute w=f(z)=u(x, y)+iv(x,y). In order for f'(z) to exist in some region, u(x, y) and v(x, y) must satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations: (1.4.1) If ux , uy, vx and vy are continuous in some region surrounding a point z0 and satisfy Equation 1.4.1 there, then f(z) is analytic there. If a function is analytic everywhere in the complex plane, then it is an entire function. Alternatively, if the function is analytic everywhere except at some isolated singularities, then it is meromorphic. Note that f(z) must satisfy the CauchyRiemann equations in a region and not just at a point. For example, f(z)=|z| satisfies the Cauchy-Riemann equations at z=0 and nowhere else. Consequently, this function is not analytic anywhere on the complex plane. Integration on the complex plane is more involved than in real, single variables because dz=dx+i dy. We must specify a path or contour as we integrate from one point to another. Of all of the possible contour integrals, a closed contour is the best. To see why, we introduce the following results: Cauchy-Goursat theorem:9 If f(z) is an analytic function at each point within and on a closed contour C, then . This theorem leads immediately to The principle of deformation of contours: The value of a line integral of an analytic function around any simple closed contour remains unchanged if we deform the contour in such a manner that we do not pass over a point where f(z) is not analytic. Consequently we can evaluate difficult integrals by deforming the contour so that the actual evaluation is along a simpler contour or the computations 9 See Goursat, E., 1900: Sur la définition générale des fonctions analytiques, d'après Cauchy. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 1, 14--16. are made easier. See Example 1.4.1.
The Fundamentals 17 Most integrations on the complex plane, however, deal with meromorphic functions. Our next theorem involves these functions; it is Cauchy's residue theorem: 10 If f(z) is analytic inside a closed contour C (taken in the positive sense) except at points z1, z2, ..., zn where f(z) has singularities, then (1.4.2) where Res[f(z); zj] denotes the residue of f(z) for the singularity located at The question now turns to what is a residue and how do we compute it. The answer involves the nature of the singularity and an extension of the Taylor expansion, called a Laurent expansion: (1.4.3) for 0<|z -zj|<a. The first summation is merely the familiar Taylor expansion; the second summation involves negative powers of z--zj and gives the behavior at singularity. The residue equals the coefficient a -1. The construction of a Laurent expansion for a given singularity has two practical purposes: (1) it gives the nature of the singularity and (2) we will occasionally use it to give the actual value of the residue. Turning to the nature of the singularity, there are three types: • Essential Singularity: Consider the function f(z)=cos(1/z). Using the expansion for cosine, (1.4.4) for 0<|z|< . Note that this series never truncates in the inverse powers of z. Essential singularities have Laurent expansions which have an infinite number of inverse powers of z--zj. The value of the residue for this essential singularity at z=0 is zero. • Removable Singularity: Consider the function f(z)=sin(z)/z. This function appears, at first blush, to have a singularity at z=0. Upon applying the expansion for sine, we see that (1.4.5) 10 See Mitrinovic, D.S., and J.K. , 1984: The Cauchy Method of Residues. D. Reidel Publishing Co., 361 pp. Section 10.3 gives the historical development of the residue theorem.
The Fundamentals 19 The desirability of dealing with closed contour integrals should be clear by now. This is true to such an extent that mathematicians have devised several theorems that allow us to change a line integral into a closed one by adding an arc at infinity. The one of greatest relevance to us is by C.Jordan:11 Jordan's lemma: Suppose that, on a circular arc CR with radius R and center at the origin, f(z)→0 uniformly as R→ . Then (1.4.14) if CR is in the first and/or second quadrant; (1.4.15) if CR is in the third and/or fourth quadrant; (1.4.16) if CR is in the second and/or third quadrant; and (1.4.17) if CR is in the first and/or fourth quadrant. Technically, only Equation 1.4.14 is actually Jordan's lemma while the remaining points are variations. Proof: We shall prove the first part; the remaining portions follow by analog. We begin by noting that (1.4.18) Now, (1.4.19) (1.4.20) Therefore, (1.4.21) 11 Jordan, C., 1894: Cours D'Analyse de l'École Polytechnique. Vol. 2. GauthierVillars, pp. 285--286. See also Whittaker, E.T., and G.N.Watson, 1963: A Course of Modern Analysis. Cambridge University Press, p. 115.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 20 where 0≤θ0<θ1≤ π. Because the integrand is positive, the right side of Equation 1.4.21 is largest if we take θ0=0 and θ1=π. Then (1.4.22) We cannot evaluate the integrals in Equation 1.4.22 as they stand. However, because sin(θ)≥2θ/π, we can bound the value of the integral by (1.4.23) If m>0, |IR| tends to zero with MR as R→ . • Example 1.4.1 To illustrate how useful distorting the original contour may be in evaluating an integral, consider 12 (1.4.24) where the contour C is the circle |z|<-ln(a) and 1=n. The integrand has an infinite number of simple poles at zm=-ln(a)+2mπi with m=0,±1,±2,... (which lie outside the original contour) and a (n +1)th-order pole at z=0. Because the straightforward evaluation of this integral by the residue theorem would require differentiating the denominator n times, we choose to evaluate Equation 1.4.24 by expanding the contour so that it is a circle of infinite radius with a cut that excludes the simple poles at zm. See Figure 1.4.1. Then, by the residue theorem, (1.4.25) where I is the contribution from the circle at infinity. Because the residue off(z)atzmis--zm --1--n, (1.4.26) 12 Based upon Götze, F., and H.Friedrich, 1980: Berechnungs- und Abschätzungsformeln für verallgemeinerte geometrische Reihen. Z. Angew. Math. Mech., 60, 737--739.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 22 • Example 1.4.2 Let us evaluate where a and k are real and positive. First, 1.4.32 We close the line integral along the real axis by introducing an infinite semicircle in the upper half-plane as dictated by Jordan's lemma. Therefore, (1.4.33) (1.4.34) • Example 1.4.3 When the definite integral involves hyperbolic functions, a rectangular closed contour is generally the best one to use. For example, consider the contour integral13 (1.4.35) where C is the closed rectangular contour ABCD shown in Figure 1.4.2. Along AD as R→ , (1.4.36) Similarly, along BC (1.4.37) Along AB (1.4.38) 13 Taken from Hawthorne, W.R., 1954: The secondary flow about struts and airfoils. J. Aeronaut. Sci., 21, 588--608.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 24 The only poles located inside the closed contour occur at z±=± πi[1-1/ (2 )]. To compute their residues, we note that (1.4.44) (1.4.45) because cos[π/(2 )]=-cosh(z±) and =z-z± . Therefore, the poles are second order and the residues equal Hence the sum of residues is Substituting this sum and Equation 1.4.43 into Equation 1.4.41, we finally have In this section, we have given a quick overview of complex variables as it applies to single-valued functions. For greater detail, as well as drill exercises, the reader is referred to Chapter 1 of the author's Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLAB.14 In those instances where there are multivalued functions due to the presence of z raised to some rational power, inverse functions or logarithms, we must make them single-valued. This is the subject of the next two sections. 1.5 MULTIVALUED FUNCTIONS, BRANCH POINTS, BRANCH CUTS AND RIEMANN SURFACES In this section, we introduce functions that yield several different values of w for a given z, i.e., multivalued functions. We must make these functions single- valued so that we can apply the techniques from the previous section. Furthermore, this condition is also necessary for a well-posed physical problem. Consider the complex function w=z1/2. For each value of z there are two possible values of w. For example, if z=-i, then w equals either or . The points w1 and w2 are (1.4.46) 14 Duffy, op. cit.
The Fundamentals 25 distinct members from two branches of the same function that "branch off' from the same point, z=0. The number of branches depends upon the nature of f(z). For example, log(z) has an infinite number of branches, namely, ln(r)+ i+nπi, n=0,1, 2,.... In the case of real variables, the branches easily separate. For example, the square root of a positive, real number has two distinct branches: a and -a, where a is a real, positive number. However, in complex functions the two branches are hardly distinguishable because they do not separate at all. Therefore, if we wish to keep them separate, we must do it artificially. Consider again the complex function .Ifwemove around a closed path that does not encircle the origin, the values of r and vary continuously. At the end, the final value of equals our initial value, 0. Consequently, we can say that all of the values of w along this contour belong to the same branch, . Let our closed contour now enclose the origin. Because the final value of = 0+2π, the final value of w now equals .We have reached the other branch of w in a continuous manner. Consequently, z=0 appears to be a special point; one branch ties to the other there because they have the same value. We reach each branch from the other after a complete turn around the origin. A branch point is any point having this property. In this example, infinity is also a branch point. We can show this by the substitution z=1/z ′ and an examination of the transformed function about z′=0. In our example with w=z1/2, we reached the other branch by completing a closed contour around the origin. However, we cannot say exactly when, in our journey, we crossed the boundary from w1 and w2. For example, it might have been when we crossed the positive real axis or when we crossed the negative real axis. The conclusions are the same either way. This ambiguity leads to the concept of the branch cut. The reason why we must define a branch cut between branch points lies in the fact that we cannot make a multivalued function single-valued by excluding the branch point and a small neighborhood around it. Its multivaluedness does not depend on the mere existence of the branch point itself, but on the possibility of encircling it. In summary, a branch cut is a line that we choose that connects two branch points. Furthermore, it defines the separation between the branches. For this reason the branch cut is a barrier that we may not cross.15 A geometrical interpretation of this process is to limit each branch to a particular Riemann surface. We can view each Riemann surface as a floor in a large department store. On each floor (Riemann surface) you can only obtain one type of branch (for example, square roots with positive real parts). However, we can reach other floors (surfaces), if desired, through a 15 The Russian mathematical term for the edge along a branch cut is bereg, which commonly means "the bank of a river."
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 26 set of escalators, located at the branch cut, that take you up to the next higher Riemann surface (if it exists) or down to the next lower Riemann surface (if it exists). These (very thin) escalators extend between the branch points. As the architect of your Riemann surface, there is great flexibility in choosing where your branch cuts lie. Figure 1.5.1 and Figure 1.5.2 show some of the more popular choices for and , respectively. The advantage of introducing a Riemann surface is that every continuous curve on the z-plane maps the multivalued function into a continuous curve on the w-plane. This relationship between the Riemann surfaces allows us to apply to multivalued analytic functions all of the techniques of integration, analytic continuation and so forth, which depend on a continuous path being drawn from one point to another. In the next section, we illustrate the mechanics of integration involving multivalued functions. 1.6 SOME EXAMPLES OF INTEGRATION THAT INVOLVE MULTIVALUED FUNCTIONS In this section we perform contour integration with multivalued functions. Essentially, the introduction of branch points and cuts requires careful bookkeeping of phases (or arguments). Once we set up our bookkeeping, the evaluation follows directly. Figure 1.5.1: Some popular branch cut configurations for . The branch cuts are denoted by wavy lines.
The Fundamentals 27 • Example 1.6.1 Let us evaluate the integral16 (1.6.1) where -a<b<c<d. Figure 1.6.1 shows the contour The integrand is a multivalued function with branch points at z=-a and z=c and simple poles at z=b and z=d. We begin by expanding our original contour C without bound so that it includes all of the singularities. Figure 1.6.1 shows this enlarged contour . Next we employ the following theorem: Theorem:17 If zf(z) tends uniformly to a limit k as |z| increases indefinitely, the value of , taken around a very large circle, center the origin, tends toward 2 ik. Figure 1.5.2: Some popular branch cut configurations for . The branch cuts are denoted by wavy lines. 16 This example is taken from Glagolev, N.I., 1945: Resistance of cylindrical bodies in rolling (in Russian). Prikl. Mat. Mek., 9, 318--333. 17 Forsyth, A.R., 1965: Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable. Dover Publications, Inc., p. 41.
The Fundamentals 31 z+a=(x +a)e2πi along C2, C3 and C4, and z+a=(x+a)e0i along C6, C7 and C8 with -a<x< c. After substituting into Equation 1.6.17, (1.6.18) or (1.6.19) • Example 1.6.2 Let us evaluate (1.6.20) where -a<x<a and 0<μ<1. Figure 1.6.3 shows that the contour runs just below the real axis from-a to a and then back to -a just above the real axis.18 The integrand is a multivalued function with three branch points at z=a, x and-a. The branch cut runs along the real axis from -a to a. The value of Equation 1.6.20 follows from the limit of zf(z) as |z|→ . (See the previous example.) If the argument of z-a, z+a and z-x lies between 0 and 2π, this limit equals one and (1.6.21) Figure 1.6.3: The contour used to evaluate Equation 1.6.20. 18 Reprinted from J. Appl. Math. Mech., 23, V.Kh.Arutiunian, The plane contact problem of the theory of creep, 1283--1313, ©1959, with kind permission from Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BX, UK.
The Fundamentals 33 and (1.6.30) Substituting these integrals into Equation 1.6.22 and simplifying, (1.6.31) • Example 1.6.3 Let us simplify the integral with a singular kernel19 (1.6.32) by evaluating the complex integral (1.6.33) where and are nonintegers. The contour C is a circle of infinite radius with appropriate branch cuts as shown in Figure 1.6.4. From the residue Figure 1.6.4: The contour used to evaluate Equation 1.6.34. 19 Taken from Liu, P.L.-F., 1986: Hydrodynamic pressures on rigid dams during earthquakes. J. Fluid Mech., 165, 131--145. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
The Fundamentals 35 Although we must still evaluate an integral numerically, the integrand is no longer singular. Let us now redo this integral with the contour shown in Figure 1.6.5. The phase of both z and z-1 now run from - to . The contributions from CR, C2 and C10 are zero. However, for the other contours, (1.6.43) (1.6.44) (1.6.45) (1.6.46) (1.6.47) (1.6.48) Figure 1.6.5: The contour used in redoing Equation 1.6.34.
The Fundamentals 41 5. Evaluate around the illustrated contour and verify that 6. Use the illustrated contour and two different complex functions to show that and Problem 3 Problem 4 Problem 5 Problem 6 Hint: The square root will have different signs at the two poles.
The Fundamentals 43 10. Show22 that where 0≤ n, is real and noninteger and C is a dumbbell-shaped contour lying along the negative real axis from z=-1 and z=0. 11. Evaluate around the illustrated contour and show23 12. Evaluate Problem 11 22 Taken from Jury, E.I., and C.A.Galtieri, 1961: A note on the inverse z transformation. IRE Trans. Circuit Theory, CT-8, 371--374. ©1961 IEEE. 23 Taken from Ahmadi, A.R., and S.E.Widnall, 1994: Energetics of oscillating lifting surfaces by the use of integral conservation laws. J. Fluid Mech., 266, 347--370. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 44 13. Evaluate around the contour used in Problem 4, where p= /[2 -2 arccos( )] with the branch 0≤arccos( )<2 . Show25 that Hint: 14. By first showing that around the illustrated contour and show 24 Problem 12 24 Ibid. 25 Taken from Greenwell, R.N., and C.Y.Wang, 1980: Fluid flow through a partially filled cylinder. Appl. Sci. Res., 36, 61--75. Reprinted by permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.
The Fundamentals 45 15. Show26 that where -1<q<1 and the plus sign applies when p>q while the negative sign is for p<q. Step 1: Consider first the case p=1. From the contours shown in Figure 1.6.8, show that Figure 1.6.8: Contour used in solving Problem 15. Redrawn from Lewis, P.A., and G.R.Wickham, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 340, 503--529 (1992). and C2 is the contour shown in Figure 1.6.6, prove that 26 Taken from Lewis, P.A., and G.R.Wickham, 1992: The diffraction of SH waves by an arbitrary shaped crack in two dimensions. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 340, 503--529.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 46 Step 2: By parameterizing each contour as follows: where 0<ρ< and tan(θ)=ρ/2, and where -1<ρ< 1, show that and Note that the simple pole at z=q makes no contribution. Step 3: Evaluate the integral for by noting that (1+q)+(1-q)=2, replacing cosine and sine by their exponential equivalents, and letting 1- e2θi= 2 . You should find that Finally, by matching imaginary parts, show that Step 4- Now redo the first three steps with p=-1 and show that Then, use analytic continuity to argue for the more general result. 16. Evaluate27 27 Taken from Chen, C.F., 1962: Linearized theory for supercavitating hydrofoils with spoiler-flaps. J. Ship Res., 6, No. 3, 1--9. Reprinted with the permission of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). Material originally appearing in SNAME publications cannot be reprinted without written permission from the Society, 601 Pavonia Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07306.
The Fundamentals 49 Step 8: Conclude the problem by showing that 1.7 BESSEL FUNCTIONS In Section 1.3 we dealt only with ordinary differential equations that have constant coefficients. In problems involving cylindrical coordinates, we will solve the equation (1.7.1) commonly known as Bessel's equation of order n with a parameter . The general solution to Equation 1.7.1 is (1.7.2) where Jn(.) and Yn(.) are nth order Bessel functions of the first and second kind, respectively. Bessel functions have been exhaustively studied and a vast literature now exists on them.28 The Bessel function Jn(z) is an entire function, has no complex zeros, and has an infinite number of real zeros symmetrically located with respect to the point z=0, which is itself a zero if n>0. All of the zeros are simple, except the point z=0, which is a zero of order n if n>0. On the other hand, Yn(z) is analytic in the complex plane with a branch cut along the segment (- , 0] and becomes infinite as z→0. Considerable insight into the nature of Bessel functions is gained from their asymptotic expansions. These expansions are (1.7.3) and (1.7.4) where denotes an arbitrarily small positive number. Therefore, Bessel functions are sinusoidal in nature and decay as z-1/2 . 28 The standard reference is Watson, G.N., 1966: A Treatise on the Theory of Bessel Functions. Cambridge University Press, 804 pp.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 52 where (1.7.15) Consider now the special case where f(x, y) is only a function of so that f(x, y)=g(r). Then, changing to polar coordinat es through the substitution x=r cos(θ), y=r sin(θ), k=ρ cos(φ) and =ρ sin(φ), we have that (1.7.16) (1.7.17) Therefore, the integral in Equation 1.7.15 becomes (1.7.18) (1.7.19) If we introduce =θ-φ, the integral inside the square brackets can be evaluated as follows: and Equation 1.7.21 is equivalent to Equation 1.7.20 because the integral of a periodic function over one full period is the same regardless of where the integration begins. Equation 1.7.22 follows from the integral definition of the Bessel function.29 Therefore, (1.7.23) Finally, because Equation 1.7.23 is clearly a function of F(k, )=G( ) and (1.7.24) (1.7.20) (1.7.21) (1.7.22) 29 Ibid., Section 2.2, Equation 5.
The Fundamentals 55 Modern research,31 however, has shown that during the early nineteenth century both English and French mathematicians developed both symbolic calculus and operational methods. For example, Cauchy used operational methods, applying the Fourier transform to solve the wave equation. Later in the nineteenth century, this knowledge was apparently forgotten until Heaviside rediscovered the Laplace transform. 32 However, because of Heaviside's lack of mathematical rigor, a controversy of legendary proportions33 developed between him and the mathematical "establishment." It remained for the English mathematician T.J.I'a.Bromwich34 and the German electrical engineer K.W.Wagner 35 to justify Heaviside's work. Although each was ignorant of the other 's work, both used function theory. Wagner concentrated on the expansion formula, whereas Bromwich gave a broader explanation of the operational calculus. Having given a brief history of transform methods, let us explore the relationship of transform methods to the traditional methods of separation of variables and numerical methods by studying the sound waves that arise when a sphere of radius a begins to pulsate at time t=0. The symmetric wave equation in spherical coordinates is (1.8.1) where c is the speed of sound, u(r, t) is the velocity potential and - ∂u/ ∂r gives the velocity of the parcel of air. At the surface of the sphere r=a, the radial velocity must equal the velocity of the pulsating sphere (1.8.2) where (t), the displacement of the surface of the pulsating sphere, equals B sin(ωt)H(t). The air is initially at rest. 31 Cooper, J.L.B., 1952: Heaviside and the operational calculus. Math. Gaz., 36, 5--19; Lützen, J., 1979: Heaviside's operational calculus and the attempts to rigorise it. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 21, 161--200; Deakin, M.A.B., 1981: The development of the Laplace transform, 1737--1937: I.Euler to Spitzer, 1737--1880. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 25, 343--390; Deakin, M.A.B., 1982: The development of the Laplace transform, 1737--1937: II. Poincaré to Doetsch, 1880-- 1937. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 26, 351--381; Petrova, S.S., 1986: Heaviside and the development of the symbolic calculus. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 37, 1--23; Deakin, M.A.B., 1992: The ascendancy of the Laplace transform and how it came about. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 44, 265--286. 32 Heaviside, O., 1893: On operators in physical mathematics. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 52, 504--529. 33 Nahin, P., 1988: Oliver Heaviside: Sage in Solitude. IEEE Press, Chapter 10. 34 Bromwich, T.J.I'a., 1916: Normal coordinates in dynamical systems. Proc. London Math. Soc., Ser. 2, 15, 401--448. 35 Wagner, K.W., 1915/16: Über eine Formel von Heaviside zur Berechnung von Einschaltvorgängen. Arch. Electrotechnik, 4, 159--193.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 60 differential equations to find the Laplace transform U(r, s). Finally, we can use the same inversion techniques as those employed in single variable problems since the independent variable r acts as a parameter. With the straightforward nature of this procedure, a natural question is "Why isn't this technique used for all linear partial differential equations?" There are essentially three difficulties. First, taking the Laplace transform of the partial differential equation may be difficult. For example, for most partial differential equations with nonconstant coefficients, we do not know how to take their transform. Second, having taken the Laplace transform of the partial differential equation, we may be unable to solve the resulting ordinary differential equation. Finally, even if we can solve the differential equation, we may be unable to invert the transform analytically. Of these three difficulties, inversion seems the greatest stumbling block, probably because transform methods would be immediately abandoned if we could not find analytically the transform of the dependent variable. For this reason, we will spend considerable time on various inversion techniques. First, we will apply integration techniques on the complex plane to evaluate the inversion integral. Indeed, we shall do this so often that this book will read like a book on applied complex variables.36 When this technique fails, we still have the option of inverting the transform using asymptotic or numerical methods. Using numerical methods for only the inversion is preferable to using numerical methods to solve the entire problem since we still have an analytic solution in the other independent variable. In addition to Laplace transforms, we may also use Fourier transforms to solve partial differential equations. Again, the most difficult aspect of the analysis is the inversion and, again, we may apply complex variables and numerical methods to find its inverse. We illustrate this in Chapter 3 for single-valued transforms while we treat multivalued transforms in Chapter 5. 36 "Had Heaviside been able to make full use of Cauchy's method of complex integration, then (to quote a well-known saying) 'we should have learned something'." Quote taken from Bromwich, T.J.I'a., 1928: Note on Prof. Carslaw paper. Math. Gaz., 14, p. 227.
61 Chapter 2 Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms Having given an overview of transform techniques, we begin with this chapter to examine in greater detail how Laplace transforms may be used to solve linear partial differential equations. We limit ourselves to the situation where the transform does not contain a branch point or cut. We address that question in Chapter 4. 2.1 INVERSION OF LAPLACE TRANSFORMS BY CONTOUR INTEGRATION Laplace transforms are a popular tool for solving initial-value problems. In most undergraduate courses, the use of tables, special theorems, partial fractions and convolution are the methods taught for finding the inverse. In most problems involving partial differential equations, these techniques fail us. In 1916, Bromwich1 showed that we can express the inverse of a Laplace transform (Bromwich's integral) as the contour integral (2.1.1) 1 Bromwich, T.J. I'a., 1916: Normal coordinates in dynamical systems. Proc. London Math. Soc., Ser. 2, 15, 401--448.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 63 where a is real. From Bromwich's integral, (2.1.8) Here c is greater than the real part of any of the singularities in Equation 2.1.8. Our first task in the inversion of F(s) is the classification of the singularities of the integrand of Equation 2.1.8. Using the infinite product for the hyperbolic sine,2 (2.1.9) Thus, we have a second-order pole at z=0 and simple poles at zn=±n i/a, where n=1, 2, 3,.... Figure 2.1.1: An outstanding mathematician at Cambridge University at the turn of the twentieth century, Thomas John I'Anson Bromwich (1875--1929) came to Heaviside's operational calculus through his interest in divergent series. Beginning a correspondence with Heaviside, Bromwich was able to justify operational calculus through the use of contour integrals by 1915. After his premature death, individuals such as J.R.Carson and Sir H. Jeffreys brought Laplace transforms to the increasing attention of scientists and engineers. (Portrait courtesy of ©The Royal Society.) 2Gradshteyn, I.S., and I.M.Ryzhik, 1965: Table of Integrals, Series and Products. Academic Press, Section 1.431, Formula 2.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 64 We can convert the line integral in Equation 2.1.8, with the Bromwich contour lying parallel and slightly to the right of the imaginary axis, into a closed contour using Jordan's lemma through the addition of an infinite semicircle joining i to -i as shown in Figure 2.1.2. We now apply the residue theorem. For the second-order pole at z=0, (2.1.10) (2.1.11) (2.1.12) (2.1.13) after using sinh(az)=az+O(z3). For the simple poles zn=±nπi/a, (2.1.14) (2.1.15) (2.1.16) Figure 2.1.2: Contours used in the inversion of Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.7.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 65 because cosh(±n i)=cos(n )=(-1)n. Thus, summing the residues gives (2.1.17) (2.1.18) Figure 2.1.3 illustrates this inverse at various times t. • Example 2.1.2 For our second example, we invert (2.1.19) where q=s1/2/a, and the constants a, L and x are real. One immediate concern is the presence of s1/2 because this is a multivalued function. However, when we replace the hyperbolic cosine and sine functions with their Taylor expansions, F(s) contains only powers of s and is, in fact, single-valued. From Bromwich's integral, (2.1.20) where q=z1/2/a. Using the Taylor expansions for the hyperbolic cosine and sine, we find that z=0 is a second-order pole. The remaining poles are located where sinh(qL)=-i sin(iqL)=0. Therefore, or zn=- n2 2a2/L2, where n=1, 2, 3,.... We have chosen the positive sign because Figure 2.1.3: The inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.7.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 66 z1/2 must be single-valued; a negative sign would lead to the same result. Further analysis reveals that these poles are simple. Having classified the poles, we now close the line contour which lies slightly to the right of the imaginary axis with an infinite semicircle in the left half-plane and use the residue theorem. See Figure 2.1.4. The values of the residues are (2.1.21) (2.1.22) (2.1.23) (2.1.24) (2.1.25) and (2.1.26) Figure 2.1.4: Contour used in the inversion of Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.19.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 67 (2.1.27) (2.1.28) (2.1.29) Summing the residues, (2.1.30) Figure 2.1.5 illustrates this inverse at various times t and values of x. • Example 2.1.3 To illustrate inversion by Bromwich's integral when Bessel functions are present, consider the transform 3 (2.1.31) The power series representations for I0(z) and I1(z) are (2.1.32) Figure 2.1.5: The inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.19. 3 Taken from Raval, U., 1972: Quasi-static transient response of a covered permeable inhomogeneous cylinder to a line current source. Pure Appl. Geophys., 96, 140--156. Published by Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 69 where a and r are real, positive. One of the integral representations of K0(.) is (2.1.42) Therefore, (2.1.43) (2.1.44) (2.1.45) (2.1.46) because . • Example 2.1.5 In the previous example, we used an integral representation of the modified Bessel function K0(.) to reexpress the transform so that we could take its inverse even though we had to write it as an integral. See Equation 2.1.45. Then we carried out the integration and obtained Equation 2.1.46. Yang, Latychev and Edwards 4 used a similar trick to invert the transform (2.1.47) Figure 2.1.6: The inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.31. 4 Yang, J.-W., K.Latychev, and R.N.Edwards, 1998: Numerical computation of hydrothermal fluid circulation in fractured Earth structures. Geophys. J. Int., 135, 627-- 649. Published by Blackwell Publishing.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 70 where a, b and c are constants with a>0. In Chapter 4, we will show how to deal with Laplace transforms that contain multivalued functions. Even then, Equation 2.1.47 is tricky because it contains a square root of a square root. Let's see how Yang et al. solved this problem. They began by noting that (2.1.48) We may view Equation 2.1.48 as an integral representation of e-2r. Consequently, we can reexpress Equation 2.1.47 as (2.1.49) (2.1.50) Using the linearity property of Laplace transforms, (2.1.51) Because (2.1.52) and (2.1.53) we obtain the final result that (2.1.54) Figure 2.1.7 illustrates this inverse at various times t. • Example 2.1.6 Let us find the inverse5 of the Laplace transform (2.1.55) 5 Reprinted from Int. J. Solids Struct., 16, T.C. T. Ting, The effects of dispersion and dissipation on wave propagation in viscoelastic layered composities, pp. 903--911, ©1980, with kind permission from Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BW, Appl. Mech., 19, 209--213. UK. See also Cole, J.D., and T.Y. Wu, 1952: Heat conduction in a compressible fluid. J.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 71 or (2.1.56) We begin by noting that (2.1.57) so that (2.1.58) To evaluate the first integral in Equation 2.1.58, we now deform the original Bromwich integral to the contour shown in Figure 2.1.8. The contribution from the integrals along the arcs AB and EF vanish as R→ . Along BC, z=re- i/3 and dz=dr e- i/3, while z=re i/3 and dz=dr e i/3 along DE. Then, (2.1.59) (2.1.60) Figure 2.1.7: The inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.47.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 72 and (2.1.61) Combining Equation 2.1.59 through Equation 2.1.61, (2.1.62) (2.1.63) Consider now the integral (2.1.64) where z= - . If we set b= 2- , then (2.1.65) Figure 2.1.8: Contour used in the inversion of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.55.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 73 (2.1.66) (2.1.67) where Ai( ) is the Airy function of the first kind. Therefore, the inverse is (2.1.68) In this form the inverse is now more amenable to physical interpretation or further asymptotic analysis. Figure 2.1.9 illustrates this inverse for 0≤ ≤1. Problems For the following transforms, use the inversion integral to find the inverse Laplace transform for constant a, M, R and . Figure 2.1.9: The inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.1.55.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 74 11. Show that the inverse6 of the Laplace transform is where n is the nth root of tan( )=-b , b=m/ , and and m are real. This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 11. 12. Show that the inverse of the Laplace transform is Problem 11 6 Taken from Arutunyan, N.H., 1949: On the research of statically indeterminate systems with vibrating support columns (in Russian). Prikl. Mat. Mek., 13, 399--500.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 75 where n is the nth positive root of J0( a)=0. This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 12. 13. Show that the inverse7 of the Laplace transform is where n is the nth positive root of J0( a)=0. This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 13. Problem 12 Problem 13 7 Taken from Wadhawan, M.C., 1974: Dynamic thermoelastic response of a cylinder. Pure Appl. Geophys., 112, 73--82. Published by Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 76 Problem 14 14. Show that the inverse of the Laplace transform is where n is the nth positive root of J1( )=0. This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 14 with a=2. 15. Show that the inverse of the Laplace transform is where m is the mth positive root of Jn+1( )=0. This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 15 with a/b=0.8. 16. Find the inverse 8 of the Laplace transform This transform has a simple pole at s=0 and an infinite number of essential singularities at sn=-(2n -1)2 2/4, where n=1, 2, 3,.... The most convenient 8 Taken from Roshal', A.A., 1969: Mass transfer in a two-layer porous medium. J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys., 10, 551--558.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 77 This inverse is illustrated in the figure labeled Problem 16. 17. Consider a function f(t) which has the Laplace transform F(z) which is analytic in the half-plane Re(z)>s0. Can we use this knowledge to find g(t) whose Laplace transform G(z) equals F[ (z)], where (z) is also analytic for Re(z)>s0? The answer to this question leads to the Schouten 9-Van der Pol10 theorem. Step 1: Show that the following relationships hold true: and Step 2: Using the results from Step 1, show that Problem 15 method for finding the inverse is to deform Bromwich's contour along the imaginary axis of the s-plane, except for an infinitesimally small semicircle around the simple pole. If we use this contour, show that 9 Schouten, J.P., 1935: A new theorem in operational calculus together with an application of it. Physica, 2, 75--80. 10 Van der Pol, B., 1934: A theorem on electrical networks with applications to filters. Physica, 1, 521--530.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 80 Taking the Laplace transform of Equation 2.2.5 and Equation 2.2.7 and substituting the initial condition, we obtain (2.2.8) with the boundary conditions (2.2.9) The solution that satisfies this boundary-value problem is (2.2.10) Using tables, the inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.2.10 is (2.2.11) Figure 2.2.1 illustrates Equation 2.2.11 as a function of distance x and time t. • Example 2.2.2 Several slight modifications to Example 2.2.1 yield a more challenging problem, namely, (2.2.12) Figure 2.2.1: A plot of Equation 2.2.11 as a function of distance x and time t.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 81 with the initial condition (2.2.13) and boundary conditions (2.2.14) Taking the Laplace transform of Equation 2.2.12 and Equation 2.2.14 and substituting the initial condition, we obtain the boundary-value problem (2.2.15) with (2.2.16) The solution that satisfies this boundary-value problem is (2.2.17) Using tables, the first shifting theorem and convolution, the inverse of the Laplace transform given by Equation 2.2.17 is (2.2.18) (2.2.19) where =x2/(4 2). An alternative method for inverting Equation 2.2.17 is to apply the technique shown in Example 2.1.5. Using Equation 2.1.48 to replace the exponential in Equation 2.2.17, we obtain (2.2.20) Applying the second shifting theorem, (2.2.21) Eliminating the Heaviside function from Equation 2.2.21 leads directly to Equation 2.2.19.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 82 • Example 2.2.3 To illustrate how the Laplace transform technique applies to problems over a finite domain, we solve a heat conduction problem11 in a plane slab of thickness 2L. Initially the slab has a constant temperature of unity. For 0<t, we allow both faces of the slab to radiatively cool in a medium which has a temperature of zero. If u(x, t) denotes the temperature, a2 is the thermal diffusivity, h is the relative emissivity, t is the time, and x is the distance perpendicular to the face of the slab and measured from the middle of the slab, then the governing equation is (2.2.22) with the initial condition (2.2.23) and boundary conditions (2.2.24) Taking the Laplace transform of Equation 2.2.22 and substituting the initial condition, (2.2.25) If we set s=a2q2, Equation 2.2.25 becomes (2.2.26) From the boundary conditions, U(x, s) is an even function in x and we may conveniently write the solution as (2.2.27) From Equation 2.2.24, (2.2.28) and (2.2.29) 11 Goldstein, S., 1932: The application of Heaviside's operational method to the solution of a problem in heat conduction. Z.Angew. Math. Mech., 12, 234--243.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 84 or (2.2.40) We can further simplify Equation 2.2.40 by using h/ n=tan( nL) and hL= nL tan( nL). Substituting these relationships into Equation 2.2.40 and simplifying, (2.2.41) Figure 2.2.2 illustrates Equation 2.2.41. • Example 2.2.4 For this example, we use Laplace transforms to solve a partial differential equation in cylindrical coordinates. It differs from our previous problems in its use of Bessel functions. Let us solve (2.2.42) subject to the boundary conditions that u(0, t)=0 and u(1, t)=1, and the initial condition that u(r, 0)=0. Introducing the Laplace transform of u(r, t), (2.2.43) Figure 2.2.2: The temperature within a slab 0<x/L<1 at various times a2t/L2 if the faces of the slab radiate to free space at temperature zero and the slab initially has the temperature 1. The parameter hL=1.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 86 because , I0(-i n)=J0( n) and I2(-i n)=-J2( n). Furthermore, we have J2( n)=-J0( n) because J2( n)+J0( n)=2J1( n)/ n=0. Consequently, upon summing the residues, the final solution is (2.2.53) where J1( n)=0 with n=1, 2, 3,.... Figure 2.2.3 illustrates Equation 2.2.53 as a function of distance r and time t. • Example 2.2.5 Let us solve the heat equation within an infinitely long cylindrical shell (2.2.54) where the interior surface is maintained at a constant temperature, u(a, t)=1, while the outside surface is kept at zero, u(b, t)=0. Initially, the shell has the temperature of zero, u(r, 0)=0. We begin by taking the Laplace transform of Equation 2.2.54 and find that (2.2.55) with U(a, s)=1/s and U(b, s)=0. The general solution to Equation 2.2.55 is (2.2.56) Figure 2.2.3: A plot of u(r, t) given by Equation 2.2.53 as a function of distance r and time t.
Transform Methods for Solving Partial Differential Equations 88 where we have used the properties that , , I0(z)K1(z)+I1(z)K0(z)=1/z, I0(xi)=J0(x) and K0(xi)=- i[J0(x)-iY0(x)]/2. Summing the residues leads to (2.2.64) This solution is illustrated in Figure 2.2.4 when b/a=4. • Example 2.2.6: Moving boundary In the previous examples, we showed that Laplace transforms are particularly useful when the boundary conditions are time dependent.12 Consider now the case when one of the boundaries is moving. We wish to solve the heat equation (2.2.65) subject to the boundary conditions (2.2.66) Figure 2.2.4: The temperature within a cylindrical shell a<r<b with b/a=4 at various times t if the inner surface is held at the temperature of 1 and outer surface has the temperature 0. Initially, the shell has the temperature of 0. 12 Taken from Redozubov, D.B., 1960: The solution of linear thermal problems with a uniformly moving boundary in a semiinfinite region. Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys., 5, 570--574.
Methods Involving Single-Valued Laplace Transforms 91 where q2=s/a2. Finally, the coefficients C1 and C2 are chosen so that the general solution satisfies the boundary conditions given by Equation 2.2.82, yielding (2.2.86) Using Bromwich's integral, Equation 2.2.86 may be inverted to yield (2.2.87) where kn denotes the nth root of J0(kb)=0. This solution is illustrated in Figure 2.2.5 when cb2=0.5. An alternative to the method of undetermined coefficients consists of expanding the nonhomogeneous term as a Fourier-Bessel expansion: 13 (2.2.88) where kn is again the nth root of J0(kb)=0, and (2.2.89) Figure 2.2.5: The temperature within a cylinder 0≤r<b at various times t if the surface is held at the temperature of 0 and the initial temperature distribution is 1-cr2. Here we have chosen cb2=0.5. 13 If you are not familiar with Fourier-Bessel series, see Duffy, D.G., 2003: Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLAB. Chapman & Hall/CRC, 818 pp. See Section 9.5. | https://b-ok.org/book/442306/90a512 |
As transfer function is a ratio of Laplace of output to Laplace of input and hence can be expressed as a ratio of polynomials in 's'.
Where K is called system gain factor. Now if in the transfer function, values of 's' are substituted as s1, s2, s3 ….. sn in the denominator then value of T.F. will become infinity.
Definition : The values of 's', which make the T.F. infinity after substitution in the denominator of a T.F. are called 'Poles' of that T.F.
So values s1, s2, s3 …. sn are called poles of the T.F.
These poles are nothing but the roots of the equation obtained by equating denominator of a T.F. to zero.
If these values are used in the denominator, the value of transfer function becomes infinity. Hence poles of this transfer function are s = 0 and -4.
If the poles are like s = 0, -4, -2, +5, …. i.e. real and without repeated values, they are called simple poles. A pole having same value twice or more than that is called repeated pole. A pair of poles with complex conjugate values is called pair of complex conjugate poles.
The poles are the roots of equation (s+4)2(s2+2s+2)(s+1) =0.
is called the characteristics equation.
Similar to the poles, now if the values of 's' are substituted as sa, sb ……. + sm in the numerator of a T.F., its value become zero.
Definition : the values of 's' which make the T.F. zero after substituting in the numerator are called 'zeros' of that T.F.
Such zeros are the roots of the equation obtained by equating numerator of a T.F. to zero. Such zeros are indicated by a small circle 'o' in s-plane.
Poles and zeros may be real or complex-conjugates or combination of both the types.
Poles and zero may be located at the origin in s-plane.
Similar to the poles, the zeros also are called simple zeros, repeated zeros and complex conjugate zeros depending upon their nature.
complex conjugate zeros at s = -1 ±j1.
Definition : Plot obtained by locating all poles and zeros of a T.F. in s-plane is called pole-zero plot of a system.
Definition : The highest power of 's' present in the characteristic equation i.e. in the denominator polynomial of a closed loop transfer function of a system is called 'Order' of a system.
The value of the transfer function obtained for s = 0 i.e. zero frequency is called the d.c. gain of the system.
Note : It is not possible to indicate the value of d.c. gain on pole-zero plot as it is a constant value. It is required to be separately specified, alongwith the pole-zero plot.
For example, consider example discussed earlier. The system T.F. is 1/(1+sRC).
So 1+sRC = 0 is its characteristics equation and system is first order system.
Then s = -1/RC is a pole of that system and T.F. has no zeros.
The corresponding pole-zero plot can be shown as in the Fig.1.
Now if values of R, L and C selected are such that both poles are real, unequal and negative, the corresponding pole-zero plot can be shown as in the Fig.2.
i.e. system is 5th order and there are 5 poles. Poles are 0, -1±j, -3, -4 while zero is located at '-2'.
The corresponding pole-zero plot can be drawn as shown in the Fig.3.
After getting familiar with introductory remarks about control system, now it is necessary to see how overall systems are represented and the methods to represent the given system, based on the transfer function approach. | http://www.yourelectrichome.com/2018/12/some-important-terminologies-related-to.html |
Over Lesson 2– 8 Solve 6 r + t = r – 1 for r. A. B. C. D.
Over Lesson 2– 8 Solve 4 c – d = 4 a – 2 c + 1 for c. A. B. C. D.
Over Lesson 2– 8 for h. A. B. C. D.
Content Standards A. REI. 1 Explain each step in solving a simple equation as following from the equality of numbers asserted at the previous step, starting from the assumption that the original equation has a solution. Construct a viable argument to justify a solution method. A. REI. 3 Solve linear equations and inequalities in one variable, including equations with coefficients represented by letters. Mathematical Practices 1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 4 Model with mathematics. Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
You translated sentences into equations. • Solve mixture problems. • Solve uniform motion problems.
Mixture Problem PETS Mandisha feeds her cat gourmet cat food that costs $1. 75 per pound. She combines it with cheaper food that costs $0. 50 per pound. How many pounds of cheaper food should Mandisha buy to go with 5 pounds of gourmet food, if she wants the average price to be $1. 00 per pound? Let w = the number of pounds of cheaper cat food. Make a table.
Mixture Problem Write and solve an equation using the information in the table. Price of gourmet cat food 8. 75 plus price of cheaper cat food equals + 0. 5 w = price of mixed cat food. 1. 00(5 + w) 8. 75 + 0. 5 w = 1. 00(5 + w) Original equation 8. 75 + 0. 5 w = 5 + 1 w Distributive Property 8. 75 + 0. 5 w – 0. 5 w = 5 + 1 w – 0. 5 w 8. 75 = 5 + 0. 5 w Subtract 0. 5 w from each side. Simplify.
Mixture Problem 8. 75 – 5 = 5 + 0. 5 w – 5 3. 75 = 0. 5 w Subtract 5 from each side. Simplify. Divide each side by 0. 5. 7. 5 = w Simplify. Answer: Mandisha should buy 7. 5 pounds of cheaper cat food to be mixed with the 5 pounds of gourmet cat food so that the average price is $1. 00 per pound of cat food.
Percent Mixture Problem AUTO MAINTENANCE A car’s radiator should contain a solution of 50% antifreeze. Bae has 2 gallons of a 35% antifreeze. How many gallons of 100% antifreeze should Bae add to his solution to produce a solution of 50% antifreeze? Let g = the number of gallons of 100% antifreeze to be added. Make a table.
Percent Mixture Problem Write and solve an equation using the information in the table. Amount of antifreeze in 35% solution 0. 35(2) plus + amount of antifreeze in 100% solution 1. 0(g) 0. 35(2) + 1. 0(g) = 0. 50(2 + g) 0. 70 + 1 g = 1 + 0. 50 g equals amount of antifreeze in 50% solution. = 0. 50(2 + g) Original equation Distributive Property 0. 70 + 1 g – 0. 50 g = 1 + 0. 50 g – 0. 50 g Subtract 0. 50 g from each side.
Percent Mixture Problem 0. 70 + 0. 50 g = 1 0. 70 + 0. 50 g – 0. 70 = 1 – 0. 70 0. 50 g = 0. 30 Simplify. Subtract 0. 70 from each side. Simplify. Divide each side by 0. 50. g = 0. 6 Simplify. Answer: Bae should add 0. 6 gallon of 100% antifreeze to produce a 50% solution.
Speed of One Vehicle AIR TRAVEL Nita took a non-stop flight to visit her grandmother. The 750 -mile trip took three hours and 45 minutes. Because of bad weather, the return trip took four hours and 45 minutes. What was her average speed for the round trip? Understand We know that Nita did not travel the same amount of time on each portion of her trip. So, we will need to find the weighted average of the plane’s speed. We are asked to find the average speed for both portions of the trip.
Speed of One Vehicle Return Formula for rate Because we are looking for a weighted average, we cannot just average the speeds. We need to find the weighted average for the round trip.
Speed of One Vehicle Solve Substitution Simplify.
Speed of One Vehicle Answer: The average speed was about 176 miles per hour. Check The solution of 176 miles per hour is between the going portion rate 200 miles per hour, and the return rate, 157. 9 miles per hour. So, the answer is reasonable.
Speeds of Two Vehicles 75 m + 40 m = 45 115 m = 45 Original equation Simplify. Divide each side by 115. m ≈ 0. 39 × 60 = 23. 4 Round to the nearest hundredth. Convert to minutes by multiplying by 60. Answer: The operator has about 23 minutes to warn the engineers. | https://present5.com/five-minute-check-over-lesson-2-8-ccss-then-now/ |
Tool: Sample Revenue Cycle Governance Council Charter
This is a sample tool from HFMA’s CFO Forum. Learn more about the CFO Forum and HFMA’s other Forums here.
1. Purpose: To serve as the governing council for the revenue cycle function of the Health System. To ensure sustainability, the Revenue Cycle Governance Council (RCGC) will execute system-wide revenue cycle initiatives and drive optimization by identifying where opportunities exist, determining best practice, and driving to implement standard process for hospital, physician group, and home care operations.
Charter for 2013
2. Definition: The revenue cycle is the set of activities in our health care environment that brings about reimbursement for medical care, supplies, and treatments. The primary focus is on Patient Access and Billing Office responsibilities across the organization. It also covers or intersects with other core functions such as admitting and registration, financial counseling, case management and utilization review, health information management (coding and documentation), charge capture, billing compliance, accounts receivable, cash posting, customer service, collections, underpayment review and audit, analytics, and the business systems used to maintain the aforementioned tasks.
3. Guiding Principles:
When making decisions and recommending policy changes, the Revenue Cycle Governance Council will adhere to the following guiding principles:
- System Sustainability: RCGC will ensure financial viability through a culture of financial discipline and adoption of best practice and business process. RCGC will focus on areas to improve results related to the revenue cycle, including lowering costs, increasing cash collections and decreasing days in A/R.
- Patient Centered: RCGC will advocate for processes which enable care coordination and seamless process from a patient perspective.
- Cost to Collect: RCGC will focus on standardization and implementation of best practice to drive down total cost to collect in the Central Billing Offices.
- Standardization/Standard Work: RCGC will support and advocate for standardization of process, use of technology, and other ways in which we can reduce variation across operations of the revenue cycle at all sites and care settings. This will include standardizing software systems and vendors. We recognize there are differences in best practices in hospitals, home care and physician groups. While best practice should be integrated when possible, they could be unique based on the care setting.
- RCGC recognizes there may be differences in the rural affiliates based on billing offices and IT resources used. The local Senior Affiliate RCGC lead will be the point person to share best practices and standard work processes with them. However, RCGC is not the authority to change the tools used by these rural affiliates.
- Best Practice Implementation: RCGC will support, advocate for and execute implementation of best practices as evidenced by HFMA or other literature, HFMA MAP Keys, MGMA Resources, and/or other respected professional organizations in each industry as well as internal metrics.
- Compliance: RGCG will support policies and processes with are compliant with all health system compliance policies, all laws – with heightened awareness of fair collection practices, and governmental regulations.
- Mitigation of Risk: RGCG will support policies and processes which balance effective and efficient process with mitigation of risk for patient complaints or any undue legal exposure.
- Use of Technology: RCGC will maximize the capabilities of our software systems to use them most fully and to the highest levels. RCGC recognizes that not all affiliates are currently on the same common platforms, but will aim for long-term implementation of standardized technology to enhance process or eliminate manual work and potential for human error.
- Research: RCGC will support and encourage seeking best practice through literature review, peer networking and educational sessions to bring innovation and potential new technology solutions to the health system.
- Documentation: RCGC will prepare business proposals as needed or summary information for documentation purposes around implementing best practices or process/policy changes. RCGC or assigned delegates will collaborate with appropriate persons to further the process of developing business plans as needed.
- Contracts: RCGC will understand the contractual obligations affiliates may have to current vendors and take that into account when making decisions.
4. Roles and Responsibilities:
- Strategy: RCGC’s strategy is to o Research and implement best practice,
- Reduce variation across health system affiliates through standardization and standard work process, and continually increase awareness of changes in the industry or regulations for which the health system needs to be prepared so that the health system can proactively implement compliance changes.
- Annual Planning: Develop annual plan objectives to achieve the RCGC strategy. Regularly review annual plans to ensure achievement of objectives in specified timeframes. Take corrective action when necessary.
- Metrics: Establish a systemwide scorecard and annual targets to ensure revenue cycle competencies. Regularly review core metrics.
- Implementation of Best Practice: Individual members of RCGC will ensure that best practice is implemented at each affiliate. Best practices will also be evaluated after implementation to ensure objectives are being met/sustained over time.
- Communication: RCGC members are expected to share the RCGC’s work, decisions and outcomes with their Finance Directors and CFOs and other appropriate persons, including physicians, following scheduled meetings to keep other key stakeholders informed.
- Networking: Meet with peers to creatively address issues and also to have a support group for challenges being faced across the system.
- Establish necessary standing or ad hoc groups to carry out the work of RCGC and appoint members to these groups.
5. Membership
a. Voting Members:
i. Include one member from each regional affiliate, one member from physician group, one member from home care and one member from hospital central billing office. That member should be the highest-ranking person who has the operational responsibility for the revenue cycle.
ii. Current voting members include:
c. Meeting Frequency
i. Monthly
ii. 9AM-2PM
iii. Meetings in person or via V-Tel.
iv. Other meetings may be required as needed.
d. Member Roles/Responsibilities
i. Attendance at meetings is expected. Designees are allowed if circumstances prevent member(s) from attending or voting.
ii. Read and review relevant materials and outside literature.
iii. Work between meetings may be required.
iv. Represent the needs of the member organization.
v. Serve as a communication link between RCGC and all interested stakeholders at the member organization.
vi. View decisions and vote according to what is best for the entire health system vision.
vii. Following the vote’s outcome, members will take accountability and ownership for RCGC’s decision regardless of personal/affiliate position.
viii. Sponsor major initiatives or projects chartered by Affinity Group.
ix. Member is accountable for implementation of best practice at the affiliate location.
x. Members will adhere to the Guiding Principles.
xi. The Executive Sponsor is a member of the Senior Leadership Group (SLG). This position will provide system leadership for the RCGC under the guidance of SLG.
xii. The Facilitator is a Management Leadership Academy (MLA) or Physician Leadership Academy (PLA) graduate. They are not a subject matter expert, but will help support the Executive Sponsor, Chair and RCGC as needed. The Facilitator will also organize the meeting agendas and annual planning and will facilitate the meetings. They can also handle minutes and follow up items if necessary.
e. Decisions
i. Scope of Authority:
1. RCGC will make recommendations to CFOs for final approval:
a. Changes to Health System Policies
b. Changes affecting the patient statements or patient collection/bad debt/financial assistance process
c. Unbudgeted expenditures
d. Significant changes (up or down) to cost to collect
e. Selection of vendors
f. Requests for new technology
g. Changes to organizational structure (i.e., centralization of function)
2. RCGC will make the following decisions, and keep CFOs informed, as appropriate, via site Revenue Cycle representative and/or on CFO call:
a. Changes to process impacting revenue cycle components: registration, HIM, CBO, etc.
b. Implementation of best practice
c. Changes to/optimization of software to improve work flow or implement best practice
ii. Decisions will be made in a timely manner.
iii. The group will work toward consensus.
iv. When a vote is called for: 1. A super majority (60%) of voting members is required. (7 of 11, unless someone abstains)
v. Some issues or decisions will require multiple affinity groups to weigh in before decisions/processes can be finalized.
2. Members should vote in the best interest of the system.
3. Once a vote passes, the change will be implemented across the entire system. There are to be no exceptions.
4. When a vote needs to occur, a motion will be made at the monthly meeting, but the vote will not occur until the following month’s meeting to allow time for discussion/research. The motion will again be stated on a draft agenda that will go out in advance of the meeting. A vote can be in person, V-Tel or via email. Designees to stand in for a voting member will be allowed if the voting member cannot participate at the time of the vote.
f. Communication
i. The members of the RCGC will be informed of a vote at the monthly meeting before the vote will occur.
ii. Members should submit their agenda items to the Facilitator at least three business days in advance of the scheduled monthly meeting.
iii. The agenda and other pertinent documents will be distributed via email to members two business days prior to the scheduled meeting.
iv. Minutes of each meeting will be documented by the Executive Assistant of Revenue Cycle and shared with the RCGC members, as well as each affiliate’s Finance Director and CFO. The Facilitator will handle minutes of the meeting if needed.
v. RCGC members are expected to share the RCGC’s work, decisions and outcomes with their Finance Directors and CFO’s and other appropriate persons, including physicians, following each meeting.
vi. RCGC will report to health system’s CFO Leadership group as needed/requested.
vii. RCGC will report on an annual basis to the health system SLG via RCGC’s Executive Sponsor.
viii. RCGC may choose to have sub-committees manage some projects, but progress on these will be communicated at monthly meetings.
6. Organizational Chart
a. RCGC reports to the system’s CFO Leadership group.
b. The following affinity groups report up to RCGC:
i. RAC Affinity Group
ii. Health Information Management (HIM) Affinity Group 1. CDI Specialists
iii. Registration Affinity Group (known as State Registration Managers)
iv. Revenue Cycle Directors (meets on ad hoc basis)
v. Utilization Management will have a designated member from their group serve as a non-voting liaison on RCGC.
7. Escalation Process
a. The Escalation Process for any issues will follow the Organizational Chart outlined above. If the issue or risk cannot be resolved at the level where it has been identified, it will be the responsibility of the respective chair to escalate the issue to the next higher level committee in the governance structure. It is expected that these issues will be escalated at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the higher level committee.
b. If the issue or risk requires immediate attention, the chair of the reporting committee will note the level of urgency to the chair of the higher level committee so that a special meeting can be called. It will be the prerogative of the higher level committee chair to determine if the issue or risk warrants that an extra meeting be held in person or via conference call, or if the issue should be resolved via e-mail.
c. It is expected that any issue or risk that is escalated will be placed on an open issues list by the Executive Sponsor who will keep a current status on the item. The open items will be identified and placed on the agenda for discussion at each subsequent meeting until resolved.
8. The RCGC Charter will be formally reviewed six months after adoption and annually thereafter.
Source: Reprinted with permission from a large U.S. health system that did not want to be named. | https://www.hfma.org/leadership/financial-leadership/49608/ |
All of the BHC Co-ops use a consensus based decision-making process to govern themselves, as does the BHC board of directors.
Consensus is sometimes confused with unanimity, which means the universal agreement of all participants. As we and many other communities practice it, consensus is not necessarily about everyone agreeing all the time — which would be a very tall order! Consensus is about identifying a solution that everyone can live with — an outcome that is acceptable to all participants, and which does not threaten the overall stability and functioning of the community. Consensus is not necessarily unanimity, but it is a non-hierarchical and fair decision-making process. Consensus aims to be:
- Inclusive and participatory: The process should actively solicit the input and participation of all stakeholders and decision-makers.
- Cooperative: Participants should strive to reach the best possible decision, for the group and all of its members.
- Egalitarian: Everyone should be afforded, as much as possible, equal input into the process. All members have the opportunity to table, amend, or block proposals.
- Solution-oriented: The process emphasizes common agreement over differences & uses compromise & other techniques to avoid or resolve mutually exclusive positions.
Consensus allows people to collectively explore solutions until the best one for the group emerges. In a simple voting method, dialogue tends to end when participants realize or expect that there is a majority (more than half of the people in a group) in favor of a proposal.
Consensus assures that everyone has a voice in the decision-making process, synthesizing all ideas into one plan that all participants agree to implement, & they can get behind & fully support. Since all participants agree to the decision, people are more invested in carrying out what has been decided.
Consensus is important in allowing minority opinions and concerns to be heard and considered, and encourages cooperation among people with divergent views. It attempts to minimize domination and empowers the community in the process of making a decision.
How does consensus work?
Consensus decision-making assumes that each issue or decision has a “best answer” and that each member of the group holds a piece of that answer. A good consensus process is one where members feel safe and encouraged to contribute their ideas, to share ideas freely without attachment or ownership, to openly and fairly evaluate all ideas, and to mix and match ideas to innovate a workable solution.
Consensus works by hearing all participants’ voices and by all participants coming to an agreement collectively about what is best for the group. The decisions made must be those that everyone in the group can live with – as nice as it would be, it’s impossible for all individuals in communities to be perfectly happy with all decisions at all times.
Seven Steps for Successful Decision-Making
- Define the problem: Start by defining the problem to be solved or objective to be achieved. If you can’t agree on what the problem is, you can’t find a solution. It might be helpful to write the problem down or draw a diagram so that everyone understands what’s going on.
- Gather information: List the known information and unknown information you need to get. Assign reliable members to gather what information you need. Differentiate between facts and opinions. If you are not clear about the facts, then your proposed solutions will be equally unclear.
- Create a list of possible solutions: Many groups start here and sometimes make poor decisions because they solved the wrong problem or didn’t have the right information. Use brainstorming to get a wide list of possible solutions. Don’t get trapped into either/or solutions – find the third way, the fourth way, and so on.
- Evaluate the alternatives: What are the costs, benefits, and downsides to each option? More research might be required. Be sure to consider all options equally.
- Select a course of action to implement: Use consensus to choose a plan to put into action. Maybe two or three alternatives get blended into the best solution.
- Implement the decision: Assign the decision to specific people with instructions on what to do and what the group wants.
- Evaluate: (Later) Evaluate the process used to reach the decision, the work done to implement it, and its success at solving the problem or achieving the desired objective.
Further Reading:
- The Wikipedia article on Consensus decision-making gives a good short introduction and some background.
- Consensus Decision-Making curates a large collection of resources related to the consensus process.
- If you’re interested in how one of the BHC co-ops thinks about consensus, check out the Masala Co-op Facilitation Manual, which is part of the BHC Wiki. | https://boulderhousingcoalition.org/resources/consensus/ |
Voting has been known to mankind since ancient times as a way of expressing the will of people, where a common opinion is determined by counting the votes of individual members of the group.
In today’s world, a lot of important issues are solved by voting. Voting has become a kind of symbol of democracy, where every individual can influence decisions related to managing a country or company policy.
There are many different methods of voting, the only purpose of which is to achieve the best indicator of honesty as a factor of maximum conformity of results, to the general interests of the participants in the vote.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of criticism about the methods of voting. So in most electoral systems there are vulnerabilities that theoretically allow falsifying the results of voting by a certain group of people to suit their interests.
Voting on the basis of blockchain technology has opened a new era in election technology. Thanks to crypto-voting it is possible to hold elections protected from falsifications, especially it became actual in DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) projects where by voting it is defined where public capital will be invested. Often, at the same time, the weight of the voice is equal to the sum of investments in the DAO project. Thus, those who have invested more money have a more powerful voice in calculating the results. In contrast to ordinary voting, where the votes of all participants are equal. But even here there are unsatisfied parties. With this vote, top investors almost deprive everyone of the right to vote, as their votes can unilaterally change the balance of power.
In addition to the task of excluding the possibility of falsification of the results of voting, an equally important aspect is the choice of a voting system based on a balanced and fair vote count.
To exclude the likely factor of monopolization of the election results, the Redenom project team chose the method of quadratic voting of the rule organized on top of the platform, which rules are prescribed in the smart contract code (link). Thus, in the project Redenom, the importance of the investment size was retained, but the top owners of NOM tokens are not in a position to monopolize the voting results.
In the Redenom system, the weight of each voice is equal to the square root of the amount of NOM tokens on the participant’s account at the time of voting. Thus, having in fact a more weighty voice, top investors can not alone decide the outcome of the vote.
The voting system of the Redenom project actually solved the main problems associated with circumvention of the system and the abuse of the system logic.
In this regard, we can safely assume that today, thanks to the technological breakthrough and enthusiasm of the team, the Redenom project offers its users the most promising model of voting in the process of selecting projects to be funded from the collective Redenom DAO Fund. | https://redenom.com/info/news/quadratic-blockchain-voting-system-in-redenom-project/ |
My class project will be on crypto/blockchain voting in the context of the U.S. presidential election. I will use this post to compare ideas from our readings about voting and how governance power is balanced between the blockchains discussed and the U.S. governance system.
The U.S. governance system is divided into 3 branches: The executive (president), judiciary (courts), legislature (senate + house of representatives). And then there are voters! I disagreed with the analogies made by the author of “Blockchain Governance: Programming Our Future” between the branches of power in the Bitcoin vs U.S. systems. For example, the author compares bitcoin nodes to the executive branch, but the executive branch is led by one executive - one person holds ultimate decision making power - whereas nodes may make separate decisions and their decisions bring outcomes through more nuanced mechanisms.
(image from “Blockchain Governance: Programming Our Future”)
An interesting point the author made that brings me to a different comparison is about incentive alignment. (Bitcoin) blockchain developers have a lot of potential power to implement changes, but inadequate financial incentives. Large miners could bribe or hire developers to develop node software in their favor. This could be analogous to how lobbyists financially support government officials, who have the power to implement changes, to make changes in their favor. In both cases where these incentives align between the briber and the bribed, the overall community and network is negatively impacted.
Now to compare voting in blockchain vs U.S. systems by drawing from Vitalik’s “Notes on Blockchain Governance” post.
Vitalik frames voting as serving the purposes of decision making and coordination, and then describes his framework of “layer 1” or “tightly coupled” voting, versus “layer 2” or “loosely coupled” voting. “Tightly coupled” voting enacts more direct change decisions, whereas “loosely coupled” voting enables changes by coordination. Then the question is: Which types of changes in blockchain or U.S. systems should be reached by tightly coupled versus loosely coupled voting?
When considering blockchain governance, Vitalik argues that decisions regarding norms best exist on layer 2 (loosely coupled) while protocols are layer 1. We could see the U.S. governance system as already functioning in this way. Basic operations such as how eligible voters elect a president every 4 years, or how the number of representatives is allotted to each state are defined as protocols in the U.S. constitution, and are rarely updated (e.g. with amendments). Yet how these protocols are used changes over the years as society’s norms change (e.g. courts interpret laws differently as society progresses, or more progressive representatives are elected by the populace). We could then say that norms do drive “level 2” governance in the U.S. system.
Vitalik points out problems for on-chain voting that are important to consider for the U.S. governance system as well.
“it is not at all clear that voting will be able to deliver results that are actually decentralized, if voters are not technically knowledgeable and simply defer to a single dominant tribe of experts.”
In the U.S. system, constituents vote for representatives and government officials to have the job of voting on their behalves. These elected officials are supposed to have the “technical” knowledge, in order to make good decisions and represent the constituents’ best interests. Yet there are still issues where self-proclaimed loud experts and interest groups can have an oversized impact on what information is disseminated and impacts the decisions made.
Other problems with (on-chain) voting that Vitalik points out are low voter turnout (<5% on-chain), unequal wealth distribution, and “a large flaw: in any vote, the probability that any given voter will have an impact on the result is tiny, and so the personal incentive that each voter has to vote correctly is almost insignificant… Hence, a relatively small bribe spread out across the participants may suffice to sway their decision, possibly in a way that they collectively might quite disapprove of.”
The U.S. presidential election also suffers from low turnout (<62%) and voters feeling apathetic that their one vote can have an impact. However, our process for U.S. voting privacy was designed to avoid bribes. If voters cannot prove to potential bribers that they voted the way they were paid to vote, then elections are less susceptible to purchase. The importance of private votes are a central reason that experts are concerned about internet voting. This may be one of the important reasons on-chain and U.S. voting systems must stay separate.
What do others think about these comparisons between on-chain and U.S. voting systems? Are there any more parallels to add, or things I got wrong? | https://discuss.blockchainethics.co/t/class-6-readings-blockchain-governance-vs-us-governance/65 |
Decision making has always been a fraught process in the corporate world. To have more engaged employees and effective output, it is necessary to involve them in decisions. However, making decisions within a bigger team can be messy and burdensome. Even if decisions have been made, commitment levels suddenly seem to vary when it comes to executing decisions.
Even if you are not in the process of software development, non-techies can reap the benefits of their agile process. When you’re developing software, decisions need to be quick and team members need to ensure they’re not burdening the process. The logic is similar to most decisions made by a team. By borrowing their decision-making frameworks, non-tech companies can improve their current ways of reaching a conclusion.
One such technique is called the fist or five. All you need to bring to this meeting is your hand (you don’t even need both!). Transitioning from a closed fist to an open palm, there is a value attributed to each finger raised. This provides a quick voting system on how the team feels about any new work. It also provides transparency about the commitment of each team member to this new work. This, in turn, allows the company to allocate resources more effectively, by assigning more engaged employees to projects and be assured that the work will be followed through. | https://semco.style/toolkit/self-management/fist-or-five-sample/ |
On Sunday the Conservative Party of Canada elected its new national Leader, using a highly unusual weighted preferential voting system which gave heartland party supporters relatively low vote weights.
Members of the party – established in 2003 from the merger of two conservative parties – have elected Saskatchewan social conservative Andrew Scheer over his leading rival, libertarian conservative Maxime Bernier from Quebec, by the narrowest of margins – 50.95% to 49.05%.
Bernier was the overwhelming favourite in pre-vote expectations, having led in every published poll. During the pre-2015 Conservative government Scheer, now aged 38, had been the House of Commons’ youngest-ever Speaker, elected to the office at the age of 32.
The leadership selection was based on the votes of around 140,000 Conservative Party members around the nation, counted centrally and declared at a party convention held on the weekend.
13 candidates campaigned for several months for the post (one further candidate had withdrawn), and the party used a form of preferential voting to choose among them. Most votes were cast online, but some were cast in person at special polling places.
During Saturday’s party convention the less successful candidates were eliminated one by one. Rapt party members looked on over several dramatic hours as vote tally announcements were released at the convention centre.
With three candidates remaining, Bernier led with 40% to Scheer on 38%, and third-placed Erin O’Toole on 21%.
Only when O’Toole was the final candidate to be eliminated did Scheer overtake Bernier, who has led for all 12 earlier counts.
The gripping vote count was not based on a system of equal member votes, however. The system was premised on the voting members in each of the nations 338 electoral divisions – termed ridings in Canada – being collectively allocated 100 points for each riding.
Of the resulting 33,800 electoral points, the winner of the count needed to reach 50%+1, or 16,901 points, which is what Scheer achieved only on the final count.
Preferencing was ‘optional’, in that members could express preferences for as few as 1 or as many as 10 of the candidates.
In each riding, ballot counters sorted the ballots cast by local members and allotted the 100 available points in proportion to the votes tallied.
On the first national aggregation of the results, Bernier lead clearly with 28.9% of the points, Scheer had 21.8% and O’Toole 10.6%. Four other candidates had won more than 7% of the points.
12 rounds of elimination and transfer of ballots were then needed to reduce the field to the final two contenders.
As the party’s national counting centre determined in turn the elimination of each minor candidate, the riding counters transferred ballots from eliminated candidates to those remaining, and re-allocated the 100 points among those remaining.
The optional preferencing system meant that the ballots of voters who only listed preferences for the eliminated candidates effectively dropped out of the count, becoming ‘dead votes’ (known as exhausted ballots in Australia). This rule therefore increased the relative influence of the remaining ballots.
But more importantly, because the system was not based on equal vote weights for every party member, the influence of the members around the nation varied quite dramatically.
In ridings with relatively few registered members, the participating voters in this leadership poll had relatively high influence. By contrast in ridings with larger numbers of members, which are likely to be the party’s heartland of supporters, the influence of those eligible to vote was significantly lower.
The party had not released riding-by-riding vote data, only the points won in each riding, but eligible voter totals by province were publicly available.
Across the whole 338 ridings, this gave each potential voter a nominal national average of 0.130 points of influence on the election outcome.
In Canada’s most populated province Ontario, the voters has noticeably lower influence. The 114,508 party members registered in Ontario’s 121 ridings meant that each voter had a nominal 0.106 points of influence – only 81% of the national average.
Voters in Scheer’s home province of Saskatchewan were weighted similarly, effectively weighted at a below-par 0.108 points each – 83% of the national average. Those in British Columbia were worth 93% of the average.
But the smaller numbers of party leadership voters in the Atlantic provinces, where the conservative party usually polls relatively poorly, had much more influence. Those in Nova Scotia were weighted at 180%, those in New Brunswick at 209%, in Prince Edward Island 258% and in Newfoundland 449%.
Voters in Quebec were also highly influential, at 364% of the national average.
The 52 registered voters in the far northern territory of Nunavut were worth a massive 1,474% of the average.
But in prairie province Alberta – home to former Prime Minister Steven Harper and arguably the heartland of the Conservative Party – those registered to vote had just 44% of the average influence.
Each of the 52 Nunavut Conservative Party members was worth 33 Albertans in influencing the outcome of this leadership poll.
These weightings would have been adjusted again by the actual poll, since turnout rates would have differed between the provinces. Overall turnout was around 54% of those registered.
If Alberta registered voters turned out at higher than the national rate, their influence on the leadership poll would have been even lower.
Within every province there would have been registration and also turnout variation between every riding around the already divergent provincial averages given above.
What impact all this effective vote weighting had on the result is hard to say, but with a final result with a margin of only 1%, it is entirely possible that Maxime Bernier might have had more supporters nationally.
The order of elimination of other candidates might also have been different, although it seems certain that Bernier and Scheer would still have been the two final candidates.
During the 20th century the three major Canadian political parties traditionally chose their party leaders at national conventions, but they have all moved to public elections of party members in recent years.
In 2004 the Conservatives chose Stephen Harper as their foundation leader under similar rules to those used again this year, but Harper won a clear 56% of the first preference vote, so the result was not in question.
The Liberal Party adopted the same leader selection system for the first time in 2013, but out of seven candidates that year Justin Trudeau, now the nation’s Prime Minister, won a massive 80% of the first preference vote, eclipsing any significance of the riding vote weighting rules.
The New Democrat Party is will also be selecting a new leader in October this year. They will not use riding vote weighting, so each ordinary party member has an equal vote. Multiple votes will be taken once per week, with additional candidates eliminated every week until one winner has 50% of the votes of members still voting.
The October NDP vote will be the third member’s election of a party leader, with the late Jack Leyton elected in 2003, and outgoing leader Thomas Mulcair chosen in 2012.
Update: CBC is reporting that in terms of real votes of Conservative party members, Scheer beat Bernier 62,593 to 55,544, with around 23,000 votes ‘exhausting’ (in Australian lingo) without giving a preference between the two. That’s 44% to Scheer, 39% to Bernier and 16% exhausting.
Australian elections mainly use compulsory full preferencing, which would have forced a decision out of that last 16% (on penalty of invalidating entirely the ballots of those who refused to do so). Based on Australian experiences with preference, that last 16% might indeed have changed the result.
Bernier would have needed to win around 75% of the exhausted/dead ballots. Would he have been able to get that rate? We’ll never know.
Update 1 June: Eric Grenier at CBC has an illuminating update on this story today. He has gone through the riding-by-riding numbers.
It’s not entirely clear from the story if he has access to the raw vote data in each riding or if he is just analysing the riding points numbers.
In any case, Grenier concludes that Andrew Scheer certainly had the most actual votes of the final two contestants: 53% of them to Maxime Bernier’s 47%, a lead of over 7,000 member votes.
But Grenier also estimates that had just 66 votes been different in the right places in close, low-population ridings, they could have swung the result – on points – to Bernier, while still leaving Scheer easily the preferred candidate of those 7,000 extra voters. Had such an ‘inversion’ result happened, the outcome would have left Bernier with a very questionable win.
The significance of Grenier’s finding is that the points-weighting system the party uses can easily misfire if an election is very close. It didn’t so so at this poll, but the party may want to think through its leader election process to anticipate a future close contest.
By the by, the potential for votes and points to end up mis-matched in voting systems like this is very similar to what happened in the 2016 US presidential election, where Hilary Clinton had three million more actual votes, but Donald Trump won the most ‘points’ in close contests in a few crucial states.
Most ballots were mail-in ballots, not online. I participated in this leadership election, and found it fortunate that online (ie: proxy) voting was not used.
They even did the ballot sealed in an inner envelope, and your name/signature in an outer envelope so that the person confirming you were a member could be different than the people counting/scanning the ballots.
I think standards of election admin in Aust/Can/NZ are very high, so I’m not surprised if they are also well-administered in important intra-party votes such as Canadian party leadership ballots.
The post was written to question the implicit vote-weighting effect. I wonder did the actual participants – you were one of the 140,000 – also feel a sense of weighting discrimination, or did participants think the riding-weighting was a legitimate device? Your opinion?
Different people were voting for different things, and their opinions on the weighting was dependent on what they were voting for.
I was part of the group that was voting for the next Prime Minister. We were looking for someone who would represent values closer to those of the majority of Canadians, and thus would be most likely to become the next PM. Since we want a PM to be the PM for the entire country, we supported the weighting so we would be more likely to get support during a general election from the entire country.
Others were voting for someone to represent social conservative values to Canadians. I didn’t agree with this logic as any Canadian conservative party does well when it sticks to fiscally conservative policies and keeps social conservative values away from parliament. This is separate from the fact I’m a progressive conservative, and thus am socially liberal already. Discussion of social conservative issues have always been in conflict with our ability to implement fiscal conservative policies.
The federal NDP are dealing with the the same type of issues: Recent party leaders have been said to shift the party to the center (IE: towards where the majority of the population is with the American-football-shaped demographics) which for Canada is largely socially liberal but fiscally conservative. There are many in the NDP that want to return to core NDP values, which is a divergence from the center on economic policy.
While the current Conservative leader is socially conservative himself, he has stated he will follow the lead of the past leader Steven Harper and seek to keep social conservative polices out of parliament so they will be able to focus on implementing fiscal conservative policies within government.
Eric Grenier at CBC has added to this story – see update in the main text above.
This entry was posted on May 30, 2017 by Malcolm Baalman in Canada, Party leadership, Preferential voting. | https://onelections.net/2017/05/30/canadian-conservatives-weight-members-votes-in-choosing-new-leader/ |
Last week, I served as a voting member of the Group Living Selection Board and was a part of the decision making.
Even though the process is over, I still feel unsettled by it. After finding out that several other appeals were being filed, I felt that it was my responsibility to put my concerns forward and explain why I personally think the process was flawed and should be reevaluated.
I owe it to the groups who took their time to apply and put their trust in the board, to the board as a whole who may or may not share my concerns, and to the Residence Life Committee—a group that is dedicated to serving the Lawrence community. They have also recently redesigned this process in the hopes of creating a fairer, more efficient system for group living.
My main concern pertains to the voting portion of the selection process. The board took a total of three votes during the process. The first two votes were done simultaneously and intended to decide whether or not two specific groups should get houses. One of these votes was very, very close.
After the results were announced, we decided to go over the discussion points that had led us to this decision. During this short discussion, one member of the board asked if they could change their vote. I recall at least one other member nodding, possibly in agreement. This led us to question whether or not we should be able to do a revote. Some members wanted to, others did not, resulting in the third and final vote taken: whether or not we should revote on the first vote. This decision was off by one, in favor of not re-voting.
In hindsight, I simply do not think it made sense for us to vote on re-voting. In Steering and other committees where I have experience with parliamentarian and voting procedure, if an individual would like to change their vote, it is noted and changed without needing the permission of the rest of the committee.
If many of the selection board members voted against taking a revote because they did not want to change their vote and therefore would not benefit from the extra five minutes taken to revote, this gives those who didn’t want to change their minds an unfair advantage. Their voices are being elevated above those of other members who wanted to change their votes.
The selection process is heavily dependent on the thoughts of the board members, which is best represented through votes. Not permitting an individual to change their vote prevents their opinions from being taken into consideration. Also, putting a member’s right to vote through the democratic process does not make sense and goes against almost every aspect of the procedure, therefore threatening the validity of the final outcome. Considering the initial vote in question resulted in a 5-4 outcome, I think it is clear that allowing at least one member to change their vote would likely affect the outcome and, consequently, the final decision of the selection board.
In the days following the selection, I made the decision to file an appeal stating this concern. I felt it warranted the process being redone to ensure that the final decision matched the feelings of the board members, as intended. Unfortunately, my appeal was not approved by the Residence Life Committee to be brought forward to the rest of the Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC).
In the housing legislation, it says that appeals may only be brought forward by applicant groups. Since I was not one of the applicant groups, my appeal was denied credibility and my concerns were not shared during the Executive LUCC Meeting held this past Monday. My voice was being silenced by the Residence Life Committee, which is ironic, because I am a member of that committee.
As someone who is very committed to upholding the values and mission of LUCC, I felt that my account of what happened needed to be shared and that actions should have been taken to rectify what I perceived to be misconduct during the process. I still believe that is it the responsibility of the Residence Life Committee to address this problem and I will continue to push the committee internally to hold themselves accountable for what went wrong in this process.
I would also like to add that I am in a very unique position where I am an appellant, a member of the selection board, a member of the Residence Life Committee and General Secretary of LUCC. By being in each of these positions, I have had the opportunity to see the housing process and its aftermath unfold in multiple dimensions.
I understand why my appeal was denied but I still think it bears merit. I agree that the legislation and process cannot be changed mid-cycle to accommodate my wishes, but I feel that it would be best for the Lawrence community if it were.
It is a very strange predicament to be in and I feel torn in many ways. However, by choosing to file an appeal and write this piece, I feel I am making efforts towards the transparency and accountability of LUCC, which is something I, the rest of cabinet, and several other members of LUCC have been attempting to prioritize for this term and moving forward.
Making this information public does come with some sacrifices, which encourages me to end this piece by clarifying the following points:
1) I do not mean to insinuate one group that was awarded a house is not deserving of a house. Clearly this decision was made for a reason the first and second time around. It cannot be proven that if the selection process were to be done that this group would absolutely not receive a house. Also, the details shared about this vote were purely from my perspective, making it inherently biased and limited.
2) My appeal not having grounds for approval is not the only problem I have with the housing legislation and procedure that was carried out. There are other pieces I, along with other members of LUCC, have encountered and have disliked, such as who reviews the appeals, the way application information was publicized, the lack of an established structure for the selection process, the limited role selection board members play after the selection process, and more.
3) It has become apparent that the housing legislation that was passed last winter is not perfect. It has contributed to many issues with this process and now prevents the Residence Life Committee and LUCC from rectifying a majority of these issues. As someone who helped design this legislation, I did not foresee this coming and I realize that the best thing to do moving forward is to begin reworking the legislation. These amendments cannot be implemented for this year, unfortunately, but taking what we have learned from this experience will hopefully allow us to craft a better set of rules that prevent this from happening again next year.
4) The decisions of the selection board carry a lot of weight and affect all of campus both directly and indirectly. The fact that there were five appeals filed, including my own, demonstrates a number of individuals feeling upset by the decisions made by the board and/or the procedure that was carried out by the board. Despite four of the five appeals being denied on legislative—and perhaps other—grounds, I think it should be emphasized how important it is for student voices to be heard. I believe I have an advantage—and perhaps an unfair one—as appellant by being an active member in LUCC because I have access to more resources that allow my voice to be heard. However, LUCC is imperfect and needs to be checked by more students than just myself. This can be done in the form of appeals when unpopular decisions are made, by reaching out to your representatives to ask questions, bringing community concerns to General Council, attending open meetings or officer open-office hours or making the decision to get involved. It is important to remember that LUCC is composed of students and offers many different positions that cater to specific interests and varying levels of commitment. Joining LUCC was one of the best decisions I have made at Lawrence as a freshman. I truly feel that I have made an impact on this campus by being a part of it and I would highly encourage anyone who is interested to get involved. | https://www.lawrentian.com/archives/1008352 |
Nigeria has a committed regulatory body that works for the continuous improvement of nuclear and radiation safety, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) peer review mission has concluded. However, it noted challenges related to its independence in implementing regulatory decisions and activities.
An IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) team today completed a ten-day mission to Nigeria. The 12-member team comprised senior experts from France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, Pakistan, Slovenia, Turkey and Zimbabwe, as well as three IAEA staff members. The Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) is the body responsible for regulatory oversight in the African country.
IRRS missions are designed to strengthen the effectiveness of the national radiation safety regulatory infrastructure, while recognising the responsibility of each member state to ensure nuclear and radiation safety. The missions compare regulatory technical and policy issues with IAEA safety standards and, where appropriate, good practices elsewhere. The regulatory review process also draws directly upon the wide-ranging international experience and expertise of the regulatory review team members. The review leads to a report that identifies good practices and provides recommendations and suggestions for improvement.
"The IRRS team recognises the strong commitment of Nigeria to improving nuclear and radiation safety."Lamberto Matteocci,IRRS mission leader
The IRRS team identified good practice in the NNRA's routine training for news media to inform them about its processes and decisions, as well as the possible radiation risks associated with facilities and activities.
The team also made recommendations and suggestions to the government and NNRA to help them further enhance the country's regulatory framework in line with IAEA safety standards. These include the government establishing a national policy on safety and ensuring the corresponding legal framework is in line with those safety standards. It also recommends that the government ensures the NNRA is effectively independent and is functionally separate from entities having responsibilities or interests that could influence its decision-making.
The IRRS team also suggested NNRA carry out an analysis of all competencies needed to cover its responsibilities, and develop and implement a human resource and training plan. It should also ensure all facilities and activities have valid authorisation, and establish and implement an enforcement policy to respond to non-compliance. The NNRA should also consider formalising cooperation with other authorities having responsibilities related to safety.
Team leader Lamberto Matteocci, technical coordinator for nuclear safety and radiation protection at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, said: "The IRRS team recognises the strong commitment of Nigeria to improving nuclear and radiation safety. We believe the outcome of this mission will be of great help to the country in order to enhance its national regulatory framework."
NNRA director general Lawrence Dim said, "The Nigerian government will work with the IAEA to develop a work-plan for the implementation of the mission's recommendations and suggestions. Nigeria is always ready to cooperate with the Agency in the area of nuclear and radiation safety, as well as in other areas. We are committed to using the IAEA safety standards and international best practices to improve our policy, and legal, technical and regulatory infrastructure."
The final IRRS mission report will be submitted to the Nigerian government in about three months, the IAEA said. It noted Nigerian authorities have said they plan to make the report public.
According to the IAEA, Nigeria makes extensive use of radiation sources in medical and industrial applications, as well as in science and research. It started up its first research reactor at Ahmadu Bello University in 2004 for the analysis of materials and training.
To address rapidly increasing baseload electricity demand, Nigeria has sought the support of the IAEA to develop plans for up to 4000 MWe of nuclear capacity by 2025. | https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Nigerian-regulator-committed-to-safety,-says-IAEA |
SCA 9Background and procedural information:
2007 CA S.C.A. 9, Senate Constitutional Amendment 9, was introduced on 4/16/07 by Republican Senator Roy Ashburn and Democratic Senator Don Perata, co-authored by Republican Assembly Member Bill Maze and amended in Senate 5/14/07.
Under the legislation, are single-member districts a requirement or otherwise implied?
Under the amendment, each member of the Senate, Assembly, Congress, and Board of Equalization is elected from a single-member district.
Does the legislation provide for Voting Rights Act compliance (i.e. can the commission use voter history information)?
The Amendment explicitly provides that district boundary lines will each have equal population with other districts, comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and respect communities of interest to the extent practicable. The commission may not use party registration and voting history data in the mapping process, and the amendment does not provide an exception to include voting history or party registration to further the goals of the Voting Rights Act.
Under the legislation, how is the commission formed?
Under the amendment to California’s state constitution, an eleven member independent commission will be formed, with no more than four members from the same political party. A panel of ten retired superior court judges or Court of Appeals judges will nominate 55 candidates for appointment to the eleven member commission. The pool of 55 candidates will be representative of California’s racial, ethnic, cultural, geographic and gender diversity, and will consist of 20 nominees from each of the two largest political parties, as well as 15 nominees not registered with either of those two political parties. The ten panelists will appoint the members of the commission by random selection after each political party has had an opportunity to strike up to four nominees.
A person is not eligible to serve on the commission if the person or a member of his or her immediate family has been appointed or elected to, or has been a candidate for any other public office; served as an officer of a political party, or as an officer, employee, or paid consultant of a public official’s campaign committee; been a registered lobbyist, or employee of or consultant to a registered lobbyist; or any person who has contributed $10,000 or more to the Governor, a member of the Legislature, or a member of the State Board of Equalization.
Under the legislation, are competitive districts favored?
Neutral.*
Under the legislation, can members of the public submit plans?
Under the Amendment, the commission will establish and implement an open and noticed hearing process to consider public input. The public hearing process will include (a) public hearings before any redistricting; (b) hearings after each drawing and display of proposed maps; and (c) hearings following the drawing and display of the final redistricting maps. Also, any affected elector may file a petition for a writ of mandate or writ of prohibition to challenge a final redistricting plan within 45 days after the plan has been certified by the commission.
Does the legislation allow for mid-decade redistricting?
The amendment does not explicitly allow for mid-decade redistricting.
*Note: A proposal may be neutral on whether or not to favor competitive districts for a number of reasons, including that such a requirement may be thought to conflict with other criteria, potentially create other legal issues, or is assumed to flow from the new process itself -- or it might merely not be a priority for the legislative sponsors. FairVote believes that some form of proportional voting is needed to ensure maximum competitiveness for each seat and to ensure meaningful choices for all voters. | http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=2128 |
Wellington's former mayor Justin Lester has had his bid for an election recount declined.
Mr Lester applied to Wellington District Court applied for a recount after a final count of the local election votes showed Mayor Andy Foster won the mayoralty by 62 votes, a lower margin than the 503-vote lead in the preliminary count.
He gained 27,364 votes to Justin Lester's 27,302 votes.
Mr Lester's lawyer Graeme Edgeler said the decision by the court was "proper" and the argument that a recount would yield enough votes for Mr Lester to change the outcome was a difficult one to make.
"It was always a difficult argument to advance, but it was justified and worth making," he said.
Mr Lester's application was made on the basis that the result was exceptionally close - less than 0.11 percent of the valid votes cast in the election.
A report from the Electoral Office considered by Judge Kevin Kelly outlined that even if excluded votes were counted, the outcome would not change.
Mr Lester said he respected the decision.
"There's never been a manual recount of an STV election, votes are counted by a computer, they're not always right. We had Nigel Roberts who said in another modern democracy you'd have an automatic recount, so that's a shame but it is what it is.
"I've spent a lot of time studying law myself and you respect that, that's full and final. As far as I'm concerned, that matter's at an end.
"You've got to move on when you take a defeat."
He said he was looking forward to spending more time with his family and working with other Wellington businesses and charities.
"I've got my first meeting this weekend with my wife around this affordable housing charity, so we're scoping out some properties for that. I'm looking forward to doing new things."
He was not considering pursuing any central government positions, he said.
"I've always heard these rumours being bandied about - never from me - that's not my ambition."
He said local government voting systems needed to change.
"We had people queuing up after 12 o'clock to cast their votes, we had people that sent their votes on the Tuesday but they arrived after Saturday and those votes weren't counted.
"There are a whole raft of things that need to change in local government, postal elections are for the past."
He also thanked the city for his tenure at the council.
"I came into council a 32-year-old community member and I stood for council because I thought we deserved better, I thought we wanted some effective representation.
"I've been a deputy mayor and a mayor, it's been the best nine years of my career, I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
"I do have to say I look forward to having my evenings to myself... I also won't miss some of the emails that you get - the crank ones - people wanting their potholes fixed or their chipseal laid in a different way, but look it's been a wonderful job and I've incredibly enjoyed the privilege of serving Wellington."
Mr Lester wished the city's new mayor well.
"Andy's had 27 years on council - he's got the experience - the difficulty will be getting together a team and getting some decisions made, but I wish him the best of luck.
"It's really important that Wellington gets it right, you've got Let's Get Wellington Moving, it's a $3.4 billion project, if you screw this up the city's really going to be in a bad place."
Mayor responds
Mayor Andy Foster said he was pleased to be able to get on with the job, now there was no possibility of further legal challenges.
"It is unfortunate that it has taken this long to get to this point," Mr Foster said in a statement.
The decision showed voters could have confidence in the integrity of the voting system, "both in Wellington and around the country", he said.
"And it has also saved the ratepayers the significant cost of a recount.
"The Chief Electoral Officer's evidence was very strong, showing the system was very robust and there were checks and balances.
"The evidence was also that a good number of the partial and informal votes were votes cast for me, and even if they had been counted, the result would not have changed."
Postal votes
New Zealand Post is confident voting papers in the local body elections for Wellington City Council would have made it to their destination in time to be counted, if they were posted by the due date.
NZ Post said it does a significant amount of planning and preparation specifically for the local government elections, sending out 3.2 million voting papers to almost two million households.
It said there was a two week period between voting papers arriving and voting papers needing to be sent back - which it believes provided plenty of time to allow for minor anomalies.
Postal vote returns are processed at a faster rate for the final three days of the election period, it said, and it has a special stacker on sorting machines, to quickly separate out the votes being returned to the electoral officers.
On the final morning of Election Day, a special team at each of the mail centres does a final sweep, maximising the number of votes that are received and counted, on time. | https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/402820/wellington-mayoralty-justin-lester-s-mayoral-election-recount-bid-declined |
Framework for The Sutton Education Partnership September 2019
1. Introduction:
This reference document is to provide the framework for effective partnership between local education providers and commissioners in order to identify and respond to key educational priorities in Sutton. Below are the possible relevant groups, collectively called ‘Partners’, together with potential Partner representatives (September 2019).
- London Borough of Sutton – Director of People Services
- London Borough of Sutton – AD Education and SEND
- Cognus – Services Director
- Early Years’ Settings – Head of Hackbridge Primary
- Primary Schools – Deputy CEO of the Cirrus Primary Academy Trust
- Secondary Schools – Head of Wilson’s School
- Post 16/19 Colleges – Curriculum Manager, Supported Learning, South Thames Colleges Group
- Special Schools – Head of Carew Academy
- Pupil Referral Units – Head of Limes College
- Primary Governors – Primary Governor, Muschamp Primary
- Secondary Governors – Secondary Governor, Glenthorne Academy
- Finance Representative – Finance manager from LBS
This framework will be instigated where there is significant strategic and operational change that requires collaboration and understanding for a successful outcome; it is not intended to be used until and unless this is the case. Therefore, when both the Local Authority and the Partners feel that this framework is necessary to effect systemic change, it will be used as described in this document, and will be time-limited according to the requirements and scope of the change required.
2. Principles of the Partnership
These are encapsulated by the Local Area’s co-produced Vision:
“We are collectively ambitious for our children and young people. Together we want to provide them with the best chances to achieve their best outcomes in life, whatever their starting point, and prepare them effectively for adulthood.”
3. Values of the Partnership
Ambition; professionalism; transparency; accountability; supportive; constructive; collaborative; compromise, dispassionate; compassionate.
4. How the framework works in practice:
The framework provides for the following:
1. A strategic partnership called the Education Leadership Group (ELG)
2. An operational group called the Education Operational Group (EOG)
4.1 The Education Leadership Group (ELG)
Membership of the ELG:
To include Partner representatives as indicative voting members (as described in Figure 1). To include any other members of the EOG as non-voting members, as and when required.
Purpose of the ELG:
With reference to relevant reviews, financial concerns and/or change, to:
- Consider proposals from the EOG, together with the rationales, in order to identify any concerns that need addressing and/or improvements that could be made.
- Consider and advise regarding the next steps relating to implementation.
- Raise any systemic concerns with regard to the area under consideration for the EOG to consider (not individual cases).
- Identify any information to be shared (and how regularly) with partner group.
- Confirm the implementation of final proposals by voting on whether to accept (simple majority unless otherwise agreed unanimously by the group).
- Receive updates, through for example highlight reports and a risk register, on implementation, together with any refinements proposed, for consideration and challenge.
- Evaluate the impact of implementation and develop strategic approaches to further improvement
Partner representatives on the ELG :
1. The Indicative Voting Members of the ELG shall be persons who are suitably qualified and experienced and with appropriate levels of authority to act as Indicative Voting Members on behalf of the Partner that they represent.
2. Partner representatives’ approach to Indicative voting will be based on the principle of agreeing what is best for the local (Sutton) area education system and not for any individual Partner group.
3. Each Partner shall also appoint a proxy member to attend and vote at meetings of the ELG in the absence of the appointed Indicative Voting Member. For the avoidance of doubt, only the representatives of the Partners or their proxies will have voting rights at the ELG.
4. No Partner shall remove a person as its representative on the ELG without first a. securing the appointment of another representative and b. advising the other Partners of the appointment of such representatives.
5. A Partner cannot be vetoed if it is the preferred representation of that group.
6. The Partners agree that:
- It shall not have any delegated statutory powers or functions of the Partners;
- nothing in this agreement shall be construed as a delegation of statutory powers by any of the Partners to the ELG and nor shall any Partners be deemed to have delegated any other powers to the ELG;
- The ELG’s Indicative Voting Members will provide a steer to decisions on the implementation of the strategic proposals made by the EOG.
4.2 The Education Operational Group (EOG)
Membership of the EOG:
To include:
- Partner representatives of the London Borough of Sutton
- Partner representative/s of Cognus
- Other representatives seconded to the group based upon the specific project
Purpose of the EOG:
- With reference to relevant reviews, financial concerns and/or change, to:
- Identify where changes are required, ensuring a concise and transparent rationale.
- Propose new procedures or systems, ensuring concise and transparent rationales for options is presented; in the absence of an immediate solution, propose how to progress the matter.
- Identify how information required by the EOG or the ELG will be gathered, and request / commission this with clear timescales for delivery.
- Respond to feedback on proposals from the ELG, or from working groups commissioned for the purpose; to refine and improve procedures and systems and present these improved options to the ELG.
- Note concerns from the ELG with regard to any systemic concerns and propose how to resolve these.
- Implement agreed procedures or systems following the ELG’s confirmation, drawing up a precise and concise list of actions to be taken by whom and by when. | https://www.sutton.gov.uk/info/200611/suttons_local_offer/2365/framework_for_the_sutton_education_partnership |
There are lots of clearly defined management styles but in this section I will discuss the seven most common. These are autocratic, consultative, persuasive, democratic, chaotic, laissez-faire and transformational. Each management style has its own benefits and drawback (some have more such as chaotic) but they differ in effectiveness in different environments. The first main management style is autocratic.
Autocratic management is best defined as the manager telling the team what to do based on their views, history, past successes and failures and opinion of how things should be. This style of management usually stifles creativity and personal expression in a team, with team members usually facing criticism if the deviate from the plan the manager has set. Team members are mostly motivated through fear of consequences or conflict with the manager. Further to this usually team members are wholly dependent on the manager for the tools to do their job and indeed doing the job itself. There are usually very clear and set processes to follow and feedback from the team member is not often used to shape policy. Any feedback this is given and accepted is often repackaged as being first thought of by the manager. These types of managers will usually be self-promoters and will value their career and success over individual success and progress of members of the team. This can manifest in high turnover and little engagement from the team as they can feel expendable and not key to the overall success. A manager in this style will also likely take praise for himself but blame the failure of a task on his team rather than accept accountability that they control most of the environment and process and that any failure can be traced back to them not taking advice in how best to complete a task. Progress of the company can also usually be slow as change does not happen on an organic level whereby constant feedback changes the way things happen, rather it is usually a reactive reaction to an external factor that will bring about change. This can bring its own inherent risks as the manager may be less able to react and change and may not see risk before it impacts on them and the team. There are positives to managing in an autocratic manner. These can be reducing the level of time a task is discussed and maximising the time that the task is being completed. As decision making is streamlined changes can be made fast and implemented with less conversation. Staff will often be accepting to change because they feel they have no say in how that change is to be managed. As such this management style usually favours process driven roles and can be shown to be highly productive, if inflexible.
The second management style is consultative. This is similar to autocratic management as the final decision will come from the top down. However, where this differs is there is an openness to feedback and usually comes with an open-door policy. Feedback can be taken when shaping the task or process, but the final decision is made by the manager. This can give staff a feeling of buy in and that their opinions and skills count, however, dependant on the response by the manager can make staff feel it is futile in speaking up, which risks good ideas being withheld. This system works very closely with autocracy but can often make the process less efficient because consultation is happening with no guarantee that the manager is listening as they may be paying lip service to being an inclusive manager but will go for their own decisions regardless. This adds time to the decision-making process and brings nothing new to the final decision. However, managers who are open to team members opinions can shape their final decision but this is less democratic than later management styles.
Operating a persuasive management style is again similar to autocratic and consultative, however, this is usually defined by the manager wanting their team to see the benefits of their decision. Sometimes this can to improve their ego but other times they feel that staff understanding and agreeing with their decision will be more inclusive and bring buy in. This can be the case as staff will see the thinking of the manager and will be able to see how a decision has been made, however, staff can still feel that their opinions do not matter and in some circumstances, staff can see potential errors in reasoning which can cause dissatisfaction when having to follow a potentially flawed process. Feedback from staff is usually sought but this can be used in a negative way with the manager using it to disprove the reasoning of the team member and further pushing their agenda as being the right one. This can alienate team members as they will not want to offer suggestions for fear of feeling patronised or potentially embarrassed. As such this will demotivate the team and may cause a division between the team and that manager as the team may feel that the manager is self-serving and their desire for people to see them as the best or most efficient team maker can cause conflict. The key difference in this respect between persuasive and autocratic is that the outcome of the decision is usually the same but rather than staff feeling disempowered they may feel actively subjugated. That said when it is used in a positive and effective way it can show the team the benefits of a decision and the level of thought that has gone in to it. If this is a potentially divisive decision it can persuade team members of the benefit and validity of the decision and create a level of buy in because staff have seen that they have been considered, but not necessarily listened to, when a particular strategy has been adopted.
The fourth distinct management style is that of a democratic nature. Similar in nature to a democratic society whereby everyone has a say in how and what decisions are made. A democratic leadership style will encourage open and transparent communication and will welcome suggestions from team members at any level. This can give significant team buy-in and promote new and different ideas. This also helps make longer term decisions for the company as it will draw on lots of experience and skills and will help reduce the potential for oversight. However, this style can be quite inefficient when quick decisions need to be made. By taking time to listen to all opinions it can cause decisions to be delayed with potentially unnecessary discussion. By being able to make quick and decisive decisions managers can be proactive and reduce risk before it escalates. By having a democratic style this can actually reduce the willingness of a manager to make a decision on their own. This lack of confidence can be detrimental to the team who may wish to see quick action from their manager and can make the team feel that they can sway any decision being made to benefit them rather than the business as a whole. Benefits of this method can be a loyal and dedicated team who feel valued. It can create strong bonds within the team although it can diminish the differences in roles but it can be especially useful in departments where the change is slower or not as impactful because of the time and due diligence that can be put into the decision making process.
The fifth management style of chaotic. This is usually where the manager gives control of decision making to the team and no one is in clear charge of the final agreement. This can have benefits in creative environments where the best or more energetic idea wins but can be less effective due to confusion and lack of leadership. This is especially problematic when there is a team of varied and strong personality types or when there is a large disparity in skills. As such often the loudest voice and not the best idea can win through. Managers who have this leadership style are not often viewed as strong leaders and can be side-lined by their team and colleagues. At the furthest end these managers can seem incompetent or unable to make a decision and this can lead to a significant level or respect or trust and managers can be ignored when they do make a decision. In extreme circumstances this management style can be effective. This will usually be when there is a group of highly competent team members and there is a decision (usually technical) that the manager is not qualified to answer. In this circumstance allowing the team to make the decision can be based on knowledge and experienced rather than a manager’s personal feelings or previous experiences.
The sixth management style is laissez-faire. This can often share similarities with ‘management by walking around’. In this style the manager is less a figurehead and more of a mentor than a leader. The employees can usually make their own decisions and will seek advice from the manager. This management style can be confused with managers being lazy or unwilling to do their job, however, there are significant differences. These are usually best seen in creative processes when individuals are working on their own projects. It will give the team member the confidence that they can control the process and that the success of the project is dependent on them, with the manager being more of a facilitator and enabler than a controller of decisions. Where this system will fall down is when leadership is required, and a single decision maker is needed to ensure decisions are both prompt and effective. This style of management rarely works in social care, mainly due to the manager often needing to be responsible for compliance and adherence to policy. Allowing the team to change the direction of their actions can lead to significant issues and can have legal implications.
The final management style I will discuss is transformative. In my role this is often the style I need to adopt the most when going into services that are struggling or have had a lack of leadership for some time. This management style is where the manager will work proactively with their team to identify change, create a motivated and loyal team with the end goal to improve processes and to improve quality and promote a culture of change management. This manager will use skills from the previous six management styles as they look to create confidence, build morale and a rapport with their team. This will also be dedicated to challenging norms and encouraging positivity to flourish. A transformative manager will usually be confident and willing to show the skill and dedication to doing individual tasks that they expect the team to do. A transformative management style can also be seen to be ruthless as they may need to make decisions that are unpopular for the greater good. An example of this can be refining processes and creating redundancies in order to safeguard the majority of jobs. A transformative management style will usually be focused on the end goal of compliance or success in the task and will shape individual decisions on their value towards what they want to achieve. This style may also mean that the manager is the least important member of the team, and in my case will be eventually replaced by someone who has been tasked with keeping the momentum. As such the manager may have to make decisions that create more work for themselves or causes them to be viewed negatively by the team as the individual, which important, is less of a focus than the task as a whole. This system of management is prevalent in health and social care where there is always a desire to improve lives whilst maintaining compliance with ever changing legislation. | https://mamasstudy.com/there-are-lots-of-clearly-defined-management-styles-but-in-this-section-i-will-discuss-the-seven-most-common/ |
Weighted voting systems are voting systems based on the idea that not all voters are equal. Instead, it can be desirable to recognize differences by giving voters different amounts of say (weights) concerning the outcome of an election. This is in contrast to normal parliamentary procedure, which assumes that each member's vote carries equal weight.
This type of voting system is used in everything from shareholder meetings, where votes are weighted by the number of shares that each shareholder owns, to the United States Electoral College.
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A weighted voting system is characterized by three things — the players, the weights and the quota. The voters are the players (P1 , P2, . . ., PN). N denotes the total number of players. A player's weight (w) is the number of votes he controls. The quota (q) is the minimum number of votes required to pass a motion. Any integer is a possible choice for the quota as long as it is more than 50% of the total number of votes but is no more than 100% of the total number of votes. Each weighted voting system can be described using the generic form [q : w1, w2, . . ., wN]. The weights are always listed in numerical order, starting with the highest.
When considering motions, all reasonable voting methods will have the same outcome as majority rules. Thus, the mathematics of weighted voting systems looks at the notion of power: who has it and how much do they have? A player's power is defined as that player's ability to influence decisions.
Consider the voting system [6: 5, 3, 2]. Notice that a motion can only be passed with the support of P1. In this situation, P1 has veto power. A player is said to have veto power if a motion cannot pass without the support of that player. This does not mean a motion is guaranteed to pass with the support of that player.
Now let us look at the weighted voting system [10: 11, 6, 3]. With 11 votes, P1 is called a dictator. A player is typically considered a dictator if his weight is equal to or greater than the quota. The difference between a dictator and a player with veto power is that a motion is guaranteed to pass if the dictator votes in favor of it.
A dummy is any player, regardless of his weight, who has no say in the outcome of the election. A player without any say in the outcome is a player without power. Dummies always appear in weighted voting systems that have a dictator but also occur in other weighted voting systems.
A player's weight is not always an accurate depiction of that player's power. Sometimes, a player with several votes can have little power. For example, consider the weighted voting system [20: 10, 10, 9]. Although P3 has almost as many votes as the other players, his votes will never affect the outcome. Conversely, a player with just a few votes may hold quite a bit of power. Take the weighted voting system [7: 4, 2, 1] for example. No motion can be passed without the unanimous support of all the players. Thus, P3 holds just as much power as P1.
It is more accurate to measure a player's power using either the Banzhaf power index or the Shapley-Shubik power index. The two power indexes often come up with different measures of power for each player yet neither one in necessarily a more accurate depiction. Thus, which method is best for measuring power is based on which assumption best fits the situation.The Banzhaf measure of power is based on the idea that players are free to come and go from coalitions, negotiating their allegiance. The Shapley-Shubik measure centers on the assumption that a player makes a commitment to stay upon joining a coalition. | http://www.thefullwiki.org/Weighted_voting |
By Joy Silver
I participated in a very informative workshop called, Gradients of Agreement at the BC Regional Gathering this past weekend, (November 2007),– A Participatory Decision Making Process. I would like to pass on to you the highlights of this workshop for your consideration for future congregational decisions that require significant buy-in to a motion. This process has grown out of treaty negotiations between our BC government and our first-nations people, and facilitated by Unitarian member, Michelle Poirier from the Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Victoria. Michelle is willing to give us workshop on the process as a part of her research grant, at a cost that covers her traveling expenses only. She works from her Vancouver office between Sunday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. She can be reached at [email protected] or 604 361-4144.
I was very excited about the following decision-making process that strongly addresses our recent CUC mantra to “Go Deep” and our CUC resolution “to promote and increase the use of the democratic process within our congregations.” The Capital UU Congregation uses the model extensively and would be a good resource for us to discover successes and possible caveats.
It is with enthusiasm that I offer Unitarian Congregations in Canada the opportunity to consider a deeper step in our decision-making process.
Gradients of Agreement Decision-Making Process
The Participatory Decision Making process has the goal of affording members to have sufficient time to dialogue about a motion and then to go through a two step consensus-building voting process that will:
- reveal the gradients of agreement ranging from enthusiastic support through meager support.
- Indicate the need to implement, develop or set aside/shelve the motion
This model of voting allows the membership to see how strongly a motion will ultimately be supported in the future, and is viewed as a more integral model to the democratic process of decision making.
The first step is what is called a survey of “gradients of agreement” among the quorum present. This means that we don’t just ask for agreement or disagreement with a motion – we ask how strongly the voters agree.
In this First Step we would be given five choices: Endorse, Support, Neutral, Don’t Like, Block (but won’t block)
- Endorse means you not only like an idea, you are prepared to invest your time and energy into helping to ensure the motion succeeds by volunteering, encouraging others to get involved by donating resources.
- Support means you give your approval to the motion and feel in favour of passing it.
- Neutral menas that it will be fine with you if the motion passes and just as fine with you if it does not.
- Don’t Like (but won’t block) means just that, you do not like the idea but you are not completely against it. That is, you won’t act to prevent the motion from passing.
- Block means “No”. Indicating a block during the “gradients of agreement” survey means you will stop the motion from passing – at least in its current form. There is accountability attached to a vote to block a motion. You many be asked to work with others to revise the motion or to develop an alternative motion.
After the first vote there is a chance for everyone who would like to comment to speak as often as you need to. However, you would be placed on a Speaker’s List. Everyone is given the opportunity to speak once before any one person speaks a second time.
The Second Step – The Decision –Point
In a traditional consensus’ vote, the decision would be a direct result of the survey of the “gradients of agreement”. That is, if on one blocked the motion, the motion would pass. In this model, the survey is not the “decision point” – the survey is the information on which the vote about the decision is made.
When the vote on the decision is taken the members are given 3 choices: Implement Develop Set Aside/shelve
If for example, there was only lukewarm support for a motion, the congregation may vote to develop the idea further – to see if changes could be made, for example, that could enable people who don’t like the idea but don’t want to block it, to be able to support it. Similarly, if there is a motion put forward which most people don’t care about one way or the other but which would be very demanding of volunteer time in order to successful, the decision may be to set the motion aside, at least for now. In a majority vote, or even consensus, both of these motions would “pass” – but potentially be the source of conflict at a later date. | https://cusj.org/uncategorized/congregational-democracy-gradients-of-agreement/ |
Since its inception, the EU has followed a political process of integration in different stages, in which attempts have been made to strengthen its institutions and prepare them to better fulfil their objectives. However, these reforms, in many cases, have not been fully completed, due to the reluctance of the states to cede sovereignty to the institutions oriented from the outset by Schumann with federation as Europe’s goal, and have resulted in a political entity of 27 member states, halfway between a confederation and a federal state. Thus, we can still observe the excessive strength of national governments and the excessive concentration of power in the European Council, whose action is mediated or even blocked by conflicting national vetoes. In many cases, important advances have been made that have not been able to culminate adequately, as shown by the fact that monetary union has been achieved and the European Central Bank can be considered a federal institution, but no agreement has been reached to develop a real fiscal and social policy for the euro.
This institutional weakness of the European Union has meant that it has not been able to react adequately to the most important crises we have suffered in the first years of the 21st century: the economic crisis of 2008, the subsequent migration crisis, the exit of the United Kingdom and the health and economic crisis that triggered the covid-19 pandemic. These crises have had a high social impact, further highlighting the inequalities generated by the neoliberal policies of recent years. To these crises must be added the emergence of ultra-nationalist, protectionist and reactionary political forces that are growing in the face of the EU’s weaknesses. In foreign policy, weakness is evident in the rule of unanimity in the face of emerging powers such as China and dependence on the US in defence matters.
Added to this institutional weakness is the evidence that our welfare society model cannot be guaranteed solely from the national perspective, due to the impossibility of acting adequately in the taxation of large fortunes and corporate beneficiaries, especially technology multinationals. Nor will a lasting response to the problems of the welfare state be possible without the abolition of shameful tax havens.
From a democratic point of view, the development of democracy at the international level is historically and contemporarily unprecedented. Citizens are represented through the European Parliament (seats according to population), and member states are represented through the European Council and the Council of the European Union, whose members are directly accountable to their national parliaments or their citizens. However, the EU still lacks effective citizen participation in debate, agenda-setting and scrutiny; sometimes the European Council or the Council follows intergovernmental dynamics of consensus-building, where the influence of the larger and more powerful states is imposed on the others and the wishes of the majority are not respected.
To strengthen democratic processes in the EU, citizens should know and understand European political functioning; be able to participate effectively and equally in voting; be able to exercise control over the political and legislative agenda; and have institutional and political accountability.
However, the fact that debates on European policy options do not take place in national elections, as is the case in Spain, or that accountability for the decisions of the European Council or the Council is not a regular exercise in Parliaments such as our Cortes, although they do not hide a great democratic deficit, is not due to the European political system, regulated in the treaties, but to each of the national practices.
Convening of the Conference on the Future of Europe
With the prospect of the health and economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU opened the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) with the aim of giving a new impetus to European democracy and citizen participation, through a consultation process involving Members of the European Parliament, national parliamentarians, government representatives, the Commission, social partners, civil society, and citizens. The EU’s political agenda will have to consider the conclusions and recommendations that come out of this conference in the lines to be followed in the construction of the European project. This process began on 9 May 2021 and must present its results by spring 2022, expected in May.
To this end, a multilingual platform has been created to channel citizens’ proposals, disseminate the events that take place and create a space for transnational debate among stakeholders, and citizens’ panel debates have been set up, which are taking place in parallel. Events and events have been promoted in Member States, regions or with the support of civil society to address with citizens the challenges of Europe’s future, although they seem to have received little coverage in the national media.
In this context, the Union of European Federalists of Spain (UEF-Spain), which aims to involve citizens in the construction of federalism at its different levels, decided to participate in the conference, making its own proposals.
These were initially drafted by Federalistes d’Esquerres-UEF Catalonia, taking as a basis the paper approved by UEF-SPAIN on 19 June 2020 “For the great federal step of the EU”. Subsequently, they were submitted for consideration by the different sections of UEF-Spain, with the idea of drafting a final document that can be presented at the plenary of the Conference for the Future of Europe CoFoE, scheduled for 12 March 2022.
Proposals for progress in the federalisation of Europe
The UEF Spain, in accordance with its commitment to the construction of Europe, with the idea of actively participating in the Conference on the Future of Europe, considers the following points to be a priority:
1.- Elaboration of a European Fundamental Law or Constitution that supports the conformation of a European constituent subject, legitimised by the citizens and that integrates the political and social actors of the Union, giving special relevance to the participation of civil society and public opinion.
Therefore, the Conference for the Future of Europe CoFoE must end with the convening of a convention aimed at a FEDERAL EUROPEAN UNION and a reform of the treaties in a FEDERAL key.
2.- Bring elections closer to the citizen and make their vote have an impact on the direction of policy. To this end, it is important to reform the Electoral Act of the European Parliament, since the absence of a uniform electoral law means that the election of the Parliament is carried out in accordance with 27 national laws with different conditions depending on the States. Equal participation of all is one of the prerequisites for a system to be considered democratic. We consider it essential to make progress at least in deepening the common aspects, such as the size of the constituency, the age for voting and being voted for, the conditions for being elected and the appointment procedure.
Transnational lists should be created, in a Europe-wide constituency, representing the whole of the Union, with agreed heads of lists and a single Europe-wide electoral programme, together with the number of MEPs elected per Member State. The list and the candidate would defend a common programme in all Member States, which would give a European and federal dimension to the election and promote a Europe-wide debate on different political options. The electoral system and transnational lists should lead to direct election by European voters for the election of the Presidency of the European Commission of the EU. It would help to make citizens aware of the scope of European politics and debates and to overcome the idea of European elections as second-order national elections.
3.- Strengthen the European Parliament by giving it more powers, with the power of legislative initiative, with the capacity to legislate on an equal footing with the European Council and with fully developed research competences. Its functions should include monitoring the government, also using the mechanism of the constructive motion of censure.
Decisions are often taken by representatives of the Member States, which sidelines the Parliament. In such cases, Parliament neither approves the policy nor can call for accountability. The Treaty needs to be reformed to include citizen representation in all areas of decision-making, although there may be some exceptions such as common foreign and security policy, because of the desire of Member States to retain control of issues that are sensitive to them.
4.-Constitute a EUROPEAN FEDERAL Government, headed by a Presidency of the European Commission of the EU, directly elected on transnational lists and with the system of heads of list, which as a last condition must win the majority confidence of the European Parliament.
This means concentrating executive power in the European Commission, competent to formulate and implement all policies, accountable to the European Parliament, competent and equipped with the necessary instruments to formulate and implement all common policies.
This FEDERAL government should assume greater executive, economic and fiscal powers and have a powerful Treasury secretariat, to strengthen fiscal and economic union, at least for the Eurozone countries, and should have the capacity to levy European taxes and to issue public debt securities. Its government, currently the College of Commissioners (European Commission), will be reduced in the number of members, thus avoiding any intergovernmental parallelism.
5.- To convert the Council into an effective European Senate, turning it into a chamber representative of the different Member States and abolishing the unanimity rule, authorising the Council to replace unanimity with qualified majority in matters in which the Treaties require unanimity. For example, on decisions affecting own resources, the multiannual European budget, taxation, and foreign policy,
6.- Propose accountability for national parliaments, obliging them to dedicate a minimum of annual sessions to the debate on European policy where the president or head of government, supported by a commissioner, would present, and discuss with national MPs the main political issues of that six-month period. It would also reinforce the idea that national parliaments are part of European political action and that they are equally entitled to debate and scrutinise the overall political direction. To democratise the European political system, it is essential to ensure that there is debate and accountability at the national level as well. This would be an extra opportunity for the media to cover major European issues. It would be a double opportunity to strengthen accountability and socialisation. Ideally, this obligation should be introduced in the Protocol on National Parliaments annexed to the EU Treaty; but, until the Treaty is reformed, it could be substantiated in a compromise between governments and national parliaments.
7.-Adapt the multiannual financial framework to the political one, shortening it to five years to coincide with the parliamentary political cycle. This measure would allow a newly elected Parliament with a majority and the Commission that would emerge from it, together with the European Council, to design European policies and their financing in accordance with what the citizens had voted for.
8.- Complete the federal European Banking Union and European Taxation, by creating a Common European Treasury and the Federal Treasury of the European Union, establishing continuity in the mutualisation of debt and recovery funds; consolidate a European deposit guarantee fund, the issuing of Community debt to finance recovery (Next Generation Recovery Fund) and investments in the ecological and digital transition from the Community budget, for the continuation and completion of the EU Green Deal.
Support such a Union with taxes on financial transactions, on carbon emissions and on the profits of the European Central Bank, or by raising part of the direct or indirect taxes: personal income tax (e.g., 1%), corporate tax, product tax or start-ups.
9.- Strengthen social protection in a Single Framework through the improvement of the European labour market, facilitating labour mobility between member states and making possible the constitutionalisation of the social pillar that should include European unemployment insurance, a standardised European minimum wage and the reinforcement of the youth guarantee together with the implementation of a Child Guarantee for families at risk of poverty in the EU, with the establishment of a backpack of citizens’ rights and duties.
Integrate all social policies, including health, in order to respond on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, with a better and more solidarity-based response to collective crises.
10.- To educate in the culture and values of European and world citizenship, secular, far removed from religious dogmas and dogmatic philosophies, providing young people with a vision far removed from the short-sightedness and short-sightedness of nationalist education. So that it gives a vision of the issues that unite Europeans in their common culture and history and with the objectives of solidarity, cooperation, and fraternity of European Federalism.
11.- To establish a Common Immigration and Asylum Policy that is co-responsible and not only supportive, effective, and respectful of Human Rights in the framework of a society that respects diversity in order to make the EU area of freedom, security and justice a reality. Establishing an efficient Federal immigration and asylum reception system that shares solidarity, duties, and responsibilities among member states.
Strengthening the consular rights of EU citizens outside the Union; constitutionalising the objective of promoting a diverse and multicultural society and combating racism. Frontex should be a real Federal Border Police that organises and efficiently implements the reception and control systems at the common borders of the European Union. Not the kind of riot police they are now.
Increase the protection of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors (MENA) who are especially vulnerable and require greater protection by the Member States and the European Union.
12.- Increase the influence of external action as a single political subject, so that the EU becomes an influential actor in global governance. To this end, the European External Action Service and the representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy must be given the necessary resources and powers to become a real foreign minister, putting an end to the rule of unanimity in decision-making and in the common position of the European Union in foreign policy matters.
Demand a permanent representative on the United Nations Council.
A credible European Armed Forces, commensurate with the size, size, and population of the European Union, with a rapid response capability and a Common Intelligence Service. | https://openkat.eu/federalistes-desquerres-conference-for-the-future-of-europe/ |
Have you ever felt short-changed because of the result of a traditional vote?
The democratic system of majority wins is usually a fair way to make a decision. So long as voters have sufficient information on which to make a choice, the system tends to work well, just as long as there are only a few options from which to choose.
Do we nominate Mary or Bill as the team representative?
Hands up of those in favor of Mary. 3 hands.
Those in favor of Bill? 12.
Great, Bill it is.
But what happens when the choices expand and each vote is then dispersed over a wider range? A winner emerges but there are many more people who didn't vote for the winning option than people who did.
Who should we nominate for employee of the month? Sara, Suzanne, Katherine, Joseph, or Charles?
Sara gets 3 votes.
Suzanne gets 4.
Katherine gets 3.
Joseph gets 5.
Charles gets 4.
Here, Joseph is nominated by a hair, but only five people feel their opinions were taken into account. The remaining 14 people have had their choices cast aside like yesterday's news.
When there are many choices, simple majority rule voting is often not the best method for reaching decisions, if you want everyone to feel that they own the decision. Yet with idea sharing and brainstorming activities frequently taking place in workplaces today, voting is needed more and more. This is particularly the case where the decision is subjective, where different strong views are held, where many members of the group have power, or where strong commitment to the outcome is needed.
When group consensus is needed, multi-voting is a simple process that helps you whittle down a large list of options to a manageable number. It works by using several rounds of voting, in which the list of alternatives becomes shorter and shorter. If you start with 10 alternatives, the top five may move to the second round of voting, and so on.
In addition, in all but the last round, each person has more than one vote, allowing them to indicate the strength of their support for each option. Everyone votes in each cycle, so more people are involved in approving the final outcome than if only one vote was held.
Multi-voting helps group members narrow down a wide field of options so that the group decision is focused on the most popular alternatives. This makes reaching consensus possible, and gives an outcome that people can buy into.
Tip:
An alternative but slightly more complex group decision making tool is the Modified Borda Count. With this, group members nominate options, and are ranked by group members according to priority.
The key difference between the techniques is that multivoting is easier to understand (and can therefore seem fairer), while the Modified Borda Count can be used in a single round rather than several rounds (and is therefore quicker to use.)
How to Use the Tool
Multi-voting is really very straightforward once you get the general idea. The easiest way to understand how to conduct a multi-voting session is through an example....
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The philosophy that supports your leadership style has the potential to improve your ability to lead and your team members' ability to accomplish their tasks. Autocratic leadership can benefit your team's work in a variety of ways, for example, increasing productivity and providing direction. Learning how to transition into an autocratic leadership style can help you and your team adjust to this new workflow with relative ease. In this article, we discuss how to change to an autocratic leadership style and provide tips on how to enact this change in your team's decision-making process.
How to change to autocratic leadership
The following steps provide guidance on how to change to autocratic leadership in your team:
1. Consider the increased responsibility
A significant aspect of autocratic leadership is the redesignation of responsibility within the team. Before you implement this form of leadership, first consider the amount of additional work you may have. This can help you determine if you're able to accomplish all of the necessary managerial tasks to maintain your team's productivity.
To make sure that you're ready to pursue this opportunity, consider whether you're able to offer strategic insight that may ultimately define your team's success. The autocratic style makes you responsible for managing any issues that your team is facing. You may be able to assert your decisions confidently, but you're usually responsible for the outcome of your decisions.
Related: 10 Leadership Role Examples (With Functions of Leadership)
2. Adjust your daily workflow
Once you've considered the amount of extra work you may have, you can begin planning how you want to adjust your workload. Develop a new workflow that allows you to accomplish all the necessary tasks and prioritise them. First of all, review all your tasks and organise them according to how frequently they're due. You can create lists for your daily, weekly and monthly tasks to simplify this process.
The next step is to begin building a calendar of events for the forthcoming months. This can help you adapt to your new schedule while ensuring that you fulfil your obligations on time. Consider listing all of the deadlines you currently have and estimating the amount of time that each project requires. It may be helpful to work backwards from the deadlines to establish blocks of time to work on these projects.
3. Establish a chain of command
You may occasionally be unable to work due to illness or unexpected additional responsibilities, making it a challenge to adhere to an autocratic leadership style. Therefore, it's advisable to establish a chain of command to ensure that your team is still able to function if you're unavailable. Your chain of command is an emergency support system consisting of team members who can temporarily accomplish your responsibilities. It also ensures that you maintain authority within your team when you return. Consider filling these roles with team members who agree with your leadership philosophies and understand how you implement them.
Related: 6 Leadership Skills for a Resume and How to Demonstrate Them
4. Lead a strategic meeting to discuss the changes
Once you've made the necessary preparations, you can communicate the planned changes to the team. You may consider holding a meeting to discuss the change in leadership style prior to enacting it. This can support your team members as they acclimatise to the change and learn more about how it may affect their workflow.
To make sure that you're able to answer any potential questions about the change, it may be helpful for you to perform the tasks first. This provides you with insight into the responsibilities and helps you to determine which team members may assist you. Informing your team members about changes may make them more comfortable with your decision-making in the future. This meeting may also establish a line of communication that can improve trust and morale during this transition period.
Benefits of autocratic leadership
To help you decide whether autocratic leadership would suit your team's workflow, consider the potential benefits of using this form of leadership:
Increases efficiency of the decision-making process
One of the principal benefits of autocratic decision-making is that you're able to adapt your team's workflow quickly. As the team implicitly agrees with the leader's decision-making process, the leader can implement changes without first communicating with the rest of the team. This can be particularly helpful if something is urgent and a quick response can offer the team a competitive advantage.
Autocratic leadership also consolidates the way the company presents itself publicly. The team's messaging is consistent because it always comes from a single person. The team may benefit from a strong central decision-maker who organises the group. This allows each team member to focus on their specific tasks and improve the quality of their output.
Related: 10 Types of Leadership Styles
Provides a central vision for the project
As a consequence of the centralised decision-making process, your team may also benefit from following a strong leader-based direction for the project. Every member of the group can orient their workflow around a single purpose that you define. This process can result in a highly efficient output across the entire team because every individual member is working towards the same goal.
Using this philosophy, you can define the team's new workflow in a variety of ways. One option is to delegate different aspects of a project to different team members to work towards the final goal. For example, in a project to open a new technology store, you can delegate finding a location for the store to one team member, building your store's website to another and creating advertisements to another.
Highlights a productive manager
Autocratic leadership can also highlight the abilities of a strong and productive team manager. This can be a useful method of determining the effectiveness of a manager's leadership philosophies. If they're particularly successful, the rest of the company may decide to apply them, ultimately improving the company's workflow. This style of leadership may require the leader to implement their philosophies comprehensively to succeed. With the support of their entire team, they could potentially accomplish more than if they submitted their idea to a larger committee.
Related: Leadership Skills: Definitions and Examples
Tips for implementing autocratic leadership
Implementing autocratic leadership may be a complex process, but the team's productivity could greatly benefit from the effort. You may consider the following tips when transitioning to an autocratic leadership model:
Thoroughly research your argument
Transitioning between forms of leadership may be challenging for your team members and may potentially confuse them. You can avoid confusion by conducting extensive research on your preferred leadership style and presenting this information to them. This may involve demonstrating how autocratic leadership styles can benefit projects.
It's important that you're able to explain why this change is an improvement over your current workflow. Offer specific solutions to challenges that your team regularly faces and demonstrate how the autocratic leadership style makes these solutions possible. For example, you could argue that your team struggles with meeting deadlines due to a lack of direction. The autocratic system can help motivate them because each team member understands what their role is and knows the overall purpose of their work.
Related: Change Leadership Skills: Definition and Examples
Gain the support of your team for the transition
The purpose of performing the above research is to ensure that your team members support your decisions when you're in a position of authority. The autocratic leadership style is more likely to be successful when every team member wants to work towards the same goal. Therefore, it's essential that you can provide them with a compelling reason to follow your plan. If a team member doesn't agree with the plan, try to speak with them individually. They may be able to offer valuable insight that could strengthen your argument for an autocratic leadership style in the group.
Remain adaptable
Once you've made the transition to an autocratic leadership style, it's important to make sure that the structure remains adaptable. To keep your team competitive, consider revisiting your leadership preferences regularly. You can adapt your decision-making process to improve your team's workflow and ensure their continued success.
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Consensus decision-making is a group decision-making process in which group members develop, and agree to support a decision in the best interest of the whole. Consensus may be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution, one that can be supported, even if not the "favourite" of each individual. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its origin in the Latin word cōnsēnsus (agreement), which is from cōnsentiō meaning literally feel together. It is used to describe both the decision and the process of reaching a decision. Consensus decision-making is thus concerned with the process of deliberating and finalizing a decision, and the social, economic, legal, environmental and political effects of using this process.
Objectives
As a decision-making process, consensus decision-making aims to be:
- Agreement Seeking: A consensus decision making process attempts to generate as much agreement as possible.
- Collaborative: Participants contribute to a shared proposal and shape it into a decision that meets the concerns of all group members as much as possible.
- Cooperative: Participants in an effective consensus process should strive to reach the best possible decision for the group and all of its members, rather than competing for personal preferences.
- Egalitarian: All members of a consensus decision-making body should be afforded, as much as possible, equal input into the process. All members have the opportunity to present, and amend proposals.
- Inclusive: As many stakeholders as possible should be involved in the consensus decision-making process.
- Participatory: The consensus process should actively solicit the input and participation of all decision-makers.
- Epistemic: The consensus should track the truth to the greatest extent possible.
Alternative to common decision-making practices
Consensus decision-making is an alternative to commonly practiced group decision-making processes. Robert's Rules of Order, for instance, is a guide book used by many organizations. This book allows the structuring of debate and passage of proposals that can be approved through majority vote. It does not emphasize the goal of full agreement. Critics of such a process believe that it can involve adversarial debate and the formation of competing factions. These dynamics may harm group member relationships and undermine the ability of a group to cooperatively implement a contentious decision. Consensus decision-making attempts to address the beliefs of such problems. Proponents claim that outcomes of the consensus process include:
- Better decisions: Through including the input of all stakeholders the resulting proposals may better address all potential concerns.
- Better implementation: A process that includes and respects all parties, and generates as much agreement as possible sets the stage for greater cooperation in implementing the resulting decisions.
- Better group relationships: A cooperative, collaborative group atmosphere can foster greater group cohesion and interpersonal connection.
Decision rules
The level of agreement necessary to finalize a decision is known as a decision rule. Possible decision rules for consensus vary within the following range:
- Unanimous agreement
- Unanimous consent (See agreement vs consent below)
- Unanimous agreement minus one vote or two votes
- Unanimous consent minus one vote or two votes
- Super majority thresholds (90%, 80%, 75%, two-thirds, and 60% are common).
- Simple majority
- Executive committee decides
- Person-in-charge decides
In groups that require unanimous agreement or consent (unanimity) to approve group decisions, if any participant objects, they can block consensus according to the guidelines described below. These groups use the term consensus to denote both the discussion process and the decision rule. Other groups use a consensus process to generate as much agreement as possible, but allow participants to finalize decisions with a decision rule that does not require unanimity. In this case, someone who has a 'block' or strong objection must live with the decision.
Agreement vs. consent
Giving consent does not necessarily mean that the proposal being considered is one’s first choice. Group members can vote their consent to a proposal because they choose to cooperate with the direction of the group, rather than insist on their personal preference. Sometimes the vote on a proposal is framed, “Is this proposal something you can live with?” This relaxed threshold for a yes vote can achieve full consent. This full consent, however, does not mean that everyone is in full agreement. Consent must be 'genuine and cannot be obtained by force, duress or fraud.' The values of consensus are also not realized if "consent" is given because participants are frustrated with the process and wanting to move on.Consent - give permission to somebody; it is related to giving a favorable reply [Action Required] Agreement - compatibility of observation or harmony of opinions (need not necessarily be a permission for an action; just support)
Near-unanimous consensus
Healthy consensus decision-making processes usually encourage expression of dissent early, maximizing the chance of accommodating the views of all minorities. Since unanimity may be difficult to achieve, especially in large groups, or consent may be the result of coercion, fear, undue persuasive power or eloquence, inability to comprehend alternatives, or plain impatience with the process of debate, consensus decision-making bodies may use an alternative decision rule, such as Unanimity Minus One (or U−1), or Unanimity Minus Two (or U−2).
Combined with majority or super-majority decision rules
A consensus process can be concluded with a majority or super-majority vote. This is especially common or useful in large and diverse groups that share the values underlying consensus. Consensus process, by definition, seeks the maximum possible levels of agreement or consent. Thus, if a group using a majority vote decision rule is dominated by a majority faction that does not seek the agreement of all participants, the process would not be considered "consensus." Regardless of the decision rule, the process is only "consensus" if it has embodied the value of striving for full agreement or consent. Sometimes the outcomes of consensus can be contrary to majority.
Blocking and other forms of dissent
In order to ensure that the agreement or consent of all participants is valued, many groups choose unanimity or near-unanimity as their decision rule. Groups that require unanimity allow individual participants the option of blocking a group decision. This provision motivates a group to make sure that all group members consent to any new proposal before it is adopted. Proper guidelines for the use of this option, however, are important. The ethics of consensus decision-making encourage participants to place the good of the whole group above their own individual preferences. When there is potential for a block to a group decision, both the group and dissenters in the group are encouraged to collaborate until agreement can be reached. Simply vetoing a decision is not considered a responsible use of consensus blocking. Some common guidelines for the use of consensus blocking include:
- Limiting the allowable rationale for blocking to issues that are fundamental to the group’s mission or potentially disastrous to the group.
- Limiting the option of blocking to decisions that are substantial to the mission or operation of the group and not allowing blocking on routine decisions.
- Providing an option for those who do not support a proposal to “stand aside” rather than block.
- Requiring a block from two or more people to put a proposal aside.
- Requiring the blocking party to supply an alternative proposal or a process for generating one.
- Limiting each person’s option to block consensus to a handful of times in one’s life.
Dissent options
When a participant does not support a proposal, he or she does not necessarily need to block it. When a call for consensus on a motion is made, a dissenting delegate has one of three options:
- Declare reservations: Group members who are willing to let a motion pass but desire to register their concerns with the group may choose "declare reservations." If there are significant reservations about a motion, the decision-making body may choose to modify or re-word the proposal.
- Stand aside: A "stand aside" may be registered by a group member who has a "serious personal disagreement" with a proposal, but is willing to let the motion pass. Although stand asides do not halt a motion, it is often regarded as a strong "nay vote" and the concerns of group members standing aside are usually addressed by modifications to the proposal. Stand asides may also be registered by users who feel they are incapable of adequately understanding or participating in the proposal.
- Object: Any group member may "object" to a proposal. In groups with a unanimity decision rule, a single block is sufficient to stop a proposal. Other decision rules may require more than one objection for a proposal to be blocked or not pass (see previous section, Decision rules).
Blocks are generally considered an extreme measure—only used when a member feels a proposal endangers the organization or its participants, or violates the mission of the organization (i.e., a principled objection). In some consensus models, a group member opposing a proposal must work with its proponents to find a solution that works for everyone.
Process models
There are multiple stepwise models of how to make decisions by consensus. They vary in the amount of detail the steps describe. They also vary depending on how decisions are finalized. The basic model involves
- collaboratively generating a proposal,
- identifying unsatisfied concerns, and then
- modifying the proposal to generate as much agreement as possible.
After a concerted attempt at generating full agreement, the group can then apply its final decision rule to determine if the existing level of agreement is sufficient to finalize a decision.
Specific models
Blocking
Groups that require unanimity commonly use a core set of procedures depicted in this flow chart.
Once an agenda for discussion has been set and, optionally, the ground rules for the meeting have been agreed upon, each item of the agenda is addressed in turn. Typically, each decision arising from an agenda item follows through a simple structure:
- Discussion of the item: The item is discussed with the goal of identifying opinions and information on the topic at hand. The general direction of the group and potential proposals for action are often identified during the discussion.
- Formation of a proposal: Based on the discussion a formal decision proposal on the issue is presented to the group.
- Call for consensus: The facilitator of the decision-making body calls for consensus on the proposal. Each member of the group usually must actively state whether they agree or consent, stand aside, or object, often by using a hand gesture or raising a colored card, to avoid the group interpreting silence or inaction as agreement. The number of objections is counted to determine if this step's consent threshold is satisfied. If it is, dissenters are asked to share their concerns with proceeding with the agreement, so that any potential harms can be addressed/minimized. This can happen even if the consent threshold is unanimity, especially if many voters stand aside.
- Identification and addressing of concerns: If consensus is not achieved, each dissenter presents his or her concerns on the proposal, potentially starting another round of discussion to address or clarify the concern.
- Modification of the proposal: The proposal is amended, re-phrased or ridered in an attempt to address the concerns of the decision-makers. The process then returns to the call for consensus and the cycle is repeated until a satisfactory decision passes the consent threshold for the group.
Quaker-based model
Quaker-based consensus is effective because it puts in place a simple, time-tested structure that moves a group towards unity. The Quaker model has been employed in a variety of secular settings. The process allows hearing individual voices while providing a mechanism for dealing with disagreements.
The following aspects of the Quaker model can be effectively applied in any consensus decision-making process, and is an adaptation prepared by Earlham College:
- Multiple concerns and information are shared until the sense of the group is clear.
- Discussion involves active listening and sharing information.
- Norms limit number of times one asks to speak to ensure that each speaker is fully heard.
- Ideas and solutions belong to the group; no names are recorded.
- Ideally, differences are resolved by discussion. The facilitator ("clerk" or "convenor" in the Quaker model) identifies areas of agreement and names disagreements to push discussion deeper.
- The facilitator articulates the sense of the discussion, asks if there are other concerns, and proposes a "minute" of the decision.
- The group as a whole is responsible for the decision and the decision belongs to the group.
- The facilitator can discern if one who is not uniting with the decision is acting without concern for the group or in selfish interest.
- Ideally, all dissenters' perspectives are synthesized into the final outcome for a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Should some dissenter's perspective not harmonize with the others, that dissenter may "stand aside" to allow the group to proceed, or may opt to "block". "Standing aside" implies a certain form of silent consent. Some groups allow "blocking" by even a single individual to halt or postpone the entire process.
Key components of Quaker-based consensus include a belief in a common humanity and the ability to decide together. The goal is "unity, not unanimity." Ensuring that group members speak only once until others are heard encourages a diversity of thought. The facilitator is understood as serving the group rather than acting as person-in-charge. In the Quaker model, as with other consensus decision-making processes, by articulating the emerging consensus, members can be clear on the decision, and, as their views have been taken into account, are likely to support it.
CODM model
The consensus-oriented decision-making (CODM) model offers a detailed step-wise description of consensus process. It can be used with any type of decision rule. It outlines the process of how proposals can be collaboratively built with full participation of all stakeholders. This model lets groups be flexible enough to make decisions when they need to, while still following a format based on the primary values of consensus decision-making. The CODM steps include:
- Framing the topic
- Open discussion
- Identifying underlying concerns
- Collaborative proposal building
- Choosing a direction
- Synthesizing a final proposal
- Closure
Some of the specific contributions of the CODM model include: 1) Starting important topics with open discussion rather than by presenting a pre-formulated proposal, so that a truly collaborative process can ensue. 2) Gathering a list of all needs and concerns expressed by the group to form criteria for all potential proposals to address. 3) taking turns in a unified attempt to build each proposal idea into the best possible proposal before choosing between them. And 4) using empathy in the closure stage to address any unresolved feelings from the process.
Overlaps with deliberative methods
Consensus decision-making models overlap significantly with deliberative methods, which are processes for structuring discussion that may or may not be a lead-in to a decision.
Roles
The consensus decision-making process often has several roles designed to make the process run more effectively. Although the name and nature of these roles varies from group to group, the most common are the facilitator, a timekeeper, an empath and a secretary or notes taker. Not all decision-making bodies use all of these roles, although the facilitator position is almost always filled, and some groups use supplementary roles, such as a Devil's advocate or greeter. Some decision-making bodies opt to rotate these roles through the group members in order to build the experience and skills of the participants, and prevent any perceived concentration of power.
The common roles in a consensus meeting are:
- Facilitator: As the name implies, the role of the facilitator is to help make the process of reaching a consensus decision easier. Facilitators accept responsibility for moving through the agenda on time; ensuring the group adheres to the mutually agreed-upon mechanics of the consensus process; and, if necessary, suggesting alternate or additional discussion or decision-making techniques, such as go-arounds, break-out groups or role-playing. Some consensus groups use two co-facilitators. Shared facilitation is often adopted to diffuse the perceived power of the facilitator and create a system whereby a co-facilitator can pass off facilitation duties if he or she becomes more personally engaged in a debate.
- Timekeeper: The purpose of the timekeeper is to ensure the decision-making body keeps to the schedule set in the agenda. Effective timekeepers use a variety of techniques to ensure the meeting runs on time including: giving frequent time updates, ample warning of short time, and keeping individual speakers from taking an excessive amount of time.
- Empath or 'Vibe Watch': The empath, or 'vibe watch' as the position is sometimes called, is charged with monitoring the 'emotional climate' of the meeting, taking note of the body language and other non-verbal cues of the participants. Defusing potential emotional conflicts, maintaining a climate free of intimidation and being aware of potentially destructive power dynamics, such as sexism or racism within the decision-making body, are the primary responsibilities of the empath.
- Note taker: The role of the notes taker or secretary is to document the decisions, discussion and action points of the decision-making body.
Tools and methods
Non-verbal techniques
Non-verbal means of expression can also reduce contention or keep issues from spreading out in time across an entire meeting. Various methods of agenda control exist, mostly relying on an explicit chairperson with the power to interrupt off-topic or rambling discourse. This gets more difficult if there is no such chair and accordingly the attitude of the entire group must be assessed by each speaker. Verbal interruptions inevitably become common, possibly in the form of grumbling, muttering, and eventually sharp words, if there is no effective means of cutting off persons making false factual statements or rambling off a topic.
The Levi Hand Signal Technique (LHST) employed by Otesha "allows meeting participants to register their intent to make two distinct kinds of comments: those that are directly in response to someone else's comment ('reactive comments') and those that are separate thoughts ('unique comments'). Intent to register a reactive comment is signaled by a different hand signal than is intent to register a unique comment. We used an index finger for the former and a full hand for the latter." This clears direct responses to a contentious comment faster—and makes it harder to insert it in a long speakers' list and count on a long delay between the utterance and the challenge to create the appearance of agreement.
"Twinkling fingers", similarly, is a nonverbal way of expressing strong agreement, similar to applause but without the interruption and possibly less intimidation of disagreement than applause or cheers can create. The Occupy movement has used these methods.
Closely related are the human microphone methods, which make a large group less reliant on amplification or other technologies, and may require people to exactly repeat or "amplify" comments they may not agree with, so others can hear. Amplifiers are banned in many public places without permits, so this method allows a group to literally 'occupy' a location it would otherwise not be able to meet in. Effectively, the verbal capacity of the people attending is marshaled to amplify one person at a time, with the understanding that any person in the crowd with anything to say would receive a similar courtesy.
For more detail on these methods and their use in specific processes see the section #Hand Signals.
Colored cards
Some consensus decision-making bodies use a system of colored cards to speed up and ease the consensus process. Most often, each member is given a set of three colored cards: red, yellow and green. The cards can be raised during the process to indicate the member's input. Cards can be used during the discussion phase as well as during a call for consensus. The cards have different meanings depending on the phase in which they are used. The meaning of the colors are:
- Red: During discussion, a red card is used to indicate a point of process or a breach of the agreed upon procedures. Identifying offtopic discussions, speakers going over allowed time limits or other breaks in the process are uses for the red card. During a call for consensus, the red card indicates the member's opposition (usually a "principled objection") to the proposal at hand. When a member, or members, use a red card, it becomes their responsibility to work with the proposing committee to come up with a solution that works for everyone.
- Yellow: In the discussion phase, the yellow card is used to indicate a member's ability to clarify a point being discussed or answer a question being posed. Yellow is used during a call for consensus to register a stand aside to the proposal or to formally state any reservations.
- Green: A group member can use a green card during discussion to be added to the speakers list. During a call for consensus, the green card indicates consent.
Some decision-making bodies use a modified version of the colored card system with additional colors, such as orange to indicate a non-blocking reservation stronger than a stand-aside.
Hand signals
Hand signals are often used by consensus decision-making bodies as a way for group members to nonverbally indicate their opinions or positions. They have been found useful in facilitating groups of 6 to 250 people. They are particularly useful when the group is multi-lingual.
The nature and meaning of individual gestures varies from group to group. Nonetheless, there is a widely adopted core set of hand signals. These include: wiggling of the fingers on both hands, a gesture sometimes referred to as "twinkling", to indicate agreement; raising a fist or crossing both forearms with hands in fists to indicate a block or strong disagreement; and making a "T" shape with both hands, the "time out" gesture, to call attention to a point of process or order. One common set of hand signals is called the "Fist-to-Five" or "Fist-of-Five". In this method each member of the group can hold up a fist to indicate blocking consensus, one finger to suggest changes, two fingers to discuss minor issues, three fingers to indicate willingness to let issue pass without further discussion, four fingers to affirm the decision as a good idea, and five fingers to volunteer to take a lead in implementing the decision. A similar set of hand signals are used by the Occupy Wall Street protesters in their group negotiations.
Another common set of hand signals used is the "Thumbs" method, where Thumbs Up=agreement; Thumbs Sideways=have concerns but won't block consensus; and Thumbs Down=I don't agree and I won't accept this proposal. This method is also useful for "straw polls" to take a quick reading of the group's overall sentiment for the active proposal.
A slightly more detailed variation on the thumbs proposal can be used to indicate a 5-point range: (1) Thumb-up=strongly agree, (2) Palm-up=mostly agree, (3) Thumb Sideways="on the fence" or divided feelings, (4) Palm down=mostly disagree, and (5) Thumb down=strongly disagree.
Other useful hand signs include:
- Clarifying Question – using your hand to form a "C" shape to indicate that you have a clarifying question, often this hand sign means that a person is invited to ask their question before a vote is taken.
- Point of Information – pointing your index finger upwards to indicate that you have some important factual information that relates to the discussion or decision at hand.
- Process Point – forming a triangle with your hands or hands and arms to indicate that you have an important concern with the meeting or decision-making process.
Dotmocracy sheets
Dotmocracy sheets provide a way to visibly document levels of agreement among participants on a large variety of ideas. Participants write down ideas on paper forms called Dotmocracy sheets and fill in one dot per sheet to record their opinion of each idea on a scale of "strong agreement", "agreement", "neutral", "disagreement", "strong disagreement" or "confusion". Participants sign each sheet they dot and may add brief comments. The result is a graph-like visual representation of the group's collective opinions on each idea.
Fall-back methods
Sometimes some common form of voting such as First-past-the-post is used as a fall-back method when consensus cannot be reached within a given time frame. However, if the potential outcome of the fall-back method can be anticipated, then those who support that outcome have incentives to block consensus so that the fall-back method gets applied. Special fall-back methods have been developed that reduce this incentive. Some specific fall-back methods include:
- "Seasoning" the topic by allowing time to pass before continuing the discussion, with the hope that time will bring resolution to unresolved differences.
- Delegating the unresolved topic to a committee that includes representatives of the differing viewpoints so that the differences can be resolved without absorbing too much time in a whole group meeting.
- Using a super-majority decision-rule when an issue is brought back to the whole group after seasoning or discussion in a committee.
- Assigning a committee to rule on whether a "blocking" vote satisfies the criteria for a legitimate block (i.e. Is the block based on a core value? or Is this the type of decision that can be "blocked?")
Criticism
Criticism of blocking
Critics of consensus blocking often observe that the option, while potentially effective for small groups of motivated or trained individuals with a sufficiently high degree of affinity, has a number of possible shortcomings, notably
- Preservation of the status quo: In decision-making bodies that use formal consensus, the ability of individuals or small minorities to block agreement gives an enormous advantage to anyone who supports the existing state of affairs. This can mean that a specific state of affairs can continue to exist in an organization long after a majority of members would like it to change. The incentive to block can however be removed by using a special kind of voting process.
- Susceptibility to widespread disagreement: Giving the right to block proposals to all group members may result in the group becoming hostage to an inflexible minority or individual. When a popular proposal is blocked the group actually experiences widespread disagreement, the opposite of the consensus process's goal. Furthermore, "opposing such obstructive behavior [can be] construed as an attack on freedom of speech and in turn [harden] resolve on the part of the individual to defend his or her position." As a result, consensus decision-making has the potential to reward the least accommodating group members while punishing the most accommodating.
- Stagnation and group dysfunction: When groups cannot make the decisions necessary to function (because they cannot resolve blocks), they may lose effectiveness in accomplishing their mission.
- Susceptibility to splitting and excluding members: When high levels of group member frustration result from blocked decisions or inordinately long meetings, members may leave the group, try to get to others to leave, or limit who has entry to the group.
- Channeling decisions away from an inclusive group process: When group members view the status quo as unjustly difficult to change through a whole group process, they may begin to delegate decision-making to smaller committees or to an executive committee. In some cases members will be begin to act unilaterally because they are frustrated with a stagnated group process.
Groupthink
Consensus seeks to improve solidarity in the long run. Accordingly, it should not be confused with unanimity in the immediate situation, which is often a symptom of groupthink. Studies of effective consensus process usually indicate a shunning of unanimity or "illusion of unanimity" that does not hold up as a group comes under real-world pressure (when dissent reappears). Cory Doctorow, Ralph Nader and other proponents of deliberative democracy or judicial-like methods view the explicit dissent as a symbol of strength. Lawrence Lessig considers it a major strength of working projects like public wikis. Schutt, Starhawk and other practitioners of direct action focus on the hazards of apparent agreement followed by action in which group splits become dangerously obvious.
Unanimous, or apparently unanimous, decisions can have drawbacks. They may be symptoms of a systemic bias, a rigged process (where an agenda is not published in advance or changed when it becomes clear who is present to consent), fear of speaking one's mind, a lack of creativity (to suggest alternatives) or even a lack of courage (to go further along the same road to a more extreme solution that would not achieve unanimous consent).
Unanimity is achieved when the full group apparently consents to a decision. It has disadvantages insofar as further disagreement, improvements or better ideas then remain hidden, but effectively ends the debate moving it to an implementation phase. Some consider all unanimity a form of groupthink, and some experts propose "coding systems...for detecting the illusion of unanimity symptom." In Consensus is not Unanimity, consensus practitioner and activist leader Starhawk wrote:
- Many people think of consensus as simply an extended voting method in which every one must cast their votes the same way. Since unanimity of this kind only rarely occurs in groups with more than one member, groups that try to use this kind of process usually end up being either extremely frustrated or coercive. Either decisions are never made (leading to the demise of the group, its conversion into a social group that does not accomplish any tasks), they are made covertly, or some group or individual dominates the rest. Sometimes a majority dominates, sometimes a minority, sometimes an individual who employs "the block". But no matter how it is done, it is NOT consensus.
Confusion between unanimity and consensus, in other words, usually causes consensus decision-making to fail, and the group then either reverts to majority or supermajority rule or disbands.
Most robust models of consensus exclude uniformly unanimous decisions and require at least documentation of minority concerns. Some state clearly that unanimity is not consensus but rather evidence of intimidation, lack of imagination, lack of courage, failure to include all voices, or deliberate exclusion of the contrary views.
Criticism of majority voting processes
Some proponents of consensus decision-making view procedures that use majority rule as undesirable for several reasons. Majority voting is regarded as competitive, rather than cooperative, framing decision-making in a win/lose dichotomy that ignores the possibility of compromise or other mutually beneficial solutions. Carlos Santiago Nino, on the other hand, has argued that majority rule leads to better deliberation practice than the alternatives, because it requires each member of the group to make arguments that appeal to at least half the participants. A. Lijphart reaches the same conclusion about majority rule, noting that majority rule encourages coalition-building. Additionally, opponents of majority rule claim that it can lead to a 'tyranny of the majority', a scenario in which a majority places its interests so far above those of an individual or minority group as to constitute active oppression. Some voting theorists, however, argue that majority rule may actually prevent tyranny of the majority, in part because it maximizes the potential for a minority to form a coalition that can overturn an unsatisfactory decision.
Some advocates of consensus would assert that a majority decision reduces the commitment of each individual decision-maker to the decision. Members of a minority position may feel less commitment to a majority decision, and even majority voters who may have taken their positions along party or bloc lines may have a sense of reduced responsibility for the ultimate decision. The result of this reduced commitment, according to many consensus proponents, is potentially less willingness to defend or act upon the decision.
Historical examples
Perhaps the oldest example of consensus decision-making is the Iroquois Confederacy Grand Council, or Haudenosaunee, which has used consensus in decision-making using a 75% super majority to finalize decisions, potentially as early as 1142.
Although the modern popularity of consensus decision-making in Western society dates from the women's liberation movement of the 1970s, and anti-nuclear movement the origins of formal consensus can be traced significantly further back.
The most notable of early Western consensus practitioners are the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, who adopted the technique as early as the 17th century. Anabaptists, including some Mennonites, have a history of using consensus decision-making and some believe Anabaptists practiced consensus as early as the Martyrs' Synod of 1527. Some Christians trace consensus decision-making back to the Bible. The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia references, in particular, Acts 15 as an example of consensus in the New Testament. The lack of legitimate consensus process in the unanimous conviction of Jesus by corrupt priests in an illegally held Sanhedrin court (which had rules preventing unanimous conviction in a hurried process) strongly influenced the views of pacifist Protestants, including the Anabaptists (Mennonites/Amish), Quakers and Shakers. In particular it influenced their distrust of expert-led courtrooms and to "be clear about process" and convene in a way that assures that "everyone must be heard".
The Oxford English Dictionary credits Mollie Hunter (1922–2012) with following quotation regarding consensus: "No single group has the right to ignore a consensus of thoughtful opinion"
Specific applications
In Japanese business
Japanese companies normally use consensus decision-making, meaning that unanimous support on the board of directors is sought for any decision. A ringi-sho is a circulation document used to obtain agreement. It must first be signed by the lowest level manager, and then upwards, and may need to be revised and the process started over.
IETF rough consensus model
In the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), decisions are assumed to be taken by rough consensus. The IETF has studiously refrained from defining a mechanical method for verifying such consensus, apparently in the belief that any such codification leads to attempts to "game the system." Instead, a working group (WG) chair or BoF chair is supposed to articulate the "sense of the group."
One tradition in support of rough consensus is the tradition of humming rather than (countable) hand-raising; this allows a group to quickly tell the difference between "one or two objectors" or a "sharply divided community", without making it easy to slip into "majority rule".
Much of the business of the IETF is carried out on mailing lists, where all parties can speak their view at all times.
Social constructivism model
In 2001, Robert Rocco Cottone published a consensus-based model of professional decision-making for counselors and psychologists. Based on social constructivist philosophy, the model operates as a consensus-building model, as the clinician addresses ethical conflicts through a process of negotiating to consensus. Conflicts are resolved by consensually agreed on arbitrators who are defined early in the negotiation process.
BLM collaborative stakeholder engagement
The United States Bureau of Land Management's policy is to seek to use collaborative stakeholder engagement as standard operating practice for natural resources projects, plans, and decision-making except under unusual conditions such as when constrained by law, regulation, or other mandates or when conventional processes are important for establishing new, or reaffirming existing, precedent.
International standardization
The ISO process for adopting new standards is called consensus-based decision-making, In the ISO system consensus is defined as
General agreement, characterized by the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and by a process that involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting arguments.
Where decision-making is subject to ballot by member bodies, a requirement for super-majority support generally applies.
During the ISO Standardization Process, if a Draft International Standard does not receive 75% of the vote, it is not approved, returning to lower stages.
Modern large-group Quaker processes
FUM/FGC Friends conduct business in yearly meetings of perhaps 100 to 500 participants. Over the last three centuries they have evolved a number of practices peculiar to their aims. The following practices are traditional in both New York Yearly Meeting and in New England Yearly Meeting:
- A typical yearly meeting session has a presiding clerk, one or two recording clerks and a reading clerk on stage. Partitioning the work load with extra clerks lowers the stress level on the presiding clerk.
- Business sessions start with a period of corporate silent worship.
- A period of silent worship, perhaps thirty seconds, is allotted by the presiding clerk after each person speaks. This slows the pace of the business meeting down and allows people to contemplate people's messages.
- The use of wireless microphones helps to slow down the pace of the meeting. Volunteer microphone runners are instructed to walk at a reasonably slow pace toward someone standing and waiting to be recognized.
- The clerk often recognizes who speaks first, then second, then third.
- A pastoral care team upholds the presiding clerk, or simply the clerk, in prayer.
- Attempts are made to take minor editing functions off of the floor of the meeting. Minutes are polished by a committee before presenting them on the meeting floor. All suggested small corrections are incorporated either on the spot by the caucusing clerks, or at a special impromptu meeting after the current business session ends. Corrected minutes are then brought back onto the floor of the meeting at a later date.
- Major, complex concerns result in a called threshing session, a meeting of people most concerned about the issue.
- New England Yearly Meeting has discovered the benefits of anchor groups, groups of about ten participants who meet every day during a multi-day yearly meeting. People sometimes need to vocalize their personal opinions on issues to a few other people, in part because people think aloud.
Every 20 or 30 years, each yearly meeting's consensus practices are re-codified in a new edition of that yearly meeting's Faith and Practice book.
Additional criticism from biblical and philosophical perspectives
As a notable example of the failure of unanimity in the Western canon, New Testament historian Elaine Pagels cites the Sanhedrin's unanimous vote to convict Jesus of Nazareth. To a Jewish audience familiar with that court's requirement to set free any person unanimously convicted as not having a proper defense, Pagels proposes that the story is intended to signal the injustice of unanimous rush to agreement and Jesus' lack of a defender. She cites the shift away from this view and towards preference for visible unanimity as a factor in later "demonization" of Jews, pagans, heretics (notably Gnostics) and others who disagreed with orthodox views in later Christianity. Unanimity, in other words, became a priority where it had been an anathema.
Some formal models based on graph theory attempt to explore the implications of suppressed dissent and subsequent sabotage of the group as it takes action.
Extremely high-stakes decision-making, such as judicial decisions of appeals courts, always require some such explicit documentation. Consent however is still observed that defies factional explanations. Nearly 40% of Supreme Court of US decisions, for example, are unanimous, though often for widely varying reasons. "Consensus in Supreme Court voting, particularly the extreme consensus of unanimity, has often puzzled Court observers who adhere to ideological accounts of judicial decision making." Historical evidence is mixed on whether particular Justices' views were suppressed in favour of public unity.
Another method to achieve more agreement to satisfy a strict threshold a voting process under which all members of the group have a strategic incentive to agree rather than block. However, this makes it very difficult to tell the difference between those who support the decision and those who merely tactically tolerate it for the incentive. Once they receive that incentive, they may undermine or refuse to implement the agreement in various and non-obvious ways. In general voting systems avoid allowing offering incentives (or "bribes") to change a heartfelt vote.
- Abilene paradox: Consensus decision-making is susceptible to all forms of groupthink, the most dramatic being the Abilene paradox. In the Abilene paradox, a group can unanimously agree on a course of action that no individual member of the group desires because no one individual is willing to go against the perceived will of the decision-making body.
- Time Consuming: Since consensus decision-making focuses on discussion and seeks the input of all participants, it can be a time-consuming process. This is a potential liability in situations where decisions must be made speedily, or where it is not possible to canvass opinions of all delegates in a reasonable time. Additionally, the time commitment required to engage in the consensus decision-making process can sometimes act as a barrier to participation for individuals unable or unwilling to make the commitment. However, once a decision has been reached it can be acted on more quickly than a decision handed down. American businessmen complained that in negotiations with a Japanese company, they had to discuss the idea with everyone even the janitor, yet once a decision was made the Americans found the Japanese were able to act much quicker because everyone was on board, while the Americans had to struggle with internal opposition.
See also
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Consensus.|
- Consensus based assessment
- Consensus democracy
- Consensus government
- Consensus reality
- Consensus theory of truth
- Contrarian
- Copenhagen Consensus
- Facilitation
- Libertarian socialism
- Liberum veto
- Major consensus narrative
- Nonviolence
- Polder Model
- Seattle process
- Social representations
- Sociocracy
- Truth by consensus
Notes
- ↑ "Consensus - Definition". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- 1 2 "Consensus Decision-making How to use consensus process". Consensusdecisionmaking.org. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- 1 2 3 4 Hartnett, T. (2011). Consensus-Oriented Decision Making. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada:New Society Publishers.
- ↑ Rob Sandelin. "Consensus Basics, Ingredients of successful consensus process". Northwest Intentional Communities Association guide to consensus. Northwest Intentional Communities Association. Archived from the original on February 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ "Articles on Meeting Facilitation, Consensus, Santa Cruz California". Groupfacilitation.net. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ↑ Tree Bressen (2006), Consensus Decision Making
- ↑ Kaner, S. (2011). Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-making. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.
- ↑ Norberg v. Wynrib, 2 S.C.R. 226 (Supreme Court of Canada)
- ↑ Christian, D. Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities. (2003). Gabriola Island, BC, Canada:New Society Publishers.
- ↑ Richard Bruneau (2003). "If Agreement Cannot Be Reached". Participatory Decision-Making in a Cross-Cultural Context. Canada World Youth. p. 37. Archived from the original (DOC) on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Consensus Development Project (1998). "FRONTIER: A New Definition". Frontier Education Center. Archived from the original on December 12, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Rachel Williams; Andrew McLeod (2008). "Consensus Decision-Making" (PDF). Cooperative Starter Series. Northwest Cooperative Development Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 14, 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
- ↑ Dorcas; Ellyntari (2004). "Amazing Graces' Guide to Consensus Process". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- 1 2 "The Consensus Decision Process in Cohousing". Canadian Cohousing Network. Archived from the original on February 26, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ↑ "The Basics of Consensus Decision Making". Consensus Decision Making. ConsensusDecisionMaking.org. 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
- ↑ "What is Consensus?". The Common Place. 2005. Archived from the original on October 15, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ "The Process". Consensus Decision Making. Seeds for Change. 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- 1 2 Quaker Foundations of Leadership (1999). A Comparison of Quaker-based Consensus and Robert's Rules of Order. Richmond, Indiana: Earlham College. Retrieved on 2009-03-01.
- ↑ Woodrow, P. (1999). "Building Consensus Among Multiple Parties: The Experience of the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission." Kellogg-Earlham Program in Quaker Foundations of Leadership. Retrieved on 2009-03-01. Archived August 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Berry, F. and M. Snyder (1999). "Notes prepared for Round table: Teaching Consensus-building in the Classroom." National Conference on Teaching Public Administration, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 1998. Retrieved on 2009-03-01. Archived October 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- 1 2 Consensus Decision Making By Tree Group, Quaker group facilitators. Downloaded 26 Oct. 2014
- ↑ Quaker Foundations of Leadership (1999). "Our Distinctive Approach. Richmond, Indiana: Earlham College. Retrieved on 2009-03-01.
- ↑ Maine.gov. What is a Consensus Process? State of Maine Best Practices. Retrieved on: 2009-03-01. Archived December 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ http://www.consensusbook.com/ "Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making: The CODM Model for Facilitating Groups to Widespread Agreement"
- 1 2 C.T. Lawrence Butler; Amy Rothstein. "On Conflict and Consensus". Food Not Bombs Publishing. Archived from the original on October 26, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- 1 2 Sheila Kerrigan (2004). "How To Use a Consensus Process To Make Decisions". Community Arts Network. Archived from the original on June 19, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- 1 2 Lori Waller. "Guides: Meeting Facilitation". The Otesha Project. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Berit Lakey (1975). "Meeting Facilitation – The No-Magic Method". Network Service Collaboration. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ "Meeting Facilitation".
- ↑ "Otesha UK : Twinkle twinkle little fingers – consensus in action".
- ↑ "Color Cards". Mosaic Commons. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ [Jan Havercamp, "Non-verbal communication – a solution for complex group settings", Zhaba facilitators collective, 1999.]
- ↑ Jan H; Erikk, Hester, Ralf, Pinda, Anissa and Paxus. "A Handbook for Direct Democracy and the Consensus Decision Process" (PDF). Zhaba Facilitators Collective. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
- ↑ "Hand Signals" (PDF). Seeds for Change. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
- ↑ "Guide for Facilitators: Fist-to-Five Consensus-Building". Freechild.org. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
- ↑ The Salt Lake Tribune. "Utah Local News - Salt Lake City News, Sports, Archive - The Salt Lake Tribune".
- ↑ http://dotmocracy.org Dotmocracy facilitator's resource website
- ↑ Saint S, Lawson JR (1994) Rules for reaching consensus: a modern approach to decision making. Pfeiffer, San Diego
- 1 2 3 Heitzig J, Simmons FW (2010). Some Chance For Consensus Soc Choice Welf 35.
- ↑ The Common Wheel Collective (2002). "Introduction to Consensus". The Collective Book on Collective Process. Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Alan McCluskey (1999). "Consensus building and verbal desperados". Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Welch Cline, Rebecca J (1990). "Detecting groupthink: Methods for observing the illusion of unanimity". Communication Quarterly. 38 (2): 112–126. doi:10.1080/01463379009369748.
- ↑ Joseph Michael Reagle, Jr.; Lawrence Lessig (30 September 2010). Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia. MIT Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-262-01447-2. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
- ↑ Schutt, R. (August 31, 2010). Consensus Is Not Unanimity: Making Decisions Cooperatively. The Vernal Education Project. Papers on Nonviolent Action and Cooperative Decision-Making.
- ↑ Starhawk Consensus is not unanimity - a practitioner's interpretation of Schutt. Archived February 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Schermers, Henry G.; Blokker, Niels M. (2011). International Institutional Law. p. 547. ISBN 9004187987. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ Cline, Rebecca J. Welch (2009). "Detecting groupthink: Methods for observing the illusion of unanimity". Communication Quarterly. 38 (2): 112–126. doi:10.1080/01463379009369748.
- ↑ Consensus is not Unanimity Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine., Starhawk. Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Friedrich Degenhardt (2006). "Consensus: a colourful farewell to majority rule". World Council of Churches. Archived from the original on 2006-12-06. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ McGann, Anthony J. The Logic of Democracy: Reconciling, Equality, Deliberation, and Minority Protection. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2006. ISBN 0-472-06949-7.
- 1 2 Anthony J. McGann (2002). "The Tyranny of the Supermajority: How Majority Rule Protects Majorities" (PDF). Center for the Study of Democracy. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
- ↑ "How Does the Grand Council Work?". Great Law of Peace. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ M. Paul Keesler (2008). "League of the Iroquois". Mohawk – Discovering the Valley of the Crystals. North Country Press. ISBN 9781595310217. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ Bruce E. Johansen (1995). "Dating the Iroquois Confederacy". Akwesasne Notes. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ David Graeber; Andrej Grubacic (2004). "Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century". ZNet. Archived from the original on February 17, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Sanderson Beck (2003). "Anti-Nuclear Protests". Sanderson Beck. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- 1 2 Ethan Mitchell (2006). "Participation in Unanimous Decision-Making: The New England Monthly Meetings of Friends". Philica. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Abe J. Dueck (1990). "Church Leadership: A Historical Perspective". Direction. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Ralph A Lebold (1989). "Consensus". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- 1 2 3 Elaine Pagels (1996). The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics. Random House. ISBN 0-679-73118-0. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ↑ AT 11: Conflict and Church Decision Making: Be clear about process and let everyone be heard | The Anabaptist Network
- ↑ "Consensus ad idem: a protocol for development of consensus statements." Can J Surg 2013; 56 (6); 365 http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/30b550e2#/30b550e2/6
- ↑ Vogel, Ezra F. (1975). Modern Japanese Organization and Decision-making. p. 121. ISBN 0520054687.
- ↑ "Ringi-Sho". Japanese123.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ↑ RFC 2418. "IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures."
- ↑ "The Tao of IETF: A Novice's Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force". The Internet Society. 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Cottone, R. R. (2001). The social constructivism model of ethical decision making. "Journal of Counseling and Development," vol. 79, pp. 39-45.
- ↑ "Bureau of Land Management National Natural Resources Policy for Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement and Appropriate Dispute Resolution" (PDF). Bureau of Land Management. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 14, 2012.
- ↑ International Organization for Standardization (September 28, 2000) Report of the ISO Secretary-General to the ISO General Assembly.
- ↑ "Reaching Consensus". Retrieved December 2012. Check date values in:
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- ↑ "Directives and Policies". Retrieved December 2012. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help)
- ↑ "A Brief History of ISO", Chapter II of "The ISO 14000 Series of Standards", C. J. Martincic.
- ↑ "Error:" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 11, 2013.
- ↑ "The Norm of Consensus on the U.S. Supreme Court".
- ↑ "Consensus, Disorder, and Ideology on the Supreme Court".
- ↑ Harvey, Jerry B. (Summer 1974). "The Abilene Paradox and other Meditations on Management". Organizational Dynamics. 3 (1): 63–80. doi:10.1016/0090-2616(74)90005-9.
- ↑ "Consensus Team Decision Making". Strategic Leadership and Decision Making. National Defense University. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ↑ Tomalin, Barry; Knicks, Mike (2008). "Consensus or individually driven decision-". The World's Business Cultures and How to Unlock Them. Thorogood Publishing,. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-85418-369-9. | https://en.wikipedia-on-ipfs.org/wiki/Consensus.html |
General Assembly Voting Review - Report from the Committee
Dear ESA members,
At the last General Assembly (GA), held online on September 3rd, 2021, an ad hoc committee was approved to appoint a committee of ESA members to review the results of voting that took place during the GA.
The ESA Executive acted upon this decision and appointed 4 ESA members based on two criteria:
1) Not to be an elected member of the previous ESA Executive (2019-2021);
2) Having been the most voted in the last election for the new ESA Executive (2021-2023).
The undersigned persons were appointed for the committee in charge of reviewing the votes. The committee has conducted a thorough revision of each of the 6 voting procedures (a 7th was considered null, and therefore was repeated at the same assembly). This committee had access to the following documentation:
- Raw excel files with the voting results for each vote
- Revised version of the excel files with the voting
- Video recording of the GA
- Chat comments made during the GA
- Preliminary minutes
A systematic review of all the votes has now been performed. There were three areas that required our best attention. Each area and the outcome of our review is summarized below:
- We considered valid the votes of members in good standing and who provided their full name and email address in the form. Availability of personal details was a necessary requirement to enable the committee to verify the vote. There was only a small number of votes which were discarded for these reasons. This verification step did not change the final result of any of the motions.
- Given that there was some confusion around the voting system, and because the application enabled members to vote multiple times, we made sure that nobody’s vote was counted more than once on the same motion. In case of multiple voting, we decided to recount the results in two ways to check for consistency: considering the first and the last vote. Either way, the number of votes did not change the final result of any of the motions. Finally, the number of last votes in case of multiple voting was the one included in the minutes.
- In the chat, several people expressed that they experienced difficulties in voting due to several reasons. The committee has double-checked every single case, and only one ESA member was not able to vote regarding one of the motions. This person was also able to vote in other motions. Again, we concluded that this did not change the final results of any of the motions.
As a committee, we would like to make the following recommendations for forthcoming voting arrangements during online GAs:
- to secure more time for members to vote in each motion;
- to circulate the documents in advance;
- to include the “abstain” option in all of the ballots.
By sharing the details of the reviewing results, the committee remains at your disposal to make any further clarification on the process, always preserving the right of privacy of all ESA members.
With our best wishes,
Ana Cristina Santos Loukia-Maria Fratsea Pertti Alasuutari Teresa Sordé
COUNTING VERIFICATION REPORT
(*) In cases of multiple voting, considering valid the first vote. Check for members to be in good standing was also performed at this stage.
(*) In cases of multiple voting, considering valid the last vote. | https://www.europeansociology.org/general-assembly-voting-review-report-committee |
Future men’s and women’s World Cup hosts will be determined by an open vote following consideration of a risk-based technical evaluation.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that the World Rugby council has approved a progressive package of recommendations by the Rugby World Cup board to select RWC hosts via a ‘transparent, best-practice host selection process’.
The council, at its interim meeting last week, confirmed the awarding of rugby’s flagship women’s (2025 and 2029) and men’s (2027 and 2031) Rugby World Cups will be determined by an open vote.
The key decisions taken are:
- The council will consider a risk-based evaluation of candidate bids by the Rugby World Cup board and independent experts, rather than a recommendation
- The awarding of the next two men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups will be determined by an open electronic vote (the results of which will be published)
- Where the decision involves only single nation bids, no bidder will vote in the award decision (as previously)
- Where the decision involves a joint nation bid versus a single nation bid, the following process will apply: Both the single nation and joint nation bid unions may vote. The single nation bidder will retain its existing council vote allocation. Voting rights for a joint nation bid will be capped at a maximum of three votes (being the maximum number of votes that any union represented on council is entitled to).
These decisions reflect best practice in major sports-event host selection and will ensure Rugby World Cup is accessible and attractive to a wide range of potential hosts when the process kicks off next year and ensure an outcome that is good for the host nations and great for the global game.
The decision has been welcomed by a growing number of interested parties ahead of the formal process commencing in February 2021, and builds on the availability of dedicated pitch documents to assist key stakeholders shape business models for their bid that maximise social, economic and sporting outcomes.
World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: ‘In my second term, I have strived to implement key governance enhancements that injects further transparency, clarity and consistency into our decision-making processes and Rugby World Cup is at the centre of that strategy as our flagship men’s and women’s event and major driver of revenue.
‘The decision taken by my council colleagues will ensure that we are able to advance with a world-class host selection process that will deliver a robust 10-year growth strategy for the sport as we collectively look to rebound from the pandemic and optimise revenue certainty for reinvestment in the sport at all levels.’
Confirmation of these core elements follows the announcement of the key phases and timelines for the groundbreaking dual awarding process and the publication of detailed ‘impact’ reports that detail the proven benefits of Rugby World Cup hosting for host nations. | https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/key-elements-approved-future-rwc-awarding/ |
The making of decisions is one of the oldest mysteries. Often, people are judged by the decisions they make. The opaque nature of decision-making has led to many theories. According to one of the oldest theories, the ability to think rationally is what makes human beings different from animals. When deciding, an individual should look past the emotions and think through the problem carefully. According to Plato, human being are part animal but are also capable of reason and oversight, having the gift of rationality (Lehrer, 2009).
Decisions in the work place are often left to the managers, team-leaders and supervisors. This helps avoid confusion in making decisions. Decision-making, however, needs to be transparent and fair to all. It is necessary, therefore, for managers and team leaders to call for ideas from the members of their teams.
Nevertheless each decision making process depends on the situation. Everyone involved in a consensus decision is willing to support the decision. This does not mean everyone agrees to the decision, but whether one agrees or not, they are willing to support it. This approach is paramount in situations that are extremely valuable to all. Minority decisions, in contrast to majority vote where the parties involved vote and then count and the majority take the day, involve forming a subcommittee to make decisions with authority from the team. This method is effective where it is difficult to get everyone together (Highlight: Decision making approaches, 2001).
The problem described in scenario one are budgetary allocation problems. This is to be done without affecting service delivery. To make a decision that both the stuff and suppliers will agree with, the manager should use the consensus approach. This guarantees that everyone involved has his or her ideas and suggestions heard. The decisions to be made here are not the final decisions but suggestions to what the final decision should be. Once everyone has been heard and ideas made, he should present the ideas to the hospital managerial team. The second approach the manager should use is the minority decision making approach. However, in this case, it will be the ideas and suggestions made by the parties involved that will be discussed. The subcommittee comes up with the final decision.
Involving the health care team in making, the decision makes certain that effective decisions are made and with transparency and that, all parties involved are committed to the decision. It also ensures that they are all focused on the action of the decision rather than on the decision making process (Highlight: Decision making approaches, 2001). Budgetary concerns affect everyone in the organization and, therefore, making the decision as a group improvers team morale and brings the team closer together and ensure they work better towards achieving the goals of their decision.
Group decision making is beneficial in that it ensures everyone’s suggestion is heard, and there is a sense of ownership, therefore; the team members will be more willing to implement the actions of the decision. Since there are many people involved, the ideas and opinions presented are diverse which ensure there is no bias in the decision made. On the other hand, group made decisions take too long to be arrived at, and there will always be someone who disagrees.
Decision-making is a difficult process especially in a work place because the decisions made affect a lot of people. Managers should do their best to make certain they make decisions that balance both the needs of the organization and those of the teams they manage.
Recources:
Highlight: Decision-Making Approaches. (2001). Retrieved from: http://www.life-role.com/documents/Summary-%20Decision%20Making.pdf
Lehrer, J. (2009). How We Decide. Boston: Houthton Mifflin Harcourt. | https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/approaches-to-decision-making-paper-course-work-examples/ |
I was recently talking to another CEO at a VC mixer event, who was lamenting the forthcoming challenges she will be facing with a startup that will soon span multiple countries; in particular, the company culture test. How do you create the feeling of a team, and a shared mission, when you don’t even share the same country let alone the same office? (Our entire team actually work from home, much like InVision, so there is no main office).
As I reflected on her pointed question, my thoughts coalesced into three key pillars we have used at Kleeen Software to build a strong and well-connected team: Owning the Outcome, Team Transparency, and Wielding Your Superpower. These are the three facets of a concerted effort by our leadership team, not just myself, which have disseminated to every individual at Kleeen.
Owning the Outcome
Let me begin by addressing the most obvious aspect of this first: equity for everyone. Every FTE at Kleeen Software has equity in the company, with those who joined earlier having a larger equity grant than those who join(ed) later (we are roughly tying equity levels to funding rounds). This both rewards the risk inherent in joining a startup (with more reward for those took the greater risk of joining earlier) and gives everyone in the company the very concrete feeling of it being THEIR company, and therefore their success if we have a great exit.
But the concept of Owning the Outcome goes beyond the explicitness and simplicity of equity. This mantra is inspired by one of my PhD committee members, Dr. Jiawei Han, who always tells his research lab that, “the success of the individual is the success of the team; and the success of the team is the success of the individual.” This is an eminently pragmatic creed that we live every day at Kleeen Software. Mario ( VP of Engineering), Amy (VP of Design) and I all make it very clear for each team member that identifying the problem, stress-testing all foreseeable use cases, and scaling the implementation are all of equal importance to individually implementing a solution. The successful outcome of every particular solution is guaranteed to require the input and effort of others on the team. And every better quality solution improves the quality of the company offering. In a very practical sense, we all own the outcome of this company.
A corollary to this mantra is the rejection of the notion of rewarding “major” contributors over “minor” ones. Who is a minor contributor? Someone whose role is small, or who is not succeeding in their role. Why would you allow there to be any minor contributors on your team? If someone is adding minimal value, taking a long time to accomplish their goals, and requiring extensive management that takes major contributors’ attention away from their own work, they don’t belong at your (startup with limited resources) company. Therefore, we consider that we do not hire, or keep on, “minor” contributors. Documentation, QA, DevOps, Analytics, Design – these roles all provide a major impact to our team, and are treated as such. Currently, as an early startup with a relatively small team, all Kleeen Software team members are creators. We are sure to require more maintenance, communication, and support roles as we grow. But we will not view the people who are maintaining the quality of our product, ensuring the satisfaction of our customers, and facilitating our new exploits as any less valuable.
We all share in the company’s success. Everyone took a pay cut to join early, to work on something big and exciting. Everyone will get a raise at the next company milestone (securing our next funding round). Everyone’s critical value to the company will continue to be explicitly called out. Everyone will have no doubt as to the importance of their role and that the collective effort is what propels the company forward, and in turn, their professional/reputation and financial success.
Team Transparency
We strive for full team transparency at Kleeen Software. What is the company doing? What are we telling our customers and investors? How is pay calculated? What is our funding roadmap? All these topics are discussed openly with the full team. We also try to be clear about why we pay what we pay. As I have told everyone, my goal is to pay you enough that you aren’t going to leave Kleeen Software due to a paycheck – but you will not stay for the money either, at least not in the short term. You will stay because the work is exciting, challenging, and a valuable experience. By explicitly setting role expectations and explaining the company’s value propositions we ensure that you stay at the company with your eyes open, and leave because you have truly found a better opportunity for yourself (which we will all be excited for you to have found, though disappointed to loose a skilled team member).
As a personal point of pride, we are open about promotion. As team members demonstrate their growing knowledge, execution, and ownership of their work, we promote them. We are clear about the largely quantitative requirements, responsibilities, and rewards of promotion, because we want our team members to get better (remember, as individuals get better, the quality of the company goes up.)
Another aspect of team transparency is the explicit support of anyone asking any question of anyone else. Motivated by my previous time at Google (as an intern) and Niara (as an FTE), we hold all-hands meetings where everyone is invited and encouraged to speak up. I personally work on facilitating conversations, check-ins, and clarifications, especially across teams.
There is once again a pragmatic motivation for myself and the leadership team to actively work on team transparency, and that is to cut down on rumors, worry, and doubt. When team members know where the company is headed, as well as what they can do as individuals to grow their skill sets and careers, they are truly able to focus on their work, and therefore the success of the company.
It’s true that this approach is completely predicated on trust in your team members, in your leadership team, and in your direct (and indirect) reports. Not everyone thrives, or is even able to work in an environment with this heavy requirement. However, the longer a particular culture (toxic or otherwise) persists, the harder it is to change or upset it. So: start as you mean to go on. Institute the company culture you want through explicit policy and smart early hires, even though it will mean some concrete effort at the outset, and your future team members will find that the path of least resistance is to contribute to, rather than push against the establishment.
Wielding Your Superpower
The result is that the employees of Kleeen Software truly do “own” different elements of the company decision making process. In practice, this means a two-step decision-making process. First is the team perspective: most decisions get reviewed by someone else, anyone can question a decision, and as differing viewpoints develop, a decision can and should get escalated. This seeks to minimize top-down decision making, and reinforce the Own the Outcome aspect of the approach. Team members are responsible for contributing their opinions and speaking up on entire solutions, not just their own “component” of the pipeline. Engineers give feedback on design directions, designers give feedback on engineering choices, and better solutions are discovered along the way
However, this does not work in practice without the second half: someone must put their foot down in the name of timely progress. This is the superpower perspective: the team member leading each component does get the final call on the decision (e.g., the lead database architect will make the final decision on the data storage stack.) This is necessarily hierarchical, without descending into micromanagement. As CEO, I will not force my engineers to use a particular technology against their better judgment. I am too far removed from using individual technologies to have their superpowers of delving into the intricacies of all the available options. But, as CEO, my own superpowers lie in the direction of determining and defining the problems we are solving. I may place constraints on the viability of technological choices for exogenous reasons. I may say, “we have to ship this feature in 1 week so you must make a decision and move on,” (though I have always promised to revisit when addressing our technical debt backlog). I may even ask if my team has heard of a particular technology- and my engineers should respond by wielding their superpower and educating me on why the suggestion is, or is not, something reasonable for us to consider using (frequently the latter, of course!)
And all of this process returns to Team Transparency, as we try to make these decision points explicitly clear. And when someone “uses their super power,” we ask them to make that explicit – and justify it. Decision making should be able to be justified; time, money, features, etc. This minimizes perception that decision making is arbitrary, ensures that no one can abdicate their own role in the decision making process, which results in a higher quality of decisions and outcomes.
Final Thoughts
I will not claim with certainty that these approaches can scale to a large company, or be fully achievable at a company spanning multiple countries. Even though Kleeen Software is comprised primarily of remote teams, we are still all within at most a couple time zones of each other. The cultural alignments across these teams have undoubtedly contributed to our success. However, we also took the time at the onset of the company to discuss and develop the three pillars (Owning the Outcome, Team Transparency, Wielding Your Superpower). We stress the “ownership” of the company to each team member because we have seen how it makes them stronger contributors, who work harder to push Kleeen Software to realize its full potential. We put team morale and collaboration on the weekly staff meeting agenda to make sure that we are following these approaches to keep our staff motivated and dedicated to the product roadmap. In short, we, the Kleeen Software leadership team, have made these decisions and put forth this effort to consider and actively pursue every possible angle that will make our company more successful. | https://kleeen.software/resource/a-kleeen-culture-building-a-connected-team/ |
If you want to get serious about organizational decision-making then you have to get serious about governance.
What is governance?
Governance is the system of rules, practices, and processes by which decisions are made in an organization to allocate scarce resources. Governance is one of the most overlooked yet essential tools in the strategic leader’s toolkit. I typically organize decisions around budgets, time and people; the main scarce resources of an organization.
When I come into leadership situations one of the first things I assess is the governance of the organization. And, if there are issues with the governance, I quickly address them to get a better hold of the reins on decision making. If the governance is not defined, transparent, and operating a high level of performance, it is often a telltale sign of deeper issues.
How is governance properly implemented in organizations?
Strong governance is not difficult; it just takes implementing best practices and diligence. Typically, finance owns budget governance, HR owns people governance, and the functions own governance tied to time and resources. Let’s go over governance best practices.
1. Rules & process
Strong governance necessitates pre-defined rules and processes. First, create a basic schedule of leadership meetings, outlining the attendees, agenda, and decisions. Then, over time, work on implementing the more formal rules and processes of governance, including decision thresholds that necessitate evaluation, signing authority, voting protocols, necessary documentation, and other important elements tied to the decision-making.
2. Debate
Big decisions are tough. They are the forks in the road for the strategic course of organizations. Strong governance enables the rich debates necessary to understand all of the different important angles and arguments of a big decision. Ensure meetings have a culture of respectful debate, based on facts and sounds arguments.
3. Approval
Strong governance is consistent in getting the necessary approvals to allocate certain resources. It is important to outline how the team makes certain decisions. And, to ensure opportunity cost is properly assessed, implement appropriate checks and balances.
4. Transparent communication
To align and conciliate people provide transparent communication on key decisions. Whether they are in meeting notes, emails, or some other documentation, people want the facts on big decisions, including the salient debate facts, the outcome, and the implications. The more transparent strategic leaders can be with their governance, the more team members will feel involved and committed.
5. Follow Through
Big decisions often trigger the allocation of resources, a momentum shift, and a mountain of action. Make sure there is the appropriate follow-through and resources to drive effective execution.
DOWNLOAD THE GOVERNANCE POWERPOINT WORKSHEETS
To get you going on improving your governance and decision making, download the free and editable Governance PowerPoint Worksheets.[sociallocker] [/sociallocker]
1. GOVERNANCE DECISION PORTFOLIO EXERCISE
You and your team need strong governance for your portfolio of important decisions. In this exercise, list out and prioritize the significant decisions you and your team are responsible for and organize them by tier 1 decisions, which need formal governance, versus delegated decisions. You can organize the decisions by people & org, initiatives & plans, and spend & budgets, or you can change the categories to be more specific to you and your team. Once you organize the decisions, lay out the general governance strategy for tier 1 decisions versus tier 2 decisions (delegated). Once you finalize your decision portfolio, share the portfolio with other stakeholders to align everyone on the governance.
2. GOVERNANCE EXERCISE WORKSHEET
Use this to define the governance for important decisions deeply.
3. MEETING CHARTER
Collaboratively defining the charter for important meetings can really improve the overall team performance, problem solving, decision making, and execution.
BIG PICTURE
WHAT IS STRATEGY? | https://www.stratechi.com/governance/ |
Which of the Cournot and Bertrand Models of Oligopoly More Realistically Reflect Firm Behaviour?
The Bertrand and Cournot models are both for analysing non-competitive oligopolies and for each of these models 5 strong assumptions are made (Oligopoly, online),
1.Consumers are price takers
2.All firms produce homogenous products
3.There is no entry to the industry
4.Firms collectively have market power (so can set price above MC) 5.Each firm can either set its price or output (not other variables such as advertising)
These assumptions form the basis of both the Cournot and Bertrand oligopoly models. How each firm reacts to the other can be analysed using non corporative game theory which is based on rational, decision making individuals who may not be able to fully predict outcomes from decisions made. The Bertrand and Cournot Oligopolistic games have three common elements (Carlton & Perloff, 2005),
1.There are two or more firms (players)
2.Each firm attempts to maximise its profits (payoff)
3.each firm is aware that other firms’ actions can affect its profits
Game theory is used to explain how firms react to each others actions and how they come to a Nash equilibrium which is where if holding the strategies of all other firms constant, no firm can obtain a higher payoff by changing their strategy. So in Nash equilibrium no firm wants to change their strategy. The Cournot and Bertrand oligopoly models can be interpreted using game theory even though they were developed long before it existed. These models are single period, which means they are single period or static games where firms compete once in the period and the market then clears one and for all. Because there is no repetition the opportunity for firms to learn about each other over time is non existent and is relevant for markets that last a brief period of time (oligopoly, online).
The Cournot model was developed by the French mathematician Augustin Cournot in 1838, the basic idea behind his model of non competitive oligopoly assumes that each firm acts independently and attempts to maximise its profits by choosing its output (quantity to produce). In the Cournot duopoly model there are several basic assumptions firstly that there are 2 firms in the market, entry into the market is blockaded, the products are homogenous and both firms have constant marginal costs which means that price and profit both depend on rival firms actions (Carlton & Perloff, 2005). The model works by working out the residual demand, which is the demand for firm A’s product given the... | https://www.studymode.com/essays/Which-Of-The-Cournot-And-Bertrand-177367.html |
Oligopolies often possess too much monopoly power. Evaluate whether government should intervene in such markets.
Governments should intervene in such markets because of allocative and productive inefficiency.
An oligopoly market is one characterised by a small number of dominant large firms, each having high market share. They sell differentiated products and are price setters. Additionally, barriers to entry is high. Oligopolistic markets suffer from inefficiency and welfare loss arises because the firms fail to allocate resources efficiently (they are not allocating at the optimal output which maximizes producer/consumer welfare) and are also productive inefficient.
Particularly in a collusive oligopoly, intervention is required as the firms may be fixing prices and engage in unfair competition. In economics, welfare is maximized at socially optimal output at Q where DD=SS, or AR=MC. This is where the allocation is said to be pareto optimal- where nobody can be made better off without anyone made worse off. However, because O is a price setter, it is able to determine its own price at MC=MR(which is the profit max level of output), assuming that maximize profits. Therefore it earns more profit by producing less than the socially optimal output at Q1, it restricts output so that it can charge a higher price to max profit. It allocates at Q1 instead the socially optimal Q.
The firm is allocatively inefficient. Instead of producing at MC=AC, it produces to the left of AC. Also, the firm is productive inefficient because it fails to produce at the min AC; ie it is not maximizing the use of resources. It usually produces to the left of min AC, suggesting inability to maximize capacity. The firm is productively inefficient. Hence, there is under-allocation in this market, resulting in a loss of welfare represented by the red triangle (DWL). This is because in imperfect competition, the existence of barriers to entry prevents new competitors from entering, making existing firms complacent and having less incentive to produce at the minimum average cost.
However, the government does not have to intervene in all oligopolistic market. In markets that are non-collusive, there might be high degree of competition and firms have high incentive to compete using product differentiation and innovation. They will be dynamic efficient because they have incentive to do so (like automobile firms engage in new technology such as auto-driving cars or electric energy). Free market is efficient and such firms should be allowed to make excess profits which gives them ability to compete. On the other hand, the collusive oligopoly will be inefficient and hence requires intervention.
This is where they sell state own enterprise like public transports/communication to private operators, who are profit driven and more efficient than state run entity, which tend to be productively inefficient. Government can open up the markets and allow for more competition and allowing firms to be more efficient and reduce complacency. Firms start to reduce cost to maximize profits, achieving lower levels of productively inefficiency. This also reduces market control and allocative inefficiency.
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Spencer and Siegelman have defined Managerial Economics as “the integration of economic theory with business practice for the purpose of facilitating decision-making and forward planning by management.”
The above definitions suggest that Managerial economics is the discipline, which deals with the application of economic theory to business management. Managerial Economics thus lies on the margin between economics and business management and serves as the bridge between the two disciplines. The following Figure 1.1 shows the relationship between economics, business management and managerial economics.
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NATURE OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS There are certain chief characteristics of managerial economics, which can help to understand the nature of the subject matter and help in a clear understanding of the following terms:
Managerial economics is micro-economic in character. This is because the unit of study is a firm and its problems. Managerial economics does not deal with the entire economy as a unit of study.
Managerial economics largely uses that body of economic concepts and principles, which is known as Theory of the Firm or Economics of the Firm. Managerial economics is concrete and realistic. It avoids difficult abstract issues of economic theory. But it also involves complications ignored in economic theory in order to face the overall situation in which decisions are made. Economic theory ignores the variety of backgrounds and training found in individual firms.
Managerial economics belongs to normative economics rather than positive economics. Normative economy is the branch of economics in which judgments about the desirability of various policies are made. Positive economics describes how the economy behaves and predicts how it might change. In other words, managerial economics is prescriptive rather than descriptive. It remains confined to descriptive hypothesis.
Managerial economics also simplifies the relations among different variables without judging what is desirable or undesirable. For instance, the law of demand states that as price increases, demand goes down or vice-versa but this statement does not imply if the result is desirable or not. Managerial economics, however, is concerned with what decisions ought to be made and hence involves value judgments. This further has two aspects: first, it tells what aims and objectives a firm should pursue; and secondly, how best to achieve these aims in particular situations.
Macroeconomics is also useful to managerial economics since it provides an intelligent understanding of the business environment. This understanding enables a business executive to adjust with the external forces that are beyond the management’s control but which play a crucial role in the well being of the firm.
SCOPE OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS As regards the scope of managerial economics, there is no general uniform pattern. However, the following aspects may be said to be inclusive under managerial economics:
Demand analysis and forecasting.
Cost and production analysis.
Pricing decisions, policies and practices.
Profit management.
Capital management.
Demand Analysis and Forecasting A business firm is an economic Organisation, which transforms productive resources into goods that are to be sold in a market. A major part of managerial decision-making depends on accurate estimates of demand. This is because before production schedules can be prepared and resources are employed, a forecast of future sales is essential. This forecast can also guide the management in maintaining or strengthening the market position and enlarging profits. The demand analysis helps to identify the various factors influencing demand for a firm’s product and thus provides guidelines to manipulate demand. Demand analysis and forecasting, thus, is essential for business planning and occupies a strategic place in managerial economics. It comprises of discovering the forces determining sales and their measurementDemand determinants
Demand distinctions
Demand forecasting.
Cost and Production Analysis A study of economic costs, combined with the data drawn from the firm’s accounting records, can yield significant cost estimates. These estimates are useful for management decisions. The factors causing variations in costs must be recognised and thereby should be used for taking management decisions. This facilitates the management to arrive at cost estimates, which are significant for planning purposes. An element of cost uncertainty exists in this because all the factors determining costs are not always known or controllable. Therefore, it is essential to discover economic costs and measure them for effective profit planning, cost control and sound pricing practices. Production analysis is narrower in scope than cost analysis. The chief topics covered under cost and production analysis are:
Cost concepts and classifications
Cost-output relationships
Economics of scale
Production functions
Cost control.
Pricing Decisions, Policies and Practices Pricing is a very important area of managerial economics. In fact price is the origin of the revenue of a firm. As such the success of a usiness firm largely depends on the accuracy of price decisions of that firm. The important aspects dealt under area, are as follows:
Price determination in various market forms
Pricing methods
Differential pricing product-line pricing and price forecasting.
Profit Management Business firms are generally organised with the purpose of making profits. In the long run, profits provide the chief measure of success. In this connection, an important point worth considering is the element of uncertainty existing about profits. This uncertainty occurs because of variations in costs and revenues. These are caused by factors such as internal and external. If knowledge about the future were perfect, profit analysis would have been a very easy task. However, in a world of uncertainty, expectations are not always realised. Thus profit planning and measurement make up the difficult area of managerial economics. The important aspects covered under this area are:
Nature and measurement of profit.
Profit policies and techniques of profit planning.
Capital Management Among the various types and classes of business problems, the most complex and troublesome for the business manager are those relating to the firm’s capital investments. Capital management implies planning and control and capital expenditure. In this procedure, relatively large sums are involved and the problems are so complex that their disposal not only requires considerable time and labour but also top-level decisions. The main elements dealt with cost management are:
Cost of capital
Rate of return and selection of projects.
The various aspects outlined above represent the major uncertainties, which a business firm has to consider viz., demand uncertainty, cost uncertainty, price uncertainty, profit uncertainty and capital uncertainty. We can, therefore, conclude that managerial economics is mainly concerned with applying economic principles and concepts to adjust with the various uncertainties faced by a business firm.
Managerial Economics serves as ‘a link between traditional economics and the decision making sciences’ for business decision making.
The best way to get acquainted with managerial economics and decision making is to come face to face with real world decision problems.
Managerial economics is used by firms to improve their profitability. It is the economics applied to problems of choices and allocation of scarce resources by the firms. It refers to the application of economic theory and the tools of analysis of decision science to examine how an organisation can achieve its objective most efficiently.
Ques No 2.
Discuss the role of Managerial Economist in a Business Organization.
A managerial economist helps the management by using his analytical skills and highly developed techniques in solving complex issues of successful decision-making and future advanced planning.
The role of managerial economist can be summarized as follows:
He studies the economic patterns at macro-level and analysis it’s significance to the specific firm he is working in.
He has to consistently examine the probabilities of transforming an ever-changing economic environment into profitable business avenues.
He assists the business planning process of a firm.
He also carries cost-benefit analysis.
He assists the management in the decisions pertaining to internal functioning of a firm such as changes in price, investment plans, type of goods /services to be produced, inputs to be used, techniques of production to be employed, expansion/ contraction of firm, allocation of capital, location of new plants, quantity of output to be produced, replacement of plant equipment, sales forecasting, inventory forecasting, etc.
In addition, a managerial economist has to analyze changes in macro- economic indicators such as national income, population, business cycles, and their possible effect on the firm’s functioning.
He is also involved in advising the management on public relations, foreign exchange, and trade. He guides the firm on the likely impact of changes in monetary and fiscal policy on the firm’s functioning.
He also makes an economic analysis of the firms in competition. He has to collect economic data and examine all crucial information about the environment in which the firm operates.
The most significant function of a managerial economist is to conduct a detailed research on industrial market.
In order to perform all these roles, a managerial economist has to conduct an elaborate statistical analysis.
He must be vigilant and must have ability to cope up with the pressures.
He also provides management with economic information such as tax rates, competitor’s price and product, etc. They give their valuable advice to government authorities as well.
At times, a managerial economist has to prepare speeches for top management.
Ques No 3.
Critically explain the role of the concept of Time value of Money in Mangerial decisions?
The time value concept of money assumes importance because of the fact that future is always associated with uncertainty. A rupee in hand today is valued higher than the one rupee that is expecting to be recovered tomorrow. The following are points that come in support of the fact that the concept of time value of money is quite relevant in any area of decision making :
(a) The purchasing power of money over period of tinw goes down in real times. That means, though numerically the same, the purchasing power of one rupee today is considered to be high economically than its value as on a future date.
(b) Individuals prefer present consumption to future consuiilption. This is because of the risk a n d uncertainty associated with future.
(c) There is always related costs in any investinent. These costs tend to bring down future value of money.
The concept of time value of money figures in rnany day-to-day decisions. For example. in the vital decision making areas in the management like the effective rate of interest on a business loan. The mortgage payment in real estate transaction and evaluation of true Return on investment etc. the time value of money plays an important role. Wherever use Of money is involved and its inflow and outflow patterns are spread over a time horizon, this concept very useful. For example consider the following:
* A banker must establish the term of loan
* A finance manager is who considers various alternatives sources of funds in terms of cost.
* A portfolio manager is one who evaluates various securities
Ques No 4
Compare the Cardinal
Characteristics Of A Oligopolistic Market Structure Economics Essay
This essay aims to identify main economic features of an oligopoly. An oligopoly is a market structure where few firms share a large proportion of industry output among them. This situation occurs when new firms are not able to enter the market and compete with existing firms and demand of output is not fluctuating. As under oligopolistic market few firms hold the market share, firms business decisions are interdependent. Essay also explains the economic theories of price fixing.
Characteristics of oligopolistic market structure There are few characteristics of oligopoly that distinguishes it from other market structures:
Few firms share large portion of industry, the firms under oligopoly may produce identical products or differentiated products, interdependence of the firms decision making, long term price stability and non fluctuating demand. To understand that why only few firms share large portion, the factors effecting entry of new entrants in market need to be explained. According to Maunder et al. (1991) these factors can be licensing policy of government, patents, and control over critical resources, huge investment required to match maximum efficiency scale achieved by economies of scale, mergers of firms and brand development. | https://anyfreeessay.com/law-of-diminishing-marginal-utility-economics-essay/ |
Game theory is a model used in business and economics that examines the strategies and decisions of firms given the strategies and decisions of competing firms. Although game theory had long been used to analyze poker games, it rose to prominence after the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist John Nash.
The Prisoner's Dilemma
The prisoner's dilemma is a common concept in game theory. It outlines the problems two actors face in predicting the actions of the other player. A commonly cited example is as follows: You are a world-renowned jewel thief who has been hired by a businessman to steal the world's most precious diamond. The burglary is successful, and you arrange to hand it over to the businessman in exchange for a reward. However, you realize that the businessman may attempt to take your life as well as the diamond instead of handing over the large reward. So you agree to deposit the diamond in a large field while the businessman deposits the money in another field. But then you realize that the businessman may betray you by collecting the diamond and not leaving the cash. He realizes that you may have the same strategy as well. Hence the dilemma.
Analyzing the Dilemma
Given the prisoner's dilemma, each player realizes he has two strategies: cooperate or defect. The consequences for each player depend on both of their strategies. If both players cooperate, they will both receive their agreed rewards. If both players defect, then neither player receives anything. If one player cooperates and one defects, the defecting player receives the "sucker payoff," which is composed of both the diamond and cash reward in this example. It is assumed that the thief wants the cash more than the diamond and that the businessman wants the diamond more than the cash. However, having both is better than just one.
Solving the Dilemma
In order to receive the sucker payoff, the other player must take a cooperative strategy. If both players wish to receive the sucker payoff, they will both defect. However, the consequences of both players defecting is a zero payoff for both players since neither has left her items in the fields. They thus realize that the only way to receive any payoff is to cooperate. In the end of the game the businessman receives his money, and the thief receives his cash reward.
Application in Business and Economics
The prisoner's dilemma game is one of the simpler models of game theory. However, the model may be extended to include multiple plays. The general idea is that one player will generally have a sound idea of the strategies of the other player. Thus, one player will play his own strategy, given the possible strategies of the other player. In business and economics, game theory is often applied to an oligopoly setting. An oligopoly is where there are few firms producing a similar product. A good example is that of supermarkets. A supermarket will make price decisions based on the supposed price decisions of its competitor. Of course, undercutting your competitor will ensure more sales. However, if both supermarkets have this strategy, the end result is zero profits since prices are cut down to minimal levels. If the costs of each supermarket are the same, the end result is to collude with pricing strategies. | http://entertainmentguide.local.com/introduction-game-theory-business-economics-2155.html |
Most competition between companies in an oligopoly is by means of research and development or innovation , location, packaging, marketing, and the production of a product that is slightly different than the other company makes. The allocation of output quota to each of them is made on the grounds of minimising cost and not as a basis for determining profit distribution. Their … realization is only possible when one of the major player adopts it for use. Overt collusion usually takes the form of either an express agreement in writing or an express oral agreement arrived at through direct consultation between the firms concerned. Barriers can also be imposed by the government, such as limiting the number of licenses that are issued. The biggest deterrent against collusion in the United States is that it is an illegal practice. Also,running out can't be solved by just by recycling when the resourceis still in use.
This is called a Oligopsony and usually allows the buyers to exert a great deal of control over the sellers, often resulting in the depression of … prices. The fundamental societal objection to collusion is that it promotes dishonesty and fraud, which, in turn, undermines the integrity of the entire judicial system. When a formal collusive agreement becomes difficult to launch, oligopolists sometimes operate on informal tacit collusive agreements. So what are collusive and non-collusive oligopoly? Fresh water isrenewable It rains. For example, game theory can explain why oligopolies have trouble maintaining collusive arrangements to generate monopoly profits.
Before publishing your Articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. The marginal cost curves of each firm are summed horizontally to derive an industry marginal cost curve. Examples would be world commodity markets in agricultural crops such as coffee were a few international intermediaries are able to trade the multitude of producers off against one another in order to extract cheap resources. Oligopoly is a market structure in which there are a few firms producing a product. And to explain the price rigidity in this market, conventional demand curve is not used. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. Firms compete for market share and the demand from consumers in lots of ways.
A monopoly is one firm, duopoly is two firms and oligopoly is two or more firms. One is collusive and the other one is non-collusive. Cartel members may agree on such matters are price fixing, total industry output, market share, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits. See: collusion noun , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , secret unnerstanding, , synergism, , , , , Associated concepts: collusion in divorcing a spouse, colluuion in obtaining the grounds of a divorce, collusion in procurement of a judgment, collusion to create diversity of citizenship, , collusive effort, collusive suit, , See also: , , , , , , , , , , , , collusion a deceitful or unlawful agreement. For instance, the formation of a cartel is illegal in U. Bertrand Duopoly: The diagram shows the reaction function of a firm competing on price. But the model has certain limitations.
Confess and get maximum of three years in prison while the other gets 10 years As both Jack and Jill have two options each, there are four possible outcomes. Existing companies in oligopolies discourage new companies because of exclusive access to resources or patented processes, cost advantages as the result of mass production, and the cost of convincing consumers to try a new product. A secret arrangement wherein two or more people whose legal interests seemingly conflict conspire to commit upon another person; a pact between two people to deceive a court with the purpose of obtaining something that they would not be able to get through legitimate judicial channels. With the collapse, firms would revert to competing, which would lead to decreased profits. The former is easily understood as a credible threat will ensure no deviations are made, and the latter is related with how much does each party value the profits obtained from the results of following a collusive strategy, compared to the possible profits of changing their strategy. Therefore the two are put into separate holding cells,all the while pleading their innocence to the crime of water-siphoning, but admitting to the crime of stealing hoses.
Resulting two years of prison for both of them 2. This has been done in Fig. Entry is possible but difficult 4. The dilemma facing each of them is not knowing what the other will do! In a formal report, the audience expects a methodical presentation of the subject that includes summaries … of important points as well as appendices on tangential and secondary points. Consequently, sales of the first seller will drop considerably. A collusive oligopoly differs from a monopoly, which is controlled by a single business entity.
Now each individual firm can easily find its output by equating its marginal cost to the pre-determined industry profit-maximizing marginal cost level. But now-a-days all types of formal or informal and tacit agreements reached among the oligopolistic firms of an industry are known as cartels. The Nash equilibrium is an important concept in game theory. Most forms of collusion will in any case be convert aka secret rather than overt aka open. Oligopolies and cartels are hard to maintain in the long term.
If the different member firms have identical costs, then the agreed uniform price will be the monopoly price which will ensure maximisation of joint profits. Collusion occurs when businesses agree to act as if they were in a monopoly position. In an oligopoly, firms are interdependent; they are affected not only by their own decisions regarding how much to produce, but by the decisions of other firms in the market as well. It refers to information that falls outside the scope of mainstream financi … al statements. The low cost firms always have a tendency to-reduce price of the product to maximise their profits which ultimately results in the collapse of the collusive agreement. Thus, the dominant firm has nothing to sell in the market. A non-renewable recourse is a resource that once used or attained will not come into being again.
A true duopoly is a specific type of oligopoly where only two producers exist in a market. This collusive oligopoly resembles monopoly and extracts the maximum amount of profits from customers. Your confusion might arise fr … om the fact that members of a Cartel an officially organised group can still engage in unofficial agreements tacit collusion , although it is usually firms outside a cartel who do this. An oligopoly is much like a monopoly, in which only one company exerts control over most of a market. Let us now see how the cartel works and determines its price and output. Sometimes firms fail to cooperate with each other, even when cooperation would bring about a better collective outcome.
Collusion may be practised through formalized arrangements specifying obligations either in writing or orally and institutional mechanisms for coordinating behaviour, as in a or , or operated by more informal means through, for example, an or. If a seller increases the price of his product, the rival sellers will not follow him so that the first seller loses a considerable amount of sales. If both deny the crime, they will both serve only a one year sentence. Change the price of the goods, in affect acting as a monopoly but dividing any profits that they make. Research and development expenditure is also high as businesses try and differentiate their products from their competitors. It also partly depends on how difficult it is for firms to monitor whether the agreement is being adhered to by other firms. | http://lemurianembassy.com/define-collusive-oligopoly.html |
How WRC 19 Can Help Bridge the Digital Divide
Rarely a day goes by without a senior government official in the United States or elsewhere focusing on how to best address the digital divide: an important global goal to ensure that no one is left out of the benefits of the digital world. Accordingly, a significant amount of governmental resources are focused on enabling a fully connected world, where no one — no matter how remote their location — is denied access to the digital economy. Increased connectivity is particularly important to the most rural and remote portions of the world to enable economic development and access to critical services including healthcare and education. Taking appropriate actions at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC 19) on spectrum use can enable the deployment of advanced broadband services throughout the world, while ensuring there is additional capacity to support the promise of 5G.
Bridging the digital divide has been an ongoing struggle since the start of telecommunications, with it growing increasingly in importance as the role of the internet increases. However, the focus on a solution by governments has been aimed at primarily either deploying terrestrial wireline or wireless services to meet user needs. Such actions have included universal service subsidies, enabling the creation of municipal or local government owned and operated Wi-Fi networks and, most recently, the focus by governments on limiting or eliminating local laws that may slow down terrestrial wireless deployment. Of course, these solutions have increased connectivity some, but still have proven unsuccessful where there are true economic and geographic issues associated with deployment. This is the case even when funding is made available — since this is generally a temporary solution. The economics of deploying and operating a terrestrial network — whether wireless or wireline — in sparsely populated areas, rarely makes economic sense.
Another solution that governments have tried is to provide terrestrial wireless service providers with access to additional spectrum. The belief, though faulty, is that if terrestrial providers are given greater access to spectrum, they will deploy in rural areas. While providing additional spectrum access has certainly helped improve services in urban areas, where the economics make sense, in less populated areas there is still no meaningful deployment because the economics are not there. Accordingly, whatever the incentive that governments provide, it is clear that the majority of beneficiaries of increased terrestrial broadband services have been in those in the most populated regions of the globe, leaving a digital divide.
At the same time, the satellite industry has continued to increase the provision of broadband services to all areas of the globe, including to the most remote areas, without the benefits of many of these same incentives. Further, the satellite industry has successfully advanced the state of satellite technology to meet user demands for high speed broadband — today deploying services as fast as 100 Mbps. Because of the global reach of satellite and the lack of need of local infrastructure, this has resulted in broadband services being made available at cost-effective rates to even the most rural and remote areas of the globe.
Of course, just like terrestrial services, the satellite industry is seeing a dramatic uptake in the demand for its high-speed services. And, just like the terrestrial industry, the satellite industry needs access to additional spectrum to meet this demand, especially for 5G. The question of how additional spectrum will be made available for the terrestrial wireless and satellite industries for 5G is front and center at WRC 19 under Agenda Item 1.13. Under this Agenda Item, the WRC is examining what spectrum will be made for terrestrial wireless 5G services and what, if any protections, will be made for satellite 5G and other services in these same bands.
We are at a critical time with access to broadband being even more important to ensure that all are connected and can take advantage of the digital economy. As we move forward looking at solutions, we must focus on a spectrum policy that provides both the haves and have nots access to the digital world. This can be accomplished by ensuring that domestic and international spectrum policies do not neglect providing adequate spectrum for use by the commercial satellite industry.
Accordingly, as the WRC considers Agenda Item 1.13, it must ensure that satellite has sufficient access to the spectrum under consideration in order to be able to expand its broadband services globally. Of course, this need must be balanced with the requirement for additional spectrum to meet terrestrial wireless demand. While balance does not require equality, it does require that the spectrum made available for satellite services provides appropriate protections internationally since satellite communications do not stop at the border.
The way forward is fairly simple: governments must ensure that both services have access to sufficient spectrum. To this end, where possible, sharing should be enabled, with protections for both services addressed internationally. Further, in some cases, where sharing is not possible, such as where satellite user terminals are operating with 5G, there will be a need for dedicated spectrum for satellite services internationally. Currently, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is considering making 8 GHz out of approximately 64 GHz under consideration for terrestrial 5G available for satellite on a dedicated basis.
WRC 19 provides a true opportunity to enable the digital divide to be bridged for 5G and broadband services. To be successful, regulators will need to carefully balance the needs of the satellite and terrestrial wireless industry and make decisions that will result in a win-win. This includes adopting protections internationally so that the satellite industry has access to an adequate amount of spectrum it needs to meet the demands of its users, including those in the most remote corners of the globe. Failure to take such action international level at WRC 19 will ensure that the digital divide continues to exist into the next decade.
Jennifer A. Manner is the senior vice president of regulatory affairs at EchoStar Corporation and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. She has more than two decades of experience in telecommunications and spectrum policy including holding senior positions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EchoStar or Georgetown. | https://www.satellitetoday.com/telecom/2018/03/29/how-wrc-19-can-help-bridge-the-digital-divide/ |
Sustainable economic growth means bridging a digital divide. A divide on which COVID-19 has shone a light, and which is only likely to widen without targeted intervention, writes Brett Barningham.
In May, the federal government announced $500 million for local governments to construct or improve physical infrastructure – bridges and tunnels, street lighting, rest areas and community facilities. The government said it hopes the infusion of funding will “support jobs and the resilience of local economies to help communities bounce back” from COVID-19. Further funding of $497 million was announced in late June by the NSW government.
The injection of funding into highly visible capital projects will go a long way towards stimulating much needed economic activity as we grapple with the shock of a pandemic. Yet ensuring sustainability and resilience relies on building more intangible things too. The multi-million dollar stimulus being injected into roads, bridges and tunnels must also prioritise developing digital capabilities in local government.
The need for this investment became all the more obvious when COVID-19 hit. Unable to physically come into their offices anymore, many local governments we spoke to found they were hampered by serious issues with completing even the most basic tasks.
Internal and external challenges
Challenges were split into two buckets. Internal, involving staff, and external, involving citizens. Internally, we saw many who had issues with recording hours worked, approving leave, distributing work and reporting on progress. Externally, collecting payments and feedback on community issues and receiving and processing development applications were some of the biggest challenges. Essentially, how to continue to provide services and collect revenue without using primarily manual processes is the key challenge for local governments.
While these setbacks may have been precipitated by a rather unprecedented scenario, the digital divide between local councils in regional and metropolitan areas is not new. But addressing it is becoming increasingly critical.
We need to ensure that local governments are set up to deliver the roads, bridges and tunnels that the government is so keen to fund as part of its COVID-19 recovery plan. Local government resources to deliver on large scale infrastructure projects is already stretched. There are only so many project managers, surveyors and the like.
Yet with greater investment in technology comes greater efficiency in project delivery and a myriad of other tasks, which will make it easier to stay on top of work and free up more resources to bring on much-needed staff. It may also make it possible for regional areas to tap into the skills of those who do not live in the immediate vicinity.
Beyond this, we can expect that after an initial large infusion of additional cash into the economy from the federal government, this will start to draw down as debt increases and the recession bites. All government entities will be required to do more with less. Again, technology is the key here.
Local governments must also ensure they can efficiently meet the expectations of citizens in an era where more of them anticipate using digital channels to interact with their councils and access key services – just like they do in so many other areas of their lives. Recent research found that more than 70 per cent of citizens outside capital cities expect that in the next five years their main means of interacting with their local council will be via self-service technology, such as a computer or smartphone.
Breaking down barriers by building up skills
Admittedly, the ability to invest in technology is not the only roadblock to progress for local governments. The reality is that there is also a cultural barrier to overcome. That’s why, in addition to supporting investment in technology, it’s imperative that federal and state governments target investment in change management and IT capabilities among local government staff. This is another critical aspect of ensuring sustainability – the ability to not just initiate but deliver on, maintain and maximise the benefits of technology investments.
The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) put it well in a whitepaper they released in June, titled Building Australia’s Digital Future in a Post-COVID World. The AIIA argues that it is imperative that Australia capitalises on this moment to focus on establishing the foundations for a new generation of economic growth. The association noted that this must include accelerating the digital inclusion agenda, closing the divide by providing all Australians equal access to the benefits of digital transformation.
I could not agree more with the AIIA’s conclusion. It is the digital and technological transformation of the Australian public sector that will ensure Australia becomes more productive, more proactive in responding to community needs and in turn, can ease resourcing issues.
We must not miss the fantastic opportunity to build a bridge to our future and turbocharge our recovery by supporting investment in technology, IT skills and change management capabilities in our local government areas. Our pandemic recovery phase is a chance to turn a digital divide into a digital dividend. | https://www.civica.com/en-au/insights/turning-the-digital-divide-into-a-digital-dividend/ |
How the world’s airwaves will change by 2030: airwaves
The airwaves, long seen as the domain of national governments, will be reclassified as part of the Universal Service Obligation in 2020.
The change, announced by the European Commission in July, comes as a result of an ambitious and ambitious plan to increase broadband connectivity around the world.
In its first update since the proposal was put forward, the Commission said the airwaves would be treated as a single service for the first time in 2020 with the creation of a Universal Service Provider (USP).
The service provider would be given the authority to offer broadband internet service to individuals and businesses, to provide fixed wireless services, and to provide the internet to rural and remote areas.
The USP, as the new service provider, would also be responsible for providing internet access to remote areas, as well as providing a broadband internet gateway to rural communities.
But the Commission also said the new provider would have to maintain its existing infrastructure.
The announcement came after the Commission set a deadline for all states and territories to adopt a digital economy policy and put in place a framework for the internet in all 50 EU countries by 2025.
It said the USP will provide broadband access to at least 50% of the population in all EU countries and will have the capacity to provide services to the population at larger geographical locations.
“The new USP has been established to facilitate broadband access, including for the underserved and to serve the population living in remote and rural areas,” the Commission stated.
“A number of countries have already established USPs in rural areas, which are still not sufficient to meet the needs of rural residents.
In these remote areas of the EU, there are no viable broadband providers or infrastructure to meet this requirement.”
In its announcement, the EU Commission said it was not ready to discuss the scope of the USPs mandate, which will be defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and will need to be reviewed after 2020.
However, the European Parliament and the European Council, the executive bodies of the 27 EU member states, have agreed to a new policy document for the USPS, which the Commission called “the definitive roadmap for a digital future”.
The new document will be published on Monday.
“As soon as 2020 comes, there will be a new digital economy, one where people have access to broadband, the internet, and all the services they need,” it said.
“This is what will be needed by 2020 to realise the digital future we need.”
The Commission has also set a target to reach 90% of its population by 2020, and this will be achieved through the establishment of an Internet Access Fund, which would fund a number of initiatives including a universal service provider to offer internet access, as a universal income payment to citizens, and a free high-speed internet network in low- and medium-income countries.
The new Universal Service Providers, which were set up by the EU to offer the internet services to remote and remote populations, will need at least 5% of their revenue from the EU budget.
“We will ensure that every EU country and every country of the European Union has at least one USP that will serve at least 25% of residents and at least 30% of non-residents,” the EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.
“We want to support these efforts by ensuring that the costs of providing the service are borne by all EU citizens and that all EU residents are served by the same USP.”
The USPS has been set up under a number and levels of funding to tackle the challenges posed by a lack of broadband access in rural and rural communities and the lack of infrastructure for this purpose.
“A digital economy is an interconnected, digital world where all citizens have access and the internet is a key element for this.
This is why the EU has been working closely with its USP partners, and with governments, businesses and civil society, to support them in the fight against digital poverty and the transition to a more digital society,” said Vestager.
The Commission also called on member states to establish a digital infrastructure to enable the establishment and maintenance of broadband networks in remote areas and for the development of a public broadband internet access network in rural or remote areas in the EU.
The Commission said that it also called for Member States to work with local authorities and public and private providers to ensure that rural and small-scale internet access is available in remote regions.
EU citizens can apply for a USP under the Universal Postal Service Programme (UPPS) programme.
The UPPS is a national initiative that has provided free postal services in a number or areas in rural Europe since 2006. | https://smsglobaltech.com/2021/06/how-the-worlds-airwaves-will-change-by-2030-airwaves/ |
Isabelle Mauro, Head of Digital Communications, World Economic Forum explains why we need to close the digital divide as we look to rebuild our post corona economies
Governments must develop holistic national digital strategies across industry sectors to connect the unconnected. Portions of COVID-19 stimulus packages should be allocated toward the digitalization of education, healthcare and key industries.
The rapid digitalization of SME’s must be prioritized as key growth drivers of national economies. COVID-19 has achieved in weeks what would have taken years for digital adoption. But it has also exposed gaps and has given a newfound sense of urgency to the digital inclusion agenda.
Back in April, a number of governments joined the joint World Economic Forum, World Bank, ITU GSMA Call for Action, which outlined a number of immediate and short-term measures to make affordable and better use of digital technologies and connectivity for citizens, governments and businesses during global lockdowns.
These short-term measures have been important stepping stones, but they are not enough to bridge the digital divide in the longer-term. It will take significant capital investment and comprehensive planning, with an injection of government funding, to support the drastic increase in internet usage (it was a 70% rise at the height of the crisis), as countries move forward to define the new normal.
The post-COVID-19 world is without doubt a more digital world. This shift risks exacerbating current inequities in access, affordability and capacity as societies make the transition. To address this, the Forum established the Essential Digital Infrastructure and Services Network (EDISON) Initiative. This public-private cross-sector community developed a strategic playbook to lay out a set of medium- to long-term measures to accelerate digital development and present unforeseen growth opportunities.
Priorities for addressing connectivity demand
Demand for connectivity services has never been greater, yet lack of access, means, and/or skills to participate in the digital economy is widespread.
In recent years, many initiatives have been created to address the different barriers and gaps. As a result of these efforts, along with advances in technologies and substantial industry investment, the situation has improved compared to five years ago. But now, more than ever, connectivity should be at the core of all national and international priorities – covering healthcare, education, government services and beyond.
- Business – Moreover, a new dimension to the digital divide has emerged since the onset of the crisis. Small and medium size business (SMEs) represent up to 90% of businesses worldwide and half of global employment (the figure is even higher in emerging markets). Smaller businesses already lag far behind with digital technology adoption and have shown to be dramatically exposed to global shocks as a result. At the start of the pandemic, businesses were thrust into digitalizing their operations and many SMEs in particular, were left vulnerable due to a lack of capacity or know-how. The solid digital infrastructure built over the last 20 years has facilitated the continuation of key activities, allowing an estimated 10% of the global labour force to work remotely, supporting close to 300 million jobs. This translates to an annual impact of $8 trillion, or twice the size of Germany’s economy.
- Education – A similar number of school-aged kids and university/higher education students – roughly 100 million and 200 million respectively, have also been able to maintain access to education remotely. While this represents 15-30% of the global student population, it is weighted towards developed economies.Digitalizing schools has become critical to the education of future generations. As no country in the world can at this stage confirm that schools will re-open in September, education systems are increasingly moving to a new hybrid approach, which will be necessary to educate the more than 1 billion students out of classrooms worldwide.
- Health – Connectivity also has a significant impact on managing health-related issues during the crisis. Technology was used for pandemic planning, surveillance, testing, contact-tracing, quarantine and remote healthcare. Telemedicine consultations grew more in one month than in 10 years, which played a key role in keeping lines down at hospitals and addressing other illnesses. Many governments are acknowledging how critical health and healthcare are toward national security and are allocating resources to protect it. In the United States, the FCC surpassed $100 million in approved COVID-19 program applications for immediate and short-term connectivity use cases. Additionally, it finalized a long-term programme allocating a separate $100 million of support from Universal Service Fund (USF) to help defray healthcare providers’ cost of providing connected care services and be used for other telehealth programmes.
3 strategies to accelerate economic recovery via digital inclusion
Public-private cooperation is essential to addressing the digital inclusion agenda post COVID-19. There is broad recognition by government leaders that in order to accelerate recovery, connectivity will need to be at the core of all other priorities.
Here are 3 strategies to achieve the right digital transition for a fast, equitable recovery:
Define and implement national digital strategies holistically across all sectors and disburse unused universal service funds to stimulate digital investment in underserved regions
Earmark a portion of the recovery packages to fund infrastructure investment in underserved areas and the digitalization of other sectors, such as education, healthcare, and financial services
Facilitate digitalization of SMEs via end-to-end offerings, as SMEs are key drivers of growth.
The Accelerating Digital Inclusion in the New Normal playbook will form the basis for ongoing efforts between the public and private sectors to accelerate internet adoption globally. | https://www.telemediaonline.co.uk/opinion-3-strategies-to-drive-recovery-and-close-the-digital-divide/ |
Capgemini: how business can help bridge the digital divide
Aiman Ezzat, the newly appointed CEO at Capgemini, discusses the ways in which business can help to bridge the digital divide.
Access to the internet is rapidly becoming a basic human need, not merely something that is nice to have. Any lingering doubts that we are now as reliant on digital connectivity in our daily lives as we are on established essentials like water, power and heat have surely been eliminated by the experience of lockdown. Even to a tech exec like me, the fact that so many people in so many different countries have been able to do so much online with such ease – work, learn, shop, play, socialize – all without leaving their own homes has been a real eye-opener.
But there is a downside to this demonstration of the undeniable power of the internet – the digital divide. Whether because of cost, local availability or a lack of digital skills, not everyone who wants internet access, has it. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic that digital divide was growing, as the latest findings from the Capgemini Research Institute have highlighted. It’s a divide that crosses geographical, age and social boundaries and flips many common assumptions about who is more likely to be digitally excluded on their heads.
The survey of over 5,000 people across France, Germany, India, Sweden, the UK and the US, found that 69% of the total offline population in those countries lives in poverty, and that the age group with the highest proportion offline is not, as is often assumed, the elderly. On the contrary, it is those aged between 18-36yrs, of whom no less than 43% are digitally excluded, compared to only 16% of those aged over 72.
I strongly believe that tackling this digital divide should be a global priority as we emerge from the pandemic, and that we as business leaders have a key role to play in bridging the gap – to be good corporate citizens and address the needs not only of employees, customers and shareholders but also of the society in which we operate.
This is because being offline has serious implications that can rebound on everyone, not only those directly affected. It leads to social isolation, with 46% saying they would feel more connected to friends and family if they were online. It limits career mobility (and also employers’ access to talent) - 44% of the digitally excluded believed they would be able to find better jobs online. And it makes it harder for those in greatest need to access government support – only 19% of offline people who were living in poverty had claimed a public benefit in the last 12 months, despite the fact that online access to such services is increasingly the norm.
Many of the digitally excluded are not offline out of choice – 48% of those without connectivity say they would like to have it. The current crisis, with its sudden emphasis on online access to everything from grocery shopping to education and even health services, has only exacerbated the problem.
Affordability is clearly a major factor in determining who is online and who is not. 56% of those aged 22-36 who are offline say the cost of devices and 51% the cost of an internet subscription are the reasons they are not online. New developments such as 5G mobile networks should boost competition and improve the affordability of both devices and subscriptions, but we cannot just sit and wait for technology evolutions to solve the problem. Besides, fear and a lack of confidence are also big causes of digital exclusion – as one 65yr old respondent in France told researchers ‘I’m afraid to use the internet, because I don’t know how to use it.’
A complex and multi-faceted problem like the digital divide requires a collaborative and multi-partner approach. One that involves businesses, the public sector, NGO’s and policy makers coming together in a global community of action. Corporate leaders have lines of communication with all these groups and can be the catalysts in creating just such a global community. At Capgemini we work closely with clients, NGOs, think tanks and public bodies to maximize the impact we can have.
It’s also important to build real-world digital inclusion programs into your CSR programs, and to revisit those you may already undertake to ensure they are really hitting the mark. At Capgemini our digital inclusion efforts are focused on four selected areas: boosting digital literacy to empower the digitally excluded, setting up digital academies to help disadvantaged groups gain vital employment skills, technology for positive futures (solving tricky societal problems through new technology) and thought leadership to help us engage more effectively with other digital influencers.
The internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity – the gateway to better economic and career prospects, to welfare and education, and to social and professional networks. Connectivity is the key to post-pandemic prosperity not only for individuals and families but also for wider society and indeed the entire globe. As business leaders we should be in the forefront of ensuring that everyone, regardless of their age, income bracket or education, has equal access to all those vital online opportunities.
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Read the latest edition of Business Chief EMEA edition, here
For more information on business topics in Europe, Middle East and Africa please take a look at the latest edition of Business Chief EMEA. | https://businesschief.eu/technology/capgemini-how-business-can-help-bridge-digital-divide |
The Honourable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Dr Ibrahim Pantami has unveiled 6 projects which are geared towards supporting the development of Nigeria’s Digital Economy for a Digital Nigeria, in line with the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari, to the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy.
The Minister disclosed this during the virtual commissioning of Digital Economy Projects in Abuja on Thursday, he said he is highly delighted to commission a number of projects which aligned with the 3 focus areas of the Federal Government, namely economic development, security and anti-corruption executed by the parastatals under the purview of his ministry.
According to him, “This commissioning ceremony will take advantage of technology to virtually showcase and commission a number of projects that reflect the dividends of the sustainable developmental programmes of the administration of Mr President.
“The projects commissioned are (1) the Emergency Communications Centre (ECC), (2) Kaduna, Information Technology Hub, University of Lagos, (3) Information Technology Hub, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, (4) Information Technology Community Centre, Daura, Katsina, (5) Tertiary Institution Knowledge Center, Polytechnic Iwollo, Enugu; and (6) NigComSat Northwest Regional Office, Kaduna”, he said.
He noted that the ECC project is being deployed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) across the country and it will offer the following benefits, Universal, toll-free emergency telephone access for members of the public in times of distress/emergency; and A one-stop shop for receiving distress calls from the public and dispatching same to appropriate Response Agencies (Police, FRSC, Fire Service, Ambulance Service, etc.)
“The Information Technology (IT) Hub project is deployed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Lagos. The IT Hub is a state-of-the-art solar powered IT Centre equipped with computers, Internet connectivity and tools designed to create a platform where Technology, Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship are nurtured. The Hubs are fully equipped with both networking and computing devices to support the complete state of the art Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) production machines.
“The centres are expected to develop competency for local production of PCB devices and other downstream components of the IT goods. These IT Hubs will provided the following benefits, amongst others: Diversification of the nation’s economy through local production of IT tools and services, Development of strategic thrusts where technology, finance and human resources are going to be harnessed to create an enabling environment for the potential development of microelectronics, software applications and entrepreneurship.
“Bridging the gap between government, academia and the private sector by focusing on the development of indigenous talent through research, business ideation and promotion; Operate along the full IT value chain, from ideation to commercialization, and will be well positioned to help fulfil the expanding economic missions of the country; and Create a local supply for the IT Sector to meet the increasing demand for IT goods and services from both the public and private sectors.
“The Community Information Technology (IT) Centre was also deployed by NITDA in Daura, Katsina State. It is also a solar powered IT Centre equipped with computers, internet access and tools aimed at enhancing skills development, bridging the digital divide and promoting innovative digital solutions that will address challenges facing the country.
“It supports capacity building and digital inclusion for underserved/unserved communities. It will serve as a good avenue for creating jobs and providing access to information, knowledge and government enabled digital services for rural communities. In addition, these community centre has been deployed to stimulate economic growth by creating new products, increasing productivity and promoting new commercial opportunities.
“The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) deployed a Tertiary Institutions Know ledge Centre (TIKC) at the Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo. This project includes bandwidth connectivity and the installation of ICT devices and peripherals. The TIKC project also doubles as an ICT centre for students to acquire and improve their ICT skills. It will promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning at tertiary institutions and their immediate communities.
“Some of the benefits of the project include the following: It will enable lecturers, staff and students to obtain the requisite ICT skills essential for digital economy ecosystem; It will bridge the digital information knowledge gap especially among the teeming youthful population of Nigeria; It will provide personalised learning; It will enhanced research; It will improve student-teacher engagement; and vi. It will provide access to remote learning resources.
“The final project to be commissioned today is the Northwest Regional office of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat), located in Kaduna. In addition to servicing as an Office, the Centre will support in the creation of job opportunities for the youth as they will be trained on satellite technologies. This will empower the youths with the necessary skills to operate as independent installers of NIGCOMSAT services thereby generating income for themselves.
“In addition to this, the establishment of this Centre in close proximity to the people will make it easier for NigComSat to identify cluster service gaps in the rural areas and promptly address this through a strategic partnership with the state governments and the other stakeholders in the broadband eco-system”, he explained.
He implored the host communities of these projects to make the best use of the facilities for the benefit of the community. “I also wish to commend the CEOs of all the parastatals who have deployed the projects that I have commissioned today for their commitment to their responsibilities. I thank all our esteemed partners and stakeholders for participating in this launch to support our quest to build a Digital Nigeria.
“I wish to extend our sincere gratitude to all our special guests. In particular, I thank the Chairman of the occasion, the Executive Governor of Borno State, Prof Babagana Zulum, for gracing this occasion. I also wish to appreciate our Special Guests of Honour- the Honourable Ministers of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed. Thank you for supporting us”, he said. | https://www.mediabypass.net/minister-unveils-6-projects-to-improve-nigerias-digital-economy/ |
Day 8: Pandemic uncovers the realities of NC’s rural digital divide
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened demand for high-speed Internet as work, education, healthcare, and access to services have shifted online. On the eighth day of the 12 Days of Broadband, we put a timeline on the legislative efforts that have transpired over the last year to close the connectivity gap between urban and rural areas in North Carolina.
Painting the Picture
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2020, provided more than $2 trillion in economic stimulus across the country to address the pandemic. Among its provisions, the act allocated $300 million towards telecommunications programs and also gave states great leeway in how to spend $150 billion for pandemic relief.
States have been able to use funding to cover costs incurred from the beginning of March through the end of 2020 that were not anticipated in their budgets, which also included broadband access. States’ efforts to expand connectivity using federal resources have focused on four specific needs: increasing access to online learning for K-12 and post-secondary students, supporting telehealth services, deploying more public Wi-Fi access points, and investing in residential broadband infrastructure, especially in rural and underserved areas.
As 2020 progressed, states took different steps and approaches to facilitate more broadband in their respective areas. A report from the National Governors Association released in November outlined many examples of how states used CARES Act funding for broadband projects.
Looking Back. Looking Forward.
To increase Internet access across North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper launched the Connecting NC Task Force in May 2019. Through Executive Order No. 91, the task force directed government leaders to identify and remove barriers to affordable high-speed Internet, eliminate the “homework gap” that results from students not having it, and facilitate private-sector deployment of last-mile infrastructure. The initial budget included $35 million to expand broadband services, with $30 million of it allocated for the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program to encourage private service providers to bring broadband to underserved areas.
Almost exactly a year later, Gov. Cooper signed COVID-19 relief bills into law. The emergency package, which was passed unanimously in the General Assembly, included almost $1.6 billion in relief measures for critical expenditures related to public health and safety, educational needs, small business assistance, and continuity of state government operations. Of this amount, $1.4 billion was appropriated and $150 million was set aside in a reserve fund for future local government needs.
BAND-NC - Building a New Digital Economy in North Carolina
High-speed Internet is not optional in today’s unprecedented situation. Too many North Carolinians lack the Internet access they need to apply for jobs, do homework, or run a business.
In July, the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University hosted an informational webinar on BAND-NC, their new grant program funding digital inclusion plans in North Carolina communities. The ultimate goal of the program is to make North Carolina the first state in the nation where every county has a digital inclusion plan in place.
In the fall, initial grantees were invited to join technical assistance workshops to build county-wide digital inclusion plans. A second round of funding to support the implementation of these plans will be available in Spring 2021. Visit this website for more information and to apply.
Relief for Students
In August, Gov. Cooper directed $95.6 million in new funding to help support K-12 and post-secondary students most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funding is the state's share of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, a part of the CARES Act. GEER funds are intended to provide emergency support to school districts, post-secondary institutions, or other education-related entities for addressing the impact of COVID-19.
Click here to see how funding and investments were directed throughout North Carolina.
Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the N.C. Department of Public Instruction $17.6 million to develop innovative instructional approaches to better meet student needs during disruptions to schooling. North Carolina was one of 11 states to share $180 million under the federal Rethink K-12 Education Models Grant Program aimed at improving teaching and learning during the current crisis. Read full announcement.
Remote Learning Boost
Many North Carolina students currently attending school remotely need reliable Internet access to connect with their teachers and access their lessons. Students who are attending school onsite may also need Internet at home to be able to complete assignments.
In September, Gov. Cooper announced an investment of $40 million for NC Student Connect, a new partnership to address connectivity gaps in remote learning for many North Carolina students.
NC Student Connect is a partnership across state government including the N.C. Department of Information Technology, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Gov. Cooper’s Hometown Strong Initiative, and the N.C. Business Committee for Education (NCBCE). Initial private sector investments for NC Student Connect came from AT&T, Duke Energy Foundation, Fidelity Investments, Google, Smithfield Foundation, Verizon Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation.
Timing, Struggles with GREAT grants
As previously noted, North Carolina has federal money to spend on expanding broadband to the state’s rural areas through the GREAT grant program, but there’s a chance it might not be spent in time. The deadline for states to use that CARES Act money is Dec. 30.
The concern is that federal guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department doesn’t allow the grant funding to provide the broadband service by the deadline. There also are concerns the federal government would then take the money back, if unused.
Watch video of Gov. Cooper explaining the hold-up during one his COVID-19 briefings in November.
North Carolina’s digital equality requires longer-term solutions
COVID-19 has uncovered the realities of the digital divide and shown us all just how valuable high-speed Internet is today. The pandemic has forced jobs, classrooms, and businesses to go remote, which has shed light on the disparities in connectivity and with it, access to digital learning, telehealth, and public and residential broadband service. Although immediate federal relief funds have helped tackle near-term challenges, addressing these inequities ultimately requires long-term solutions to provide more North Carolina citizens with reliable broadband access in their homes.
One thing clear-cut from 2020 is that we’re not going back to broadband pre-COVID. As the world has turned to remote and online technologies, the broadband gap specifically found in North Carolina has become resounding as lawmakers continue to focus efforts and funding to try and fix it. But, as we continue to learn, short-term fixes are helping but long-term solutions are needed. | https://www.mcnc.org/knowledge-center/news/day-8-pandemic-uncovers-the-realities-of-ncs-rural-digital-divide/ |
The "digital divide" – a common term for the lack of internet access and technological devices for K-12 students – is especially consequential during the pandemic when students are remote learning, according to a new report by the New York Educational Conference Board (ECB), a coalition of seven statewide educational organizations.
Lack of internet connectivity or access to technological devices is most prevalent in rural, poor and/or marginalized communities, notes the report. About 8% of students in the state lack access to a dependable technological device for school learning, according to the State Education Department.
To help alleviate this problem, school leaders across New York worked hard to provide every student with a technological device for remote instruction, acquired wireless hotspots and partnered with community organizations and internet service providers (ISPs) to expand high-speed internet access.
Underserved areas including rural communities often face the brunt of the digital divide. Infrastructure issues, problems with "service coverage maps" and subscription costs and caps on data also impede long-term broadband access for students and families.
"This report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of remote learning has heightened the digital divide for K-12 students. Our marginalized K-12 communities are affected the most by this divide. The report offers clear recommendations to help close this divide," ECB Chair John Yagielski said.
Among the recommendations offered by the report to close the digital divide are:
√ Prioritize infrastructure investment to ensure broadband access;
√ Strengthen digital competencies of students and educators via professional development and training;
√ Upgrade coverage maps;
√ Provide monies to pay back school districts for technology costs associated with remote learning; and
√ Ban caps on data from Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
To view the report, go to:
https://www.nyssba.org/clientuploads/nyssba_pdf/gr/ecb-dig-divide-rev2-02222021.pdf.
The New York State Educational Conference Board is comprised of the Conference of Big 5 School Districts; the New York State Council of School Superintendents; New York State PTA; New York State School Boards Association; New York State United Teachers; and the School Administrators Association of New York State. | https://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/current/2021/02/24/145454/pandemic-highlights-inequities-produced-by-digital-divide |
New paper highlights crucial role of Community Networks in connecting the unconnected
Buenos Aires, Argentina–11 October, 2017– The Internet Society (ISOC), a global non-profit dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet, has today launched a new paper outlining policy initiatives that government, the private sector, and local actors can take to expand Internet access to underserved communities and remote areas.
In support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and with half of the world’s population still unconnected, the paper outlines the need for innovative approaches in policies to connect those in the hardest to reach places on the planet. It draws attention to Community Networks as a key example of new ways to close connectivity gaps and focuses on the need for new thinking on policies and regulations that support innovative ways to connect people.
Community Networks are built, managed and used by local communities. They offer a viable solution for affordable access in areas that traditional networks do not reach, or a backup and redundancy solution in instances where traditional networks may fail or are insufficient.
The Internet Society is urging the 100+ Ministers attending the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) in Buenos Aires 9-20 October to implement policies on infrastructure and digital skills that enable connectivity for thousands of communities around the world.
“Enabling and supporting communities to actually connect themselves is a new way of thinking,” explained Raul Echeberría, Vice President of Global Engagement for the Internet Society. “Policy makers and regulators should recognize that connectivity can be instigated from a village or a town and that they can help with innovative licensing and access to spectrum.”
Access to affordable and available spectrum is critical for Community Networks and policy makers can play a key role in ensuring adequate access to it. The report examines the various ways that Community Networks can gain access to spectrum, including the use of unlicensed spectrum, sharing licensed spectrum, and innovative licensing. Network operators also play a key role in helping Community Networks. The report outlines recommendations for operators which include: access to backhaul infrastructure at fair rates, equipment and training partnerships, and the sharing of infrastructure as well as spectrum.
“For people to reap the social and economic benefits the Internet can bring, policy makers must ensure that adequate spectrum is available for community networks, citizens, and other groups seeking to develop networks and provide access to ICTs. Community Networks are a key way to help us achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, however governments must work with the private sector to promote local connectivity,” added Echeberría.
The cost to deploy Community Networks can be low. Often, the technology required to build and maintain the network is as simple as a wireless router. The networks can range from WiFi-only to mesh networks and mobile networks that provide voice and SMS services. While they usually serve communities under 3,000 people, some serve more than 50,000 users.
To read the Internet Society report entitled “Spectrum Approaches for Community Networks” please visit: https://www.internetsociety.org/policybriefs/spectrum. The policy brief is also available in Spanish and French.
To learn more about Community Networks: https://www.internetsociety.org/issues/community-networks/.
About the Internet Society
Founded by Internet pioneers, the Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet. Working through a global community of chapters and members, the Internet Society collaborates with a broad range of groups to promote the technologies that keep the Internet safe and secure, and advocates for policies that enable universal access. The Internet Society is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Media Contact: | https://www.internetsociety.org/news/press-releases/2017/61665/ |
The challenge of connectivity in remote/rural areas
Rural areas are known to suffer from poorer broadband and mobile coverage than affluent urban regions. However, while pretty much all citizens of the wealthier economies can enjoy at least basic connectivity, millions of people in the developing world have no mobile or broadband coverage whatsoever. According to recent data, 51 percent of the world’s population remain offline and unable to take advantage of the enormous economic and social benefits the internet can offer. This leaves more than 3 billion people without affordable digital access, particularly in emerging markets, which are currently underserviced by current providers.
Most importantly, the huge connectivity gap between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ economies is creating a worrying disparity between countries, putting a significant proportion of the world’s population at disadvantage. And with the recent growth of connectivity in urban areas, fueled by mobile technology, this digital gap between rural and urban areas is continuing to widen. So why are telco and CSPs (communications service providers) failing to close this digital divide?
The key challenges for the provision of telecommunication services in rural areas are driven both by technological and economic considerations. Setting up backhaul connectivity remains extremely expensive in remote locations with poor or no city infrastructure. Another major challenge to the wider adoption of telecommunication services in remote locations is the erratic power supply or complete lack of energy sources to power the telecoms networks. There are also significant operational costs related to maintaining sufficient backup systems. This, coupled, with the heightened geo-political uncertainty in many developing countries, makes them a challenging market for telco providers to operate in.
What might be the answer?
Despite the challenges in these regions, there are ways to ensure affordable connectivity. Choosing efficient, cost-effective and fast-deployment technologies will improve accessibility and lower the operational costs required. Finding a way to reduce the infrastructure costs can further alleviate the pressure on telco providers and CSPs and help widen access to connectivity across the world.
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One answer lies in investing in narrow-band connectivity services provided by nano-satellites. Building a constellation of nano-satellites which covers the equatorial region will provide telecom operators and service providers with low-cost coverage in remote locations and allow them to expand their existing networks without having to invest heavily in building costly infrastructure networks on the ground.
Using nanosatellites enables us to lower the cost of building and launching them, which in turn allows for the financial feasibility of affordable connectivity services to remote locations in a reliable manner. This means that service providers will be able to offer more affordable services to people in remote locations, providing them with the voice and text services that they need. The introduction of this kind of new-space satellites and technology is of mutual benefit to those developing the technology, those launching the satellites, the telecom providers, and most of all, the people on the ground whose lives will be positively impacted by gaining access to these services.
Creating new possibilities for connectivity allows use of ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) benefits such as better healthcare, better education, better financial ecosystem, better governance and more. It is important to have the support of organisations such as the UN, local governments, and the World Bank but we also need the expertise of the entrepreneurs and start-ups that are working to solve this connectivity problem by investing in the latest technology. Ultimately, it is essential to foster cooperation between those developing the technology to enable affordable communications services, the service providers and the political institutions needed to support these ventures.
We envision a world where digital inclusion is universal and affordable connectivity is considered not only a basic human right but an elementary service. We have the technology to make this a reality and we seek meaningful partnerships with others in the space and telecoms industries in order to deliver the vision of affordable connectivity to anyone, anywhere, anytime. | https://businesschief.eu/technology/challenge-connectivity-remoterural-areas |
In connection with the upcoming inaugural Digital Development Summit 2017, this blog by Nanjira Sambuli is the third is a series exploring the future of work in an increasingly digital world. Drawing on findings from the Women’s Rights Online initiative, Sambuli highlights the ‘analogue’ factors that may create or undermine a viable future of technology and work for women in developing countries.
As technology advances, conversations around the opportunities and risks posed by automation and digitisation on the future of work have inevitably increased. It is important to consider the differing impacts the digitisation of work will have in developed countries versus in developing countries – as a previous blog post in this series explored – but it is equally as critical to consider the implications on women. Men and women will be impacted by this future in different ways – both positively and negatively – and we must ensure that as discussions around the future of work take shape, they adopt a gendered lens from the get-go.
At the Web Foundation, we set up the Women’s Rights Online (WRO) initiative to ensure that the growing digital gender divide is not overlooked in ICT policy discourses. This divide in internet access is real and significant – a WRO 2015 study found that women in poor, urban communities are 50 per cent less likely to be online than men, and this gender digital divide looks to be getting worse with time. What is more, the effects are extending beyond access, impacting how women use and appropriate digital technologies – our same 2015 research study found that women are also 30-50 per cent less likely than men to speak out online, or to use the web to access information related to their rights. Controlling for the effects of age, education, employment status and income, women are 25 per cent less likely to use the internet for job-seeking than men.
The implications of this gender digital divide on the future of work and global development are significant, and the underlying causes numerous – ranging across the political, economic, social, and technological spectrum. Here are three socio-economic ‘analog’ factors (i.e., factors that preceded the advent of information and communication technologies) that are contributing to this yawning divide on technology access and use by women, particularly in developing nations:
1. Patriarchal norms and attitudes
Our 2015 Women’s Rights Online study found online harassment and patriarchal norms and attitudes towards the internet to be a significant constraint to how women access and use the web. Patriarchal attitudes are spilling over into the digital realm, presenting a socio-cultural challenge that is just as important to consider as the technological changes we are witnessing.
Beliefs such as ‘men have priority over women when it comes to accessing the internet’, ‘men have the responsibility to restrict what women access on the internet’, ‘women should be restricted from using the internet in public spaces on their own’ were articulated by three in every ten men interviewed, and interestingly, two in every ten women. Such gendered norms are the root of gender discrimination in overt, direct ways, as well as in covert and indirect ways. They also are difficult to measure – and even harder to quantify – which could lead to their being overlooked in policy discussions about our digital futures.
Across the globe, strong legal protections of rights online, especially for women, are lacking (for example, The 2014 Web Index noted that 74 per cent of countries are not doing enough to stop online violence against women). This, coupled with online harassment and abuse – often under-reported and emboldened by adverse gendered norms – creates a hostile online environment for women. Women looking to use the internet to seek job opportunities or to showcase their work risk online harassment or abuse in doing so. Given this reality and a lack of recourse mechanisms, it is quite likely that women will be left behind in a digital-driven world of work.
As we noted in the Women’s Rights Online report, ‘patriarchy as a form of social control may have debilitating effects at the micro-level (e.g. within the household) by placing women second in line to benefit from technology, if given the chance at all.’ This will be an important hypothesis to explore through further research into technology access and use.
2. Education
Education is one of the primary determinants of internet use. ‘Not knowing how’ to use the internet was the barrier most widely cited by poor, urban women who do not use the internet. Controlling for income, women who have some secondary education or have completed secondary school are six times more likely to be online than women with primary school education or less; furthermore, the digital gender gap decreases when higher levels of education are attained. Age also matters; younger men and women are more likely to be online than older age groups. However, while the digital gender gap may be smaller among youth, it is still sizeable.
The majority of countries surveyed for our research do not provide internet access in schools, teacher training in ICTs, or community digital literacy training, nor do they collect data to monitor progress in these areas. In order to give women increased opportunity to take advantage of online opportunities, it is critical for primary and secondary schools to incorporate digital skills training into their curricula, and for women to have equal access to tertiary education opportunities to unlock digital opportunities for all. These will serve as crucial nodes for imparting and honing the skills needed to compete in an ICT-driven world of work.
3. Income inequality
The digital divide that exists today is a poverty and gender divide. It is estimated that one in ten people live in extreme poverty (under $1.90 a day), and half of the extreme poor live in sub-Saharan Africa. Women are more vulnerable to extreme poverty as they face greater burden on unpaid work, have fewer assets and productive resources as men, and for the most part, must overcome the obstacles posed by the patriarchal norms and attitudes discussed above. The costs of connecting to the internet around the world remain high and it is no surprise then that the poorer people are, the less likely they are to use the internet.
We found the gender gap in connectivity is smallest among the poorest, and highest at middle income levels; this, because for the very poor – men and women alike – internet access is simply too expensive. However, at every income level men are still more likely than women to be online. The countries with the highest internet costs (as a proportion of average per capita income) have the lowest numbers of women online and the largest gender gaps in internet use.
Way forward
As noted by the Alliance for Affordable Internet, gender equality and female empowerment through ICTs, as proposed in Sustainable Development Goal 5b, will not become a reality until ICTs become more affordable and readily accessible to women. Years of ICT policy research have shown that a ‘gender blind’ approach simply does not work. This is why we must proceed with a gender-responsive approach to policies that will impact how women benefit from a future where technology access is a key determinant of work and livelihoods.
It will take the formulation and adoption of smart policies to close the gender digital divide and achieve universal, equal and meaningful access for all. At current rates, the Alliance for Affordable Internet’s research warns us that we may miss the lofty sustainable development goal to achieve universal, affordable access by 2020 by over 20 years.
Based on our household survey findings and the digital gender gap audits produced subsequently, we believe that through policy reform, we can reverse this worrying trend. More specifically, we propose five shared priority action areas as a starting point for broad regional and global consultation, in order to agree on an international action agenda.
To remember these five action areas, remember that we must REACT – that is, focus on strengthening rights online and offline, invest in digital skills and data literacy education, strive to ensure that all citizens have affordable and meaningful access to the internet, stimulate supply (and creation) of relevant content and services for women online, and that governments must adopt and integrate concrete gender equity targets into national ICT policies, and must ensure these policies are backed by adequate budget allocations. Only through these steps can we ensure that women enter the future of work on an equal footing to men, and reap the benefits of an open web.
Nanjira Sambuli is Digital Equality Advocacy Manager at the World Wide Web Foundation. | https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/3-analogue-factors-that-affect-the-future-of-tech-and-work-for-women/ |
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