When Did the Anthropocene Begin… and Why Does It Matter?
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Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas∗
Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas∗ William F. Maloneyy Felipe Valencia Caicedoz July 1, 2016 Abstract This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central actor in modern growth theory- the engineer. We collect cross-country and state level data on the population share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering and patenting for the US during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians), demand side factors, and instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant Colleges program. We support these results with historical case studies from the US and Latin America. A one standard deviation increase in engineers in 1880 accounts for a 16% increase in US county income today, and patenting capacity contributes another 10%. Our estimates also help explain why countries with similar levels of income in 1900, but tenfold differences in engineers diverged in their growth trajectories over the next century. Keywords: Innovative Capacity, Human Capital, Engineers, Technology Diffusion, Patents, Growth, Development, History. JEL: O11,O30,N10,I23 ∗Corresponding author Email: [email protected]. We thank Ufuk Akcigit, David de la Croix, Leo Feler, Claudio Ferraz, Christian Fons-Rosen, Oded Galor, Steve Haber, Lakshmi Iyer, David Mayer- Foulkes, Stelios Michalopoulos, Guy Michaels, Petra Moser, Giacomo Ponzetto, Luis Serven, Andrei Shleifer, Moritz Shularick, Enrico Spolaore, Uwe Sunde, Bulent Unel, Nico Voigtl¨ander,Hans-Joachim Voth, Fabian Waldinger, David Weil and Gavin Wright for helpful discussions. We are grateful to William Kerr for making available the county level patent data. -
Criminal Justice and the Technological Revolution Download The
Criminal justice and the technological revolution COVID-19 has prompted a profound shift in the use of technology across justice systems internationally. The challenge today is how to build on and accelerate recent progress. Criminal justice and the technological revolution The journey towards a fully digitally-enabled criminal justice system is underway and the potential benefits are vast. The work yet to do is daunting, but the increased access to justice it could deliver is exciting. In this article, we set out some ways that digital and The impact of these changes still needs to be virtual justice can support service transformation evaluated, but this remains a profound shift. And in for victims, witnesses, people with convictions, and many cases, COVID-19 responses either accelerated or criminal justice professionals. We focus on the need to complemented longer-term initiatives to digitise large create a new digital ecosystem around current services parts of the criminal justice system. Our work shows and to target technology investments on the biggest that our focus geographies all have major programmes problems highlighted in our international research of technology-enabled change underway to digitise effort: and manage criminal case information through online platforms and to increase use of remote and virtual • Harnessing digital twin capabilities to reduce court working technologies. Many involve long-term billion- backlogs dollar investments and are among the most significant change programmes operating across governments. • Making virtual prisons a reality Digital and virtual justice at a crossroads • Supporting rehabilitation through virtual desistance The challenge today is how to build on and accelerate platforms recent progress. -
Fourth Industrial Revolution, Challenge Accepted a Guide to Understanding Why Japan Is Set to Re-Own International Leadership in the ‘Era of Acceleration’
J APAN Fourth Industrial Revolution, challenge accepted A guide to understanding why Japan is set to re-own international leadership in the ‘era of acceleration’ As the dominant force in global manufacturing in the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in the consumer electronics industry, Japan became an economic juggernaut and a poster boy for technological innovation. However, what followed has since become commonly known Like any revolution, there will is already a pioneer – is expected to as the “Lost Decades”: a period of be winners and losers, so Japan, it grow at an annual rate of 12% to “Japan’s forte is in economic decline characterized by seems, couldn’t have timed its manu- reach $79.5bn by 2022. creating high-quality a loss of ground to manufacturing facturing comeback much better. On Yoshiharu Inaba, Chairman and authentic products” rivals in the Asian region and further the back of Prime Minister Shinzo CEO of FANUC – Japan’s leading exasperated by the global fnancial Abe’s eponymous ‘Abenomics’ strate- robotics company – believes the Kazuhiro Kashio, crisis in 2008. gy and Japanese industry’s great glo- signifcance of such growth will be President, CASIO The pendulum though has swung balization push, the country shipped historically monumental. once again, and this period in the run $645.2 billion worth of goods inter- “With the invention of steam en- up to 2020 – the year Japan will host nationally last year, up by 11.1% since gines, Britain’s industrial revolution ucts were synonymous with quality the Olympics – is being marked as 2009 when the economic recession boosted the effciency of manufac- and reliability, and the world knew the country’s great comeback to kicked in, and up 3.2% from 2015. -
Spring Quarter 2019 – Undergraduate Course Offerings
Spring Quarter 2019 – Undergraduate Course Offerings Courses with an asterisk (*) are open for Pre-registration. ANTHROPOLOGY ANTHRO 221-0 - Social and Health Inequalities 20 (32686) Thomas McDade - TuTh 2:00PM - 3:20PM *Income inequality in the U.S is expanding, while social inequalities in health remain large, and represent longstanding challenges to public health. This course will investigate trends in social and health inequality in the U.S., and their intersection, with attention to the broader global context as well. It will examine how social stratification by race/ethnicity, gender, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, education, and/or other dimensions influence the health status of individuals, families, and populations; and, conversely, how health itself is thought to be a fundamental determinant of key social outcomes such as educational achievement and economic status. The course will draw on research from anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, political science, social epidemiology, biomedicine, and evolutionary biology. ANTHRO 314-0 - Human Growth & Development 20 (32683) Erin Beth Waxenbaum Dennison - MoWe 9:30AM - 10:50AM *In this course, we will examine human growth and development. By its very nature, this topic is a bio cultural process that requires an integrated analysis of social construction and biological phenomena. To this end, we will incorporate insight from evolutionary ecology, developmental biology and psychology, human biology and cultural anthropology. Development is not a simple matter of biological unfolding from birth through adolescence; rather, it is a process that is designed to be in sync with the surrounding environment within which the organism develops. Additionally we will apply these bio cultural and socio-ecological insights to emerging health challenges associated with these developmental stages. -
EDITORIAL BOARD THOUGHTS the Fourth Industrial Revolution Does It Pose an Existential Threat to Libraries? Brady Lund
EDITORIAL BOARD THOUGHTS The Fourth Industrial Revolution Does It Pose an Existential Threat to Libraries? Brady Lund No. No, it does not. Not any more than any other technological innovation (information systems, personal computers, the Internet, e-readers, Google, Google Scholar) did. However, what is very likely is that the technologies that emerge from this era will slowly (but surely) lead to profound changes in how libraries operate. Those libraries that fail to understand or embrace these technologies may, in fact, be left behind. So, we must, as always, stay abreast of trends in emerging technologies and what the literature (i.e., articles in this journal) propose as ideas for adopting (and adapting) them to better serve our patrons. With this column, my aim is to briefly discuss what the fourth industrial revolution is and its relevance within our profession. THE “FOURTH” INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION? The term “fourth industrial revolution” describes the evolution of information technology towards greater automation and interconnectedness. It includes or incorporates technological advancements such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, advanced robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, 3D printing, nanotechnology, and quantum computing.1 Imaginations can run amok with idyllic visions of Walt Disney’s EPCOT—a utopian world of interconnectedness and efficiency—or dystopian nightmares captured in the mind of Stephen King, George Orwell, or Pixar’s WALL-E. If we have learned anything from the past though—and after the last 12 months I cannot be entirely sure of that—it is that reality is likely to settle somewhere in the middle. Some things will improve dramatically in our lives but there will also be negative impacts—funding changes, learning curves, and maybe a bit of soul-searching within the profession (not that that last one is necessarily a bad thing). -
Information Technological Revolution and Institutional Innovations
UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI FACULTY OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES Reijo Miettinen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION AND INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS CRADLE Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning Working papers 4/2014 University of Helsinki Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning CRADLE Working papers 4/2014 Reijo Miettinen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION AND INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS University of Helsinki ISBN 978-952-10-8226-9 ISSN-L 1798-3118 ISSN 1798-3118 Helsinki 2014 CONTENTS 1 Technological revolutions and institutional change ....................................... 4 2 The organizational consequences of the information technological revolution ....................................................................................................... 6 3 Networks, open innovation and the breakthrough of commons-based peer-production ............................................................................................ 11 4 Intellectual property rights and the internal contradiction of the knowledge society .................................................................................. 19 5 Innovations and democracy: from top-down policies to local experiments and institutional learning .............................................................................. 27 PREFACE The history of this working paper is the following. I wrote a small book entitled National innovation system. Scientific concept or political rhetoric published by the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) and Edita publisher in -
Communications, Transportation and Phases of the Industrial Revolution MJ Peterson
Roots of Interconnection: Communications, Transportation and Phases of the Industrial Revolution MJ Peterson International Dimensions of Ethics Education in Science and Engineering Background Reading Version 1; February 2008 Transnational ethical conflicts are more frequent in the contemporary world and because of the greater interconnection among societies. Though scientists and engineers have maintained active contact with colleagues in other countries for centuries, until recent decades such contacts were limited to periods of study at a foreign university, occasional collaboration in labs or on projects, and exchange of research results through publication or presentation at conferences. As societies became more interconnected, the patterns of joint activity deepened. At the same time, the impacts of science and engineering were felt more deeply in society as the connections between basic science on one side and applied science, technology, and engineering of human-made structures became stronger. Two sets of technological changes increased the possibilities for interconnection between societies by increasing the speed of and broadening access to communications and transportation. The changes in communication took hold more quickly, but both were important to increasing the possibility for interaction among members of different societies. With invention of the telegraph in the 1840s messages could travel from point-to-point at the speed of shifting electrons rather than of galloping horses or relays of visual signals from tower to tower. Basic transmission time between Paris and London went from days (horses) or hours (visual relay) to minutes. However, the need to receive the messages in a special telegraph office, copy the text onto paper, and then either deliver the paper to the recipient or have the recipient come by to pick it up meant that total message time was longer for anyone who did not have a telegraph office on-site. -
Industrialisation
1 Foreword ndustry has always played a vital role in development. It boosts economic activity INDUSTRIALISE I along value chains, from raw materials to finished products. It lifts productivity by introducing new equipment and new AFRICA techniques, increases the capabilities of the workforce, and diffuses these improvements into the wider economy. Industry also tends to generate formal employment, which in turn creates social stability. It improves the balance of trade by creating goods for export and replacing imports. Industrialisation, including the encouragement of manufacturing and processing capability, makes for strong and sustainable economic development, creating wealth in the economy. It is a prerequisite to Africa’s sustainable and inclusive growth, achievable through adding value by processing, packaging and marketing its raw materials. Africa must not miss opportunities for such linkages whenever and wherever they occur. There is a golden opportunity over the next few years as African economies pick up the pace. Africa is home to 5 of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world, but this growth is unsustainable and non- inclusive since it is mostly driven by the export of unprocessed commodities with little value addition. We are starting from a low base. On average, industry generates merely $7001 1 `$` indicates US dollars throughout this text 2 of GDP per capita in Africa, less than a third of Latin America’s output ($2,500 per capita) and barely a fifth of East Asia’s ($3,400 per capita). To industrialise Africa, the African Development Bank is committed to mobilising capital, de-risking investments for the private sector, and leveraging capital markets. -
Jeremy Baskin, “Paradigm Dressed As Epoch: the Ideology of The
Paradigm Dressed as Epoch: The Ideology of the Anthropocene JEREMY BASKIN School of Social and Political Sciences University of Melbourne Victoria 3010, Australia Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The Anthropocene is a radical reconceptualisation of the relationship between humanity and nature. It posits that we have entered a new geological epoch in which the human species is now the dominant Earth-shaping force, and it is rapidly gaining traction in both the natural and social sciences. This article critically explores the scientific representation of the concept and argues that the Anthropocene is less a scientific concept than the ideational underpinning for a particular worldview. It is paradigm dressed as epoch. In particular, it normalises a certain portion of humanity as the ‘human’ of the Anthropocene, reinserting ‘man’ into nature only to re-elevate ‘him’ above it. This move pro- motes instrumental reason. It implies that humanity and its planet are in an exceptional state, explicitly invoking the idea of planetary management and legitimising major interventions into the workings of the earth, such as geoen- gineering. I conclude that the scientific origins of the term have diminished its radical potential, and ask whether the concept’s radical core can be retrieved. KEYWORDS Anthropocene, ideology, geoengineering, environmental politics, earth management INTRODUCTION ‘The Anthropocene’ is an emergent idea, which posits that the human spe- cies is now the dominant Earth-shaping force. Initially promoted by scholars from the physical and earth sciences, it argues that we have exited the current geological epoch, the 12,000-year-old Holocene, and entered a new epoch, Environmental Values 24 (2015): 9–29. -
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY of SINGAPORE's INDUSTRIALIZATION: National State and International Capital
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SINGAPORE'S INDUSTRIALIZATION: National State and International Capital The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialization: National State and International Capital GARRYRODAN Leclurer in Politics Murdoch University, Australia Pal grave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-19925-9 978-1-349-19923-5 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-19923-5 © Garry Rodan, 1989 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1989 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1989 ISBN 978-0-312-02412-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rodan, Garry, 1955- The political economy of Singapore's industrialization: national state and international capital/Garry Rodan. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-312-02412-3:$35.00 (est.) 1. Industry and state-Singapore. I. Title. HD3616.S423R64 1989 338.9595'7--dcI9 88-18174 CIP Dedicated to my parents, Betty and Ken Contents Acknowledgements viii Abbreviations ix List of Tables xi Prefatory Notes xii Preface xiii 1 Theoretical Introduction 1 2 Pre-Industrial Singapore: General Structural Developments up until 1959 31 3 The Political Pre-Conditions 50 4 Export-Oriented Manufacturing 85 5 Second Industrial Revolution 142 6 Singapore's Future as a NIC 189 7 Conclusions: Singapore and the New International 207 Division of Labour Notes 216 Bibliography 244 Index 258 VII Acknowledgements In their different ways, and to varying degrees, numerous people have contributed to the realisation of this book. The detailed critical comments and encouragement of my colleagues Richard Robinson and Richard Higgott have, however, made a special contribution. -
Fundamental Principles of Law for the Anthropocene?
Pace University DigitalCommons@Pace Pace Law Faculty Publications School of Law 2014 Fundamental Principles of Law for the Anthropocene? Nicholas A. Robinson Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty Part of the Energy and Utilities Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Natural Resources Law Commons Recommended Citation Nicholas A. Robinson, Fundamental Principles of Law for the Anthropocene?, 44 Envtl. Pol’y & L. 13 (2014), http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/964/. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pace Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Environmental Policy and Law, 44/1-2 (2014) 13 Normative Aspects of Sustainability Fundamental Principles of Law for the Anthropocene? by Nicholas A. Robinson* In May of 2013, the atmospheric monitoring station the Anthropocene represents. Many of our “business-as- atop Mauna Loa, the volcano in Hawaii, recorded carbon usual” assumptions no longer are reliable. Nations are dioxide at 400 parts per million for the first time since it reacting to the new demands by promulgating substantive began operating in the 1950s. From analysis of Antarctic environmental rights and procedural means to enforce ice cores, Earth has not seen a concentration this high in those rights. Environmental rights seek to shift society 400,000 years.1 As Svante Arrhenius determined in 1896, toward attaining societal wellbeing, or happiness, and not along with water vapour, carbon dioxide retains the sun’s economic growth as such. -
Astronomical Troubles for the Astronomical Hypothesis of Ice Ages
Overviews Astronomical troubles for the astronomical hypothesis of ice ages Michael J. Oard The astronomical theory of ice ages based on the Milankovitch mechanism has become the ruling paradigm of Pleistocene paleoclimatology. It is even used to date sedimentation during the pre-Pleistocene period. However, there is little, if any, physical basis behind it. It does not provide a mechanism for the sudden onset of the ice- age cycle at 2.7 Ma, nor why the 41-kyr tilt cycle predominated between 2.7 and 0.9 Ma, why it shifted to the 100-kyr cycle at 0.9 Ma, how the very weak 100-kyr eccentricity cycle could even affect solar radiation, and why such weak changes in solar radiation could produce such dramatic climate changes as ice ages. The Milankovitch hypothesis was supposedly ‘proved’ by statistical matches with deep-sea cores obtained in the 1950s through to the 1970s. However, cores require very accurate dating, which was beyond the state of the art back then. The fact that the Milankovitch hypothesis is so strongly believed attested more to the reinforcement syndrome. he astronomical theory of the ice ages, also called the the theory, including deep-sea cores, ice cores, pollen cores TMilankovitch theory, has swept the climate community and lake sediment cores. Scientists have become so certain during the past 40 years. It is the new paleoclimate paradigm of the theory that they have ‘tuned’ or modified climatic for multiple ice ages repeating at regular intervals during data sets to the Milankovitch cycles. Needless to say, this the past 2.7 Ma of uniformitarian time.