Search results for "wt"
showing 10 items of 5424 documents
Regional Policy Lessons from Finland
2005
The Finnish economy and society has long been dominated by primary production. Post-war economic development was rapid and welfare gaps between the much more developed economies and Finland narrowed and were even partly reversed. Rapid economic expansion together with structural change has had the effect of centralizing both economic activity and population. The trend has been towards the southern and central regions where the metropolitan area of Helsinki and most of the other larger towns and urban centres are located. Together with vigorous technological progress in agriculture and forestry the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the 1960s and 1970s the fastest in Europe altered …
Conflict and the Evolution of Societies
2012
The Malthusian theory of evolution disregards a pervasive fact about human societies: they expand through conflict. When this is taken account of the long-run favors not a large population at the level of subsistence, nor yet institutions that maximize welfare or per capita output, but rather institutions that maximize free resources. These free resources are the output available to society after deducting the payments necessary for subsistence and for the incentives needed to induce production, and the other claims to production such as transfer payments and resources absorbed by elites. We develop the evolutionary underpinnings of this model, and examine the implications of free resource …
The measurement of economic, social and environmental performance of countries: a novel approach
2010
This paper presents a new analytical framework for assessing spatial disparities among countries. It takes for granted that the analysis of a country's performance cannot be limited solely to either economic or social factors. The aim of the paper is to combine relevant economic and 'non-economic' (mainly social) aspects of a country's performance in an integrated logical framework. Based on this idea, a structural simultaneous equation model will be presented and estimated in order to explore the direction of the causal relationship between economic and non-economic aspects of a country's performance. Furthermore, an exploration of the trajectory that each country has registered over time …
INCOME AND QUALITY OF LIFE INFLUENCE ON CITIZENS' PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN LATVIA
2018
The aim of the paper is to analyse the factors influencing the citizen participation in activities of local governments in relation to quality of life in Latvia. The use of the CLEAR model, elaborated by a group of British researchers under guidance of Gerry Stoker, shows the possibilities of participation and engagement of citizens based on theoretical aspects. Latvia, as a member state of the EU, needs to develop and to involve more citizens in different social activities, since it has comparatively small experience in democratic processes due to its past of 50 years being a part of another country — the Soviet Union. The opportunities to participate in the European Parliament’s election …
Family networks and refugees’ health conditions. A picture from Italian informal settlements
2021
While the relationships between social networks and health are widely acknowledged in the literature, few of these studies have covered the population of refugees living in makeshift camps. In our analysis of a nationally representative Italian survey of individuals living in informal settlements, we find that many had weak family relations: only 10 per cent had one or more family members in their settlement. The paper analyses the effects of individual social network on two measures of health, and finds that the refugees’ health conditions were associated with both their personal characteristics and the characteristics of the settlement. The results show that more than 50 per cent of these…
URBANIZATION PROCESSES AND ITS SPECIFICS IN LATGALE
2010
<p>Urbanization is an important demo-geographical process and a complex social phenomenon under impact of which changes are made not only to the global, regional or national settlement systems, but all socio-economic processes are also substantially transformed. Changes caused by urbanization have an impact on traditional way of life, cultural particularity, community and individual psychology and other aspects of spiritual life, therefore expressions and regularities of this process might be of interest not only for demographers, geographers and economists, but also for representatives of the field of humanities.</p><p>Paper presents the progress of urbanization processes…
International Retirement Migration: Transforming Societies Through Purchasing Power?
2016
Despite a more than 40-year-old tradition of international retirement migration (IRM) in Europe, relatively little social scientific research has been carried out in this field. Retired European migrants have not been considered to be politically controversial (i.e. they are not viewed as having been the causes of social problems or as needy, poor or deprived). Often, the terms used in the 1980s and early 1990s to describe these populations have been linked not to a migration model but to the model of the social agent of a tourist. The chapter is divided into three parts: (1) a general overview of the flows and socio-economic characteristics of IRM in Europe, addressing the main regions of …
Menores inmigrantes no acompañados, las orillas de la vulnerabilidad, estatus de irregulares y su tratamiento al llegar a España
2018
Different migration processes have been carried out in history, which usually travel in conditions of vulnerability and undermine the dignity of people. Therefore, currently, the migration of unaccompanied minors shakes the receiving society; it is a defenseless population group that is exposed to situations of vulnerability. Unaccompanied immigrant minors and in an irregular situation, whether adolescents, girls or boys, are faced with a dream to improve their lives and those of their families that they left in their country; this is a very dangerous journey where, during the crossing, they are condemned to risk situations and adventures, without the support and safety of their families. T…
WHY DID THEY NEED TO COME NOW? COVID-19 CRISIS STRAINS RELATIONSHIPS WITH RETURNING AND VISITING COMPATRIOTS
2021
One of the first areas severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic was international travel. In March/April, with commercial flights coming to a near halt, the governments were struggling to help their stranded citizens to return home. Extra flights and ferry trips were organised, and the opportunity to return was used by many emigrants worried about the uncertainty and the possible future development of the pandemic. This paper containing both data collected through survey and in-depth interviews with people aged 50+ in Latvia, is the first to explore the reactions of the society to repatriation policy implemented by the government of Latvia, and to explore how the Covid-19 situation has affecte…
Consequences of correlations between habitat modifications and negative impact of climate change for regional species survival
2011
Abstract While several empirical and theoretical studies have clearly shown the negative effects of climate or landscape changes on population and species survival only few of them addressed combined and correlated consequences of these key environmental drivers. This also includes positive landscape changes such as active habitat management and restoration to buffer the negative effects of deteriorating climatic conditions. In this study, we apply a conceptual spatial modelling approach based on functional types to explore the effects of both positive and negative correlations between changes in habitat and climate conditions on the survival of spatially structured populations. We test the…