Part 1: country size and efficiency constraints on resource-based industrialization harnessing mineral enclaves - export base, mineral boom and RBI literature. Part 2 Potential and actual RBI resource rent: the potential stimulus from resource processing in the base case - a large efficient developing country the country size constraint on RBI extent and external causes of RBI resource rent overstimation. Part 3 Implementation efficiency: political constraints on macro-economic efficieny - oil windfall deployment in the low absorbing countries macro-economic constraints on the high-absorbing oil-exporting countries micro-efficiency - firm performance in RBI micro efficiency - RBI sectoral performance. Part 4 RBI impact: the impact of RBI on economic growth and structural change RBI's spatial impact - the lagged economic stimulus. Part 5 Conclusion and policy implications: a model of RBI and some policy implications conclusions - RBI risk.

Resource-Based Industrialization: Sowing the Oil in Eight Developing Countries

The purpose of this article is to develop more fully the notion of the international identity of the European Union (EU) in world politics. We will attempt to balance our previous focus of work on the "active dimension' of the EU' s attempts to "assert its identity on the international scene'; by looking at the "reflexive dimension'; of the EU's international identity from a more sociological perspective. Our article will argue that the distinctive polity perspectives and role representations of the EU can be thought of as a form of "difference engine'; which drives the construction and representation of the EU's international identity. Like Babbage's original difference engine, the EU's international identity is not a multiplier of difference, exaggerating the dissimilarities between the EU and the rest of the world through the generation of a new European supranational identity, but functions on the basis of addition - by adding an international EU element to Europeans'; complex and multifaceted identities.

The ‘Difference Engine’ Constructing and Representing the International Identity of the European Union

Reports / ISS, European Union Institute for Security Studies

Building community resilience is an important topic in the current debate about achieving positive community development outcomes from sustainable place-based policies, especially in mountain regions and less-favored areas. At the practical, grassroots level, however, it remains unclear how community resilience can be effectively included and assessed in local development efforts. We argue that social impact assessment (SIA) can and should play a key role in assessing regional development strategies and proposals and in building community resilience. We present the SIA Framework for Action as a tool to enhance policies, plans, programs, and projects and to assist in attaining appropriate social development outcomes, including community resilience. We demonstrate the value of the framework by discussing its application in a development project in rural Italy—the restoration of the Tratturo Magno, an ancient path used by shepherds and flocks for transhumance over centuries. The project, Vie e Civilta della ...

/pdf/using-social-impact-assessment-to-strengthen-community-2ytar8w80i.pdf

Using Social Impact Assessment to Strengthen Community Resilience in Sustainable Rural Development in Mountain Areas

In the event of a community turnover, population decline, or complete disappearance of pollinators, animal-pollinated plants may respond by adapting to novel pollinators or by changing their mating system. The ability of populations to adapt is determined by their ability to respond to novel selection pressures, i.e. their evolvability. In the short term, evolvability is determined by standing genetic variation in the trait under selection. To evaluate the evolutionary potential of plant reproductive systems, I compiled genetic-variance estimates for a large selection of floral traits mediating shifts in pollination and mating systems. Then, I computed evolvabilities and compared these among trait groups and against the evolvabilities of vegetative traits. Evolvabilities of most floral traits were substantial yet tended to be lower than the median for vegetative traits. Among floral traits, herkogamy (anther–stigma distance), floral-display traits and perhaps floral-volatile concentrations had greater-than-average evolvabilities, while the evolvabilities of pollinator-fit traits were below average. These results suggest that most floral traits have the potential to evolve rapidly in response to novel selection pressures, providing resilience of plant reproductive systems in the event of changing pollinator communities. (Less)

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nph.15403

The evolvability of animal-pollinated flowers: towards predicting adaptation to novel pollinator communities.

The ideas of national identity were formed under a modernist framework. But, increasingly, national identities exist and are recreated under new postmodern structures. These new identities stem from different dimensions of the social experience and are found at different scales. By and large, these postmodern identities reflect paradigmatic changes in human society, from political and economic changes to major technological innovations. While it is difficult to comprehend the specific circumstances in which new or dramatically altered national identities may emerge, it is essential to understand the types of contexts in which an outsider national identity, potentially upsetting the status quo, is likely to form.

Forming new national identities: a retrospective

Mountains for Europe‘s Future. A Strategic Research Agenda

Processes of Immigration in Rural Europe: The Status Quo, Implications and Development Strategies

Appunti di geografia politica ed economica

The study examines the Slovenian-speaking minority in the northern Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It explores the spatial fragmentation in the Slovenian settlement area in Italy and analyzes the socio-economic and demographic processes that exert influence on the minority. The work is based on the critical evaluation of the current status of research, of statistical data from the state censuses and results of own research on site. The Slovenian-language population in the entire region is currently estimated at about 46,000 people. The main settlement area is the eastern border region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is characterized by different cultural and regional identities. While the Slovenian-speaking population of Friuli focuses more on its cultural and regional distinctions, the majority of the Slovenian-language group in Venezia Giulia considers itself a “national minority.”

/pdf/slovenes-in-italy-a-fragmented-minority-6gye49qs29.pdf

Igor Jelen

Papers

Forming new national identities: a retrospective

Mountains for Europe‘s Future. A Strategic Research Agenda

Processes of Immigration in Rural Europe: The Status Quo, Implications and Development Strategies

Appunti di geografia politica ed economica

Slovenes in Italy: A Fragmented Minority