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1. Building resilience knowledge for sustainable development: Insights from development studies

Author:
Albert Sanghoon Park
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper explores how the concept of resilience has been used in development studies. Set amidst the rise of resilience in sustainable development, it offers insights for scholars and policy-makers, alike. Sampling 419 resilience-oriented journal articles from 2017–22, it uses Kuhnian paradigms to analyse development knowledge production. This produces three key findings. First is the absence of a coherent resilience paradigm (with shared definitions, problems, and methods) in development studies. Second is its use, instead, by pre-existing paradigms as a theoretical add-on to better address complexity and/or as a new buzzword to repackage prior arguments. Third are latent possibilities for resilience as both a rallying call and siren song in sustainable development. Here, resilience discourses open vital space for development cooperation and climate action. However, its outcomes will depend on whether we can first understand precisely what we talk about when we talk about resilience.
Topic:
Development, Politics, Sustainability, Resilience, and Knowledge Production
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. International Relations in Search of an Antidote

Author:
Ali L. Karaosmanoğlu
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This essay is based on the author’s long-time observation of the International Relations discipline and the repeated crises it has experienced. The piece identifies ‘event-drivenness’ as the structural reason behind these crises, in other words, the course of the discipline naturally follows global IR events and, depending on how transformative these events are, when responding to them, is more likely to fall into an existential crisis—with the most recent one being potentially fatal. By discussing in detail the a) science-statecraft relationship; b) scholar-practitioner disconnect; c) distortion of theories by scholars and practitioners; d) paradoxical relationship between rationality and irrationality; and e) theory-practice disconnect, the essay seeks to operationalize these crisisgenerated processes when responding to major events. In order to show these crisis generation processes in detail, it uses the theories of political realism and, to a lesser degree, classical liberalism, as case reflections. As a possible solution to the reciprocal condescension between scholarship (theory-making) and statecraft (practice), the essay proposes a “Clausewitzian” modus vivendi that aims at creating a culture of synthesis between the presumed producers and consumers of IR knowledge.
Topic:
International Relations, Academia, and Knowledge Production
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY PYRAMID: Transforming Knowledge Value in Increasing Productivity and Competitiveness

Author:
Octavian Serban
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
The global economy’s landscape needs a new economic model where knowledge is used as a valuable resource to stimulate innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in order to increase productivity and competitiveness for sustainable growth as a premise for social welfare. The policymakers have to design the new public policy for productivity and competitiveness considering the Knowledge Economy frontier and to establish the institutional capacity to manage the knowledge perspective of development. The Knowledge Economy Pyramid model is a catalyst of knowledge ecosystems from education, research, technology, business, innovation, government and local communities, capable to create a collaborative environment with synergy effect: transforming knowledge value in increasing productivity and competitiveness. The Knowledge Economy Pyramid is a robust framework based on the four pillars of Knowledge Economy with three effective and powerful structures build upon: Knowledge Triangle, Triple Helix, and Smart Specialization. The main axis which unifies these structures is education-business and all the other stakeholders from research, science, technology, government, administration, clusters, and community are equal contributors to process the knowledge along the central shaft. Considering the Knowledge Economy Pyramid model, this research work is defining the coordinates of the public policy for productivity and competitiveness which will be implemented by the institutional capacity – Productivity and Competitiveness Center. This institution is a concrete and accurate representation of the Knowledge Economy Pyramid model with the scope to implement the principles of Knowledge Economy to increase productivity and competitiveness as outputs of the process. Moreover, the capacity building will provide the premises to conclude the new public policy into outcomes: standard of living, well-being, quality of life, and green growth. Knowledge Economy Pyramid provides a toolkit for policy/decision- makers to take action in order to improve the activity at any stage of development or maturity for an economy or institution related with productivity and competitiveness and it is able to measure the gap between actual development level and the knowledge edge. From an economic perspective, to analyze the concepts of productivity and competitiveness in Knowledge Economy, this study is a very complex work where the tangible is mixed with the intangible, human with technology, economic growth with people prosperity. This study is a “one-stop shop” for all the policy/decision-makers, leaders, representatives, officials, professors, researchers, specialists and practitioners, all engaged in the work to transform the traditional economic model into a new one, according to the Knowledge Economy Pyramid framework.
Topic:
Economic Growth, Innovation, Strategic Competition, Knowledge Production, Productivity, Knowledge Economy, and Specialization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Refugees and their Allies as Agents of Progress: Knowledge, Power and Action in Forbidden and Dangerous Boundary Regions

Author:
Beverly Crawford
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:
Focusing on the historical and contemporary dilemmas posed by the “refugee crisis,” this essay investigates the potential for international progress in acknowledging our common humanity. I examine the utility of Emanuel Adler’s theory of cognitive evolution as a lens through which to assess the extent of that potential. I employ the theory to explore how certain practices dealing with forced migration became prevalent, while others lay dormant. I also examine how competing communities of practice battle to shape our understanding of forced migration in the current “post-truth” environment. I argue that cognitive evolution offers a potent conceptual framework for understanding both the extent to which the suffering of migrants has and has not been alleviated—a powerful indicator of the degree to which the world community has acknowledge their humanity. This holds for the social order of refugee protection, even in the current period as tribalism threatens to erode epistemological security, as normlessness threatens to replace a competition among norms, and as these threats weaken our shared reality.
Topic:
Refugees, International Relations Theory, Borders, Knowledge Production, and Territory
Political Geography:
Global Focus