Sectors and strategies of global communications regulation

As the global communication network matures, the systems and procedures for regulating the growing network and its use are being challenged. The general proliferation of services or the specific demand for electronic transactions require guidance and control which the market alone cannot supply. Meanwhile, traditional regulatory regimes remain far from global or coherent. This article distinguishes between coordination and regulation to clarify areas where government intervention is unnecessary and where indispensable. It explores the current patchwork of regulatory approaches, reviews different regulatory areas and strategies, identifies trends, and highlights problem areas particular to electronic commerce and third party protection. His research covers areas such as Access Problems in the Multimedia Age, Legal Framework of Data Protection and Data Security, and Regulation of “Old” and “New” Media. His current research is focused on the interaction of technical and institutional innovations and on the evolution, development, and governance of the Internet. An earlier version of this article first appeared in Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie Bd.23/H1 July 2002.     

Wissenschaftstheorie in ?sterreich seit den 1990er Jahren im internationalen Vergleich: Eine Bestandsaufnahme

Based on two previous reports (1970 and 1993), the development of philosophy of science in Austria (covering the history and sociology of the sciences) since 1991 is described and analyzed with regard to its manifestation and institutionalization at the universities (mostly placed at the departments of philosophy in Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg, and Vienna). Some extra-university societies and institutes are included as well as related journals and book series in this research field, which has changed significantly within the last two decades. A sort of disruption of the earlier strong presence of philosophy of science in the capitals of the Austrian provinces occurred and at the same time a late revival took place in Vienna after the forced migration of the Vienna Circle since the 1930s and long aftermath. One additional result of this account is the extension of the traditional core discipline (analytic) ??logic and philosophy of science?? to the historical and sociological domain of all sciences (including the basic natural sciences and the humanities, as well as the cultural and social sciences). A list of related and selected publications on philosophy of science in Austria is appended as complementary biographical information. A list of Austrian institutions in the philosophy of science with some mission statements complements this survey, which is certainly not complete for practical and systematic reasons.     

Evaluation of agricultural research in Latin America and the Caribbean

This article assesses the state of evaluation, and identifies priorities for improving evaluation, in agricultural research organizations in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean in the early 1990s. Based on thirteen case studies conducted in 1992, the article describes the institutional settings and regional patterns, and trends in evaluation practice. Illustrative cases from Argentina, Brazil, and Guatemala are presented. The organizations studied have extensive experience with evaluation; however, this experience has not been well documented or shared. Evaluation is generally the weakest phase in the management cycle. In the past, most evaluations have been extrinsically motivated, and as such, they have been of little use to local researchers and managers. Obstacles to improving evaluation include the centralization of administrative systems, weak program management, a lack of understanding of potential uses of evaluation in management, and limited knowledge of appropriate evaluation methods. Agricultural research managers feel that evaluation training should be provided as one component of a broader effort covering planning, monitoring, and evaluation. Since joining ISNAR in 1990, he has engaged in research, training, and advisory work on research management, with an emphasis on evaluation. Previously, for fifteen years Horton was head of the social science department of the International Potato Center in Peru. Horton received B.s. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University. His current interests include action research and learning, organizational assessment, and institutionalization of planning, monitoring, and evaluation. He worked for fourteen years at the Brazilian Corporation for Agricultural Research, conducting research and development activities in the areas of human resources and of strategic management. He is a full professor at the Department of Social and Work Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia, Brazil, where he teaches and advises at the undergraduate and graduate levels and does research and consulting. His current areas of interest are organizational behavior, training, organizational evaluation, and science and technology management.     

Vectors into the Future of Mass and Interpersonal Communication Research: Big Data,Social Media,and Computational Social Science

Simultaneous developments in big data, social media, and computational social science have set the stage for how we think about and understand interpersonal and mass communication. This article explores some of the ways that these developments generate 4 hypothetical “vectors”—directions—into the next generation of communication research. These vectors include developments in network analysis, modeling interpersonal and social influence, recommendation systems, and the blurring of distinctions between interpersonal and mass audiences through narrowcasting and broadcasting. The methods and research in these arenas are occurring in areas outside the typical boundaries of the communication discipline but engage classic, substantive questions in mass and interpersonal communication.     

Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Beyond the Debate

Psychology has been a highly quantitative field since its conception as a science. However, a qualitative approach to psychological research has gained increasing importance in the last decades, and an enduring debate between quantitative and qualitative approaches has arisen. The recently developed Mixed Methods Research (MMR) addresses this debate by aiming to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article outlines and discusses quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research approaches with specific reference to their (1) philosophical foundations (i.e. basic sets of beliefs that ground inquiry), (2) methodological assumptions (i.e. principles and formal conditions which guide scientific investigation), and (3) research methods (i.e. concrete procedures for data collection, analysis and interpretation). We conclude that MMR may reasonably overcome the limitation of purely quantitative and purely qualitative approaches at each of these levels, providing a fruitful context for a more comprehensive psychological research.

Parallel experimentation and the problem of variation

Evolutionary processes have two underlying mechanisms: variation (expanding options) and selection (narrowing options). Darwin and Darwinism focused on the selectional mechanism, i.e., natural selection. If an evolutionary process is seen as pushing towards higher altitudes on a multi-peaked and cloudy “fitness landscape,” then selection is a hill-climbing mechanism while a mechanism for variation would explore to find higher hills. Selection without variation might get stuck on a low hill. Our thesis is that the best solution for the problem of variation is parallel experimentation with the different probes having some semi-isolation from selectional pressure and where results in the experiments can be cross-communicated and compared to ratchet up the performance of the whole group. Our approach is by seeking out the common elements addressing the problem of variation in evolutionary theory (Sewall Wright’s shifting balance theory), in various search procedures, in the selection of economic projects, and in science and technology development. The opposite strategy is series experimentation which assumes that one is already climbing the highest peak so consideration of other peaks is irrelevant. The main critical applications are to global institutions such as the World Bank or IMF who do not condone parallel experimentation since they already “know” what is the highest peak—and, more generally, to those in power on top of a low hill who know that any real variation would be downhill for them. David P. Ellerman works in the fields of economics and political economy, social theory and philosophy, and in mathematics. His undergraduate degree is in philosophy at M.I.T. and he has Masters degrees in Philosophy of Science, in Economics, and a doctorate in Mathematics—all from Boston University. He has been in and out of teaching in economics, mathematics, accounting, computer science, and operations research departments in various universities, founded and managed a consulting firm in East Europe, and worked in the World Bank from 1992 to 2003 where he was an economic advisor to the Chief Economist (Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern). Now he is a visiting scholar in the Economics Department of the University of California in Riverside, and is consulting on development and worker ownership issues.     

Competitive Charity: A Neoliberal Culture of ‘Giving Back’ in Global Yoga

Recent developments in global yoga show a tendency towards social activism in the charity market. As part of this, Yoga Aid World Challenge 2012 (founded in 2007) is a good example of how neoliberal organisational culture and generosity may become entangled. Competition stands out as an unusual strategy in the predominantly gentle type of modern postural yoga. During this 24-hour event, yoga is practised across 25 countries worldwide, following the course of the sun. Corresponding social networks and digital media strongly promote, months before the event, the joy of practising yoga and equate the meaning of life with giving. This is interpreted with findings from behavioural economics on altruism and from new institutional economics on the organisers’ communication and event marketing. This article paints a picture of hybrid social network formation and a cluster of affects, including competition, gratitude, and a sense of obligation.     

Four programs of research in scientific communication

Selected studies of scientific communication, philosophy and sociology of science, sociology of knowledge, and information science are reviewed according to the assumptions they make about scientific information. Based on these assumptions and their historical order of development, the studies are organized into four distinct “programs” of research: artifact studies, user studies, network studies, and laboratory studies. The four programs represent a continuum of definitions of information, from the information-as-commodity definition that is embodied in the artifact studies, to the contextual, meaning-based definition that is characteristic of the laboratory studies. They also provide a rich framework for a renewal of research interest in this area among communication scholars and others interested in the social impacts of information. “When I studied scientific communication back in the sixties, it was a great field to be in ... we thought we knew just about everything there was to know about scientific communication.”¹ Bill Paisley, 1985 Leah A. Lievrouw is assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Rutgers University. Dr. Lievrouw received her PhD from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include scientific communication and the social aspects of telecommunications technologies.     

Professionalization and evaluation: The case of Indian agricultural research

This paper examines the role of evaluation in promoting and sustaining professionalism in agricultural research organizations. The evaluation experience of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) reveals a series of attempts to review and institutionalize the essential features of professionalism: expertise, credentialism, and autonomy. The central thesis is that when evaluations inform or enable major changes in one or more of these features of professionalism, over a period of time, it is a sign of increasing professionalization of research. Following a brief introduction, the evaluation experiences of ICAR are examined in the context of the evolution of the profession of agricultural research. Specific evaluation experiences are then analyzed, with an emphasis on the role of evaluation in resolving the tension between bureaucratic and professional decision making. The paper concludes that unless stringent evaluations are introduced in ICAR, the professionalization of agricultural research in India will remain incomplete. Graduated in agricultural sciences at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, she obtained her doctoral degree at the Kerala Agricultural University in 1994. She started her professional career as an agricultural extension officer at the State Department of Agriculture in Kerala. She has published on research organization, measurement of research efforts, history and evolution of agricultural science, priority setting, research decision-making, and reforms in agricultural education and training. Her current research focuses on impact of soil-science technologies, development of key disciplines in agricultural chemistry within an evolutionary economics perspective, and institutional and policy implications of changes in agricultural science.     

Disciplinary roots and branches of evaluation: Some lessons from agricultural research

Since its origins in North America in the 1960s, the field of program evaluation has grown considerably, and its concerns have broadened from accountability to program improvement, decision support, and institutional learning. Program evaluation is now commonly practiced in governmental organizations not only in North America but also in many countries of Western Europe and Oceania. Although program evaluation is a relatively new field with many controversies and lively debates, a unifying body of evaluation theory, methods, and standards is gradually emerging. Evaluation has recently been described as a “transdiscipline,” as are statistics and measurement. This article is based largely on my personal experiences working in agricultural research organizations in developing regions. Here, a number of different types of evaluation are carried out, but program evaluation as defined by Patton (1997) and as practiced by social scientists to assess public programs is largely unknown. Distinct branches of agricultural research evaluation can be identified, with disciplinary roots in the natural sciences and in agricultural economics. The most rigorous agricultural research evaluations are economic studies. Systematic internal evaluation is notably lacking. Current pressures to improve performance, transparency, and accountability are creating demands for more systematic evaluation, and many program evaluation concepts and methods would seem to be of value in agricultural research organizations. However, in the current scenario of declining funding for agricultural research, managers are yet to be convinced to expand their evaluation activities and explore unfamiliar paradigms and methods. Moreover, they are not yet convinced that social-science-based program evaluation would produce useful results. Natural scientists and economists tend to view program evaluation as “soft-science” or no science at all. Douglas Horton works at the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) in The Netherlands. Since joining ISNAR in early 1990, he has done research, training, and advisory work on agricultural research management, with an emphasis on evaluation. Previously, for fifteen years, Horton was head of the social science department of the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru. With colleagues at CIP and in national agricultural research organizations, he documented patterns and trends in world potato production and use, engaged in participatory technology development and assessed the impact of CIP programs. Horton received B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University. While at Cornell, Horton worked with W.F. Whyte, pioneer in the fields of participant observation and participatory action research.     

The research values of policy analysts

While there is growing consensus that conventional notions of the scientific method do not exhaust the methodological needs of policy analysis (at least applied analysis), there is less agreement as to what an improved method would entail. As a result, policy analysts must choose among often competing notions of what constitutes valid policy inquiry. Data from a content analysis of six policy journal articles together with responses from a survey of authors are used to determine what choices are made and whether these matter. Two sets of research norms are discovered within the policy studies community’one which mirrors traditional social science values and another which reflects recent attempts to adjust that methodology to meet the information needs of policy actors. Equally important, values tend, albeit slightly, to condition the character (e.g., degree of rigor or focus) of policy research. David M. Hedge is an associate professor of political science and director of the graduate program in public policy at West Virginia University. His research interests include regulatory politics, intergovernmental relations, and state politics/policy. Jin W. Mok is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa. His area of interests are public policy and methodology.     

Evaluation of agricultural research in Eastern,Central, and Southern Africa

Research and Development (R&D) evaluation within agriculture is becoming increasingly important as a planning tool in the research management process in eastern, central, and southern Africa. Evaluation of agricultural research in the region is performed at various levels for different purposes. This article traces the evolution of R&D activities, and looks at the current status of the agricultural research evaluation and the capacity to undertake such evaluations as a part of research management-both at the national and regional levels. It critically examines the experiences of the region in evaluating agricultural research and the efforts made to promote such activities, summarizing the lessons learned. Finally, the article analyzes the critical constraints impeding the successful adoption of the agricultural research evaluation process and offers suggestions, which could alleviate these constraints. From 1993 to 1997, he was an advisor on impact evaluation and policy analysis to the Southern Africa Center for Cooperation in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Training (SACCAR), in Botswana. Graduated in agricultural economics from the University of Guelph, Canada, he started his professional career in Africa, at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in 1979. From 1982 to 1991, he worked for CIMMYT, and was then a senior economist at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in Canberra. He has worked and published in a range of subjects, including agricultural policy and development, agricultural marketing, production economics, farming systems research, capacity building, and impact assessment. Anandajayasekeram is the current president of the Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension and the Southern African Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension. Dr. David R. Martella has, since 1991, been Regional Agricultural Advisor at the United State Agency for International Development, Regional Economic Development Support Office for East and Southern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He previously worked as an agricultural economist and advisor for USAID in Mozambique. Martella has fifteen years of experience in farming and related enterprises as owneroperator in California, in Mexico, and in Swaziland. He also has sixteen years of research and program management experience in Africa. His areas of specialization include economic theory, econometrics and quantitative methods, and experimental design. Martella has a graduate degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University.     

Impact of consumers' corporate social responsibility‐related activities in social media on brand attitude,electronic word‐of‐mouth intention,and purchase intention: A study of Chinese consumer behavior

This study examines how consumers' corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐related activities in social media affect their responses to brands. We defined consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media as the extent to which consumers use social media to engage in CSR communication by companies. An online survey was conducted to examine social media users in China, the largest consumer market in today's global economies. This study developed a theoretical model and empirically tested the relationships between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media, identification with the brand, and three consumer behavior outcomes: electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) intention, brand attitude, and purchase intention. The results suggested that consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media significantly impacted eWOM intention and purchase intention through enhancing identification with the brand and positive brand attitude. This study provides important insights on consumer behavior and CSR by investigating social media, an important and emerging marketing platform. Moreover, this study fills in the research gap about the association between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media and their responses to brands. Theoretical and managerial implications for CSR strategies in social media are discussed.     

Freedom,boldness, and economic creativity

The improvement of mankind’s material well-being in a scarcity world is an unending struggle. It is no small, easy task but rather an arduous, difficult, continuous endeavor. Over time, the betterment of man’s condition requires, at a minimum, that economic growth outstrip population expansion. Although economic growth is so important, it is by no means automatic. Rapid economic growth is the outcome of a fine-tuned interaction between mankind and his environment. Maintaining sustained high levels of economic growth depends critically on the product of man’s genius and imagination — technological progress or economic creativity. It is therefore of the utmost importance to identify the determinants of technological improvement, the conditions under which it flourishes, and the characteristics of human beings that foster its development. This paper looks across countries to assess the effect of two potential factors, freedom and boldness, on economic creativity. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh and has published articles on a wide variety of economics topics. His current research interests include the areas of economic growth, economic development, international trade, and global income distribution.     

The Persistence of Status Differentials in Computer Conferencing

One feature of electronic communication media is its potential to remove the effects of occupational role identity. For better or for worse, electronic communication technologies may reduce occupational status differentials and allow individuals to communicate as equals. This article reports results from a study of health-care professionals engaged in an educational program using computer conferences over a five-month period. Results show that the content and network of communication among health-care professionals using the computer conference were significantly related to occupational roles. Specifically, physicians and hospital administrators were afforded higher status in computer conferences than nurses. The effects of occupational status differentials were manifest and became more established with greater use of the computer conferencing system. Status characteristics derived from the educational task also appeared to affect communication patterns. The importance of considering multiple social contexts when implementing information technology is discussed.     

Can Science Help Construct a New Global Ethic? The Development and Implications of Moral Transformation Theory

This paper reports the results of a ten-year search for consensus among scientific findings on the nature of the origin and development of moral sensitivity and morality. Significant agreement on six underlying factors was found. Based on these foundations, a new theory of moral transformation and a scientific "global ethic" relating to the global ethic of Hans Kung and the Parliament of the World's Religions is proposed. Fields surveyed include psychology, sociology, political science, economics, history, and gender and feminist studies in social science; physics and biology in natural science; and brain research, archaeology, and both old and new evolutionary studies and theory, including chaos, self-organizing, and other nonlinear theories, in systems science.     

Communicating Science Effectively: When an Optimised Video Communication Enhances Comprehension,Pleasantness, and People’s Interest in Knowing More About Scientific Findings

In two experiments (N = 160) we predicted and found that an optimised video science communication was more effective than either a press release science communication (Experiment 1) and a non-optimised video science communication (Experiment 2) in promoting (a) a better comprehension of the communication, (b) a higher perceived pleasantness, and (c) a stronger manifest interest in learning more about its findings, as reflected in participants’ explicit requests to receive supplemental material on the communicated and analogous findings. The results were consistent across experiments. They were also not influenced by the content type of the communication. Implications for communication professionals and future research in the field of media, social influence, education, and applied social psychology are discussed.     

Scientific associations in the German research system—Results of an empirical study

Within contemporary science, scientific associations have been found to fulfill at least four functions: a communicative function that furthers scientific communication within a discipline or subdiscipline; a profesional function that supports individual careers and represents the collective interests of the members within a discipline; a transfer function that provides a meeting place for scientists and societal users of research results; and a promotion function that advises research institutes and political institutions in science policy decisions. This empirical study investigates German scientific associations and shows how and to what degree they fulfill these functions. The results of the study indicate that the communicative and the transfer functions dominate. Uwe Schimank is currently a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Gesellschaftsforschung in Cologne. He received his doctorate in sociology at the University of Bielefeld. He is presently working on an analysis of the development of extra-university state-financed research institutes in the German research system.     

Seeds of discontent: Expert opinion, mass media messages, and the public image of agricultural biotechnology

Survey data are presented on opinions about agricultural biotechnology and its applications held by agricultural science faculty at highly ranked programs in the United States with and without personal involvement in biotechnology-oriented research. Respondents believed biotech holds much promise, but policy positions vary. These results underscore the relationship between opinion and stakeholder interests in this research, even among scientific experts. Media accounts are often seen as causes, rather than artifacts, of the existence of public controversy; European and now U.S. opposition to food biotechnology is often explained away in terms of such a relationship. The authors argue that where even experts are divided, public opposition cannot reasonably be attributed to poor public understanding or sensationalistic media accounts. Ethical implications for communicating science are explored.