Search

Begin New Search Topic Science and Technology Publication Year within 25 Years

831. E-Activism: New Media and Political Participation in Europe

Author:
Óscar García Luengo
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The demonstrations in Spain on March 13th, 2004 following the terrorist attacks in Madrid present an interesting challenge for political communication research. For the first time in the history of Spain, people employed communication technologies in order to create the dynamics of peaceful civil disobedience. Research on political communication has traditionally paid attention to the classic outlets in order to analyze the impact of media exposure on political affectation. Taking the cited framework as the main reference, this article compares the connection between political activism and the consumption of new and old media in European countries. Analyzing the use of these technologies is important because research on political communication has traditionally only focused on the classic media techniques to analyze the impact of media exposure on political disaffection. Therefore, using the March 13th demonstrations, this article compares the connection between political activism and the consumption of new and old media in European countries.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

832. What if different and opposing views of sociology were complementary to each other?: Reflections on the development of the knowledge of collective life

Author:
Pierre Tripier
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
Sociology was born at a time when the Newtonian paradigm was introduced as the hegemonic scientific model. However, this model was not sufficient to understand complex and unstable situations. The model was a unitary explanatory system that not only considered time and space as absolute, but is also drew sociology away from medicine, history, geography and the art of governing. With sociology, these disciplines could have been better understood. That is, when the Newtonian paradigm was discussed from the point of view of thermodynamics, quantum physics, and restricted relativity, other perspectives –dialogic and interactionists- could have conquered legitimate positions in the social sciences so as to compete with these deterministic points of view. Today, a third phase of evolution in physics and biology has allowed for non-contradictory stands in their different perspectives primarily because of the division of work and the awareness of their complementary elements. This question is could this also occuir in sociology?
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Science and Technology

833. ¡Bárbaros en Delfos! Geopolitical knowledge and International Relations before the 21st Century

Author:
Filibi López and Mariano Ferrero
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to examine the connection between knowledge and power as well as scientific knowledge and politics. We use a sociology of knowledge perspective that provides a framework for the social and geopolitical situated nature of social science researchers and their academic communities. We will make sense of how the evolution of International Relations' (IR) knowledge production is tightly linked to the development of the international political context. From this point of view, American post-war hegemony came hand in hand with the Realist monopoly of the IR discipline. By the same token, the ongoing decentering process of academic spaces and theoretical approaches expresses the new world political landscape after the Pax Americana/Cold War era.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
America

834. Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Transport Alternatives: Issues for Developing Countries

Author:
Grant Boyle and Lynn Mytelka
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Recent technological advances in the application of hydrogen fuel cells in the transport sector have drawn considerable attention and increased funding from both public and private sources over the past ten years. The International Energy Agency estimates that about US$1billion per year is currently being invested in public hydrogen and fuel cell research, development, test vehicles, prototype refuelling stations and demonstration projects, as compared to the total annual public budget for energy research, development and demonstration of around US$8billion. While still in the early stages of development and costly in comparison to conventional vehicle propulsion and fuel technologies, fuel cells and hydrogen offer a promising solution to address growing concerns over the transport sector's dependence on oil and its impact on climate change.
Topic:
Development, Energy Policy, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

835. Open Source and Open Standards: A New Frontier for Economic Development?

Author:
Philip Schmidt and Rishab Aiyer Ghosh
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Free software (also called open source software or libre software) has become one of the most talked about phenomena in the ICT world in recent years. This is remarkable, not only for the usual reasons—that open source has been around for many years as a volunteer driven success story before being discovered by big business and now government— but also because it has largely developed quietly on its own without the headline coverage and glare of international attention that it now receives.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:
United States

836. Technology in a Post-2012 Transatlantic Perspective

Author:
Christian Egenhofer
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The EU and the US have found themselves supporting two polar views on which strategy is the most effective in achieving stabilisation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: 'market pull' vs 'technology push'. As an advocate of the latter, the US asserts that the principal emphasis should be on technology development, financed through typical public R programmes. It argues that it would be preferable to invest in the short term in R and to adopt emissions limitations later, when new technologies will have lowered the cost of limiting GHG emissions. In supporting the 'market-pull' approach, the EU argues that technological change is an incremental process emanating primarily from business and industry, induced by government incentives. According to this logic, profit-seeking firms will respond with technological innovation.
Topic:
Development and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

837. Climate Change in the US Government Budget - Funding for Technology and Other Programmes, and Implications for EU-US Relations

Author:
Thomas L. Brewer
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
With increasing Congressional support for funding climate change technology programmes, as reflected in passage of the Hagel/Pryor amendment to the energy policy bill in June 2005, issues about the climate change budget are becoming more salient. In this Policy Brief, Congressional and Presidential actions on several recent budgets are examined for the four principal areas of the climate change budget: technology, science, international and tax credits. The emphasis is on energy technology in particular, because of its salience in current policy discussions and its relative size in financial terms. Highlights of the findings include the following: Congress imposed substantial (63.3%) increases over the administration's climate change technology proposals for 2004 and then small increases for FY2005. For 2006, the administration has proposed reductions compared with the Congressionally-enacted levels in the technology component – reductions in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms (-4.1% and -5.6%, respectively). The administration has also proposed cuts for fiscal 2006 in the science and international programmes (-2.9 and -19.0% in real terms). These and other differences in Presidential and Congressional approaches to funding climate change programs provide further evidence that the Presidential-Congressional divide on climate policy is continuing to widen. There is an emerging bi-partisan Congressional coalition in favour of increased spending on a wide range of climate change programmes. This shift will affect EU-US relations on climate change issues for the remainder of the current administration until 2008, and beyond as well.
Topic:
Economics and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

838. CATO Institute: Flying the Unfriendly Skies: Defending against the Threat of Shoulder-Fired Missiles

Author:
Charles V. Peña
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, or MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems), have proliferated throughout the world. They can be purchased on the military arms black market for as little as $5,000. More than two dozen terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, are believed to possess such weapons. The FBI estimates that there have been 29 MANPADS attacks against civilian aircraft resulting in 550 deaths. At least 25 of the reported attacks have been attributed to nonstate actors.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Science and Technology, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

839. CATO Institute: Peer-to-Peer Networking and Digital Rights Management: How Market Tools Can Solve Copyright Problems

Author:
Michael A. Einhorn and Bill Rosenblatt
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The term “peer to peer” (P2P) refers generally to software that enables a computer to locate a content file on another networked device and copy the encoded data to its own hard drive. P2P technology often attracts people who use it to reproduce or distribute copyrighted music and movies without authorization of rights owners. For that reason, the short history of P2P technology has been one of constant controversy and calls by many in the content industry to regulate or even ban P2P-based networks or software.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

840. CATO Institute: Who Killed Telecom? Why the Official Story Is Wrong

Author:
Lawrence Gasman
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
In the mid-1990s as it seemed that lawmakers were about to abandon much of the regulatory apparatus that had hampered the telecommunications industry since the 1930s, the telecom equipment industry began to boom, helped in part by the rise of the Internet. The deregulatory trend led ultimately to the 1996 Telecom Act, and soon the architects and implementers of that act were congratulating themselves on a job well done. We were supposedly building a new telecom infrastructure fit for the information age.
Topic:
Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States