Search results for "POLITICS"
showing 10 items of 2266 documents
Child vaccination policies in Europe: a report from the Summits of Independent European Vaccination Experts.
2003
Despite the proven safety and efficacy of vaccines, common vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles are not yet controlled in all European countries. This is largely due to three factors. First, vaccination systems differ widely throughout Europe and they vary between highly centralised and totally decentralised systems. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but without doubt they can all work locally. "Harmonisation" in this field is neither a prerequisite nor a guarantee for success. Second, perception of vaccination--and this includes education of the public--is most crucial. In this field the media play an important part, but their ability or will to communicate complicated scient…
Managing Academic Internationalization: A Culture-Based Approach
2014
Abstract The goal of the present paper is apply the blue-ocean strategy to the current status of the higher education system, with a major focus on managing cultural diversity in a global world. Universities nowadays represent poles of excellence in terms of cultural innovation, knowledge creation and transfer to the industry, an interface between home and host country as regards academic mobility (teaching and research mobility); they have a significant role in promoting cultural values and informed intercultural communication, creating academic consortia as well as interacting with the local and business communities. The paper shall also redefine: the role of university managers in the co…
Getting support in polarized societies: Income, social networks, and socioeconomic context
2013
AbstractThis paper explores how unequal resources and social and economic polarization affects the size of social networks and their use to access resources. We argue that individual resource position generates divergent expectations with regard to the impact of polarization on the size of networks on one hand, and their usefulness for accessing resources on the other. Social and economic polarization encourages reliance on informal networks, but those at the bottom of the social structure are forced to rely on more extensive networks than the wealthy to compensate for their isolated and underprivileged position. At the same time, social and economic polarization limits the resources the po…
Rethinking Community Quality of Life in Latin American Countries
2017
The community is a totality which is meaningful to the people that form part of it. In this sense community is more than a geographic concentration; it is a concept that implies the inclusion of diversities and their being allowed to share within it. It is related to social support, intersubjective, participation, consensus, common beliefs, and a joint effort which aims at a major objective: intense and extensive relationships. Quality of life is a multidimensional concept (Bramston 2002) and comprises objective and subjective components (Cummins and Cahill 2000). Quality of life in the community is a specificity of quality of life in general, and community well-being is also a predictor of…
Participative Planning Processes in the Absence of the (Public) Space of Democracy
2010
Abstract This article aims to investigate the role, limits and opportunities of participation programmes in a local political context where consensus-building and inclusionary practices are not high priorities. A public housing neighbourhood in Palermo is used as a case study in order to critically highlight the ambiguous role that participative practices tend to play in fragile contexts. The case study also highlights the need for some preconditions for effective participatory practices in planning. These preconditions are focused on Arendt's notion of the ‘space of democracy’. Some concepts developed by Hannah Arendt will be used to explain the necessity of these preconditions, and their …
Political support for women entrepreneurs
2007
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the application of EU programmes that seek to help women to set up their own businesses and discuss how public measures can help full integration of women into all walks of society, especially within jobs that correspond to their skills and capabilities.Design/methodology/approachAfter a literature review on the difficulties women face to find a suitable job, according to their preparation, their needs and their expectations, and the political considerations to act towards equality, this study is aimed at analyzing a European initiative designed to avoid gendered impacts on the present labour market. Through in‐depth interviews of project leade…
Ethics of aging
2021
Abstract With a steady increase in the number of older people worldwide and a much higher percentage of older people as part of the overall population, we are on the verge of becoming a mass geriatric society. These gains in extra years are not only a prolongation of individual lives but also result in demographic transitions that will challenge economic, social, and geopolitical systems and chiefly our healthcare systems in many countries. Population aging calls for the reassessment of existing policies and programs, in order to ensure a fair distribution of rights, burdens, and responsibilities between generations and to give the opportunity to older people to live fully a phase of life t…
Obesity in the State of Mexico: Interfaces and concurrences
2014
AbstractIn Mexico, from the eighties decade, various documents were made, and in which is specified the health care of the population, including obesity, documents which have been enriched by documents recently issued yet. However, as a health problem, overweight and obesity have become major challenges, placing the country at first place in health statistics on worldwide. This situation is identified in the different zones of the country, such as in the case of the State of Mexico. The objective of this work was to understand the relationship between emission of health programs, its contents, and the performance of the participants. The present paper was documentary, retrospective, analyti…
Paths of local development: Two technological districts face-to-face
2009
In this paper we compare the two hi-tech districts of Catania and Genoa, which are within the same national context and economic sector, with the aim of explaining their different choices (the promotion of external investments, in the first case, and fostering of the development of small businesses, in the second case) in the light of the local economic structure and the role played by political, economic, and educational institutions. Local actors have differently influenced the development of a professional community through the interpersonal networks of entrepreneurs and the performance obtained by local small businesses. While Catania has experienced a higher and more rapid growth, deve…
Towards Multicultural Education in Finland
2011
Finland is going through a rapid process of multiculturality within a European context, if measured by the numbers of those migrating to the country. This has even given an impetus to reconsider the earlier representation of Finland as a culturally homogenous country. The historical fact is that cultural, ethnic and indigenous minorities have been living in the country for a long time (Pentikainen, 1995a; Leitzinger, 2008).