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Global Phenomenon (global + phenomenon)
Selected AbstractsThe integration of corporate governance in corporate social responsibility disclosuresCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2010Ans Kolk Abstract In recent years, not only has attention to corporate governance increased but also the notion has broadened considerably, and started to cover some aspects traditionally seen as being part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR, corporate governance and their interlink seem particularly relevant for multinational enterprises (MNEs), which, due to their activities in multiple contexts around the world and concomitant visibility, generally face higher demands to be transparent and disclose information about such issues. Insights into whether and in which cases disclosures on the two topics actually merge has been very limited, however. This paper analyses to what extent corporate governance has become integrated in MNEs' disclosure practices on CSR. Based on an analysis of CSR reporting of Fortune Global 250 companies, findings show that more than half of them have a separate corporate governance section in their CSR report and/or explicitly link corporate governance and CSR issues. We also found that MNEs that disclose information on a wider variety of social and environmental issues and frame CSR with a focus on internal issues are more inclined to integrate corporate governance into their CSR reporting. This integration seems to be a global phenomenon that cuts across countries and sectors. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Holocene valley aggradation driven by river mouth progradation: examples from AustraliaEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 12 2006Paul Rustomji Abstract Since the end of the post-glacial sea level rise 6800 years ago, progradation of river mouths into estuaries has been a global phenomenon. The responses of upstream alluvial river reaches to this progradation have received little attention. Here, the links between river mouth progradation and Holocene valley aggradation are examined for the Macdonald and Tuross Rivers in south-eastern Australia. Optical and radiocarbon dating of floodplain sediments indicates that since the mid-Holocene sea level highstand 6800 years ago vertical floodplain aggradation along the two valleys has generally been consistent with the rate at which each river prograded into its estuary. This link between river mouth progradation and alluvial aggradation drove floodplain aggradation for many tens of kilometres upstream of the estuarine limits. Both rivers have abandoned their main Holocene floodplains over the last 2000 years and their channels have contracted. A regional shift to smaller floods is inferred to be responsible for this change, though a greater relative sea level fall experienced by the Macdonald River since the mid-Holocene sea level highstand appears to have been an additional influence upon floodplain evolution in this valley. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Migration and Recognition of Diplomas in SwedenEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2005ELENA DINGU-KYRKLUND Trans-national migration is now a global phenomenon, affecting an increasing amount of persons, many of whom have already completed a form of higher education in their country of origin or earlier residence at the time of migration. There is consequently a need to evaluate foreign degrees and assess migrants' professional competence beyond their initial borders. Recognition of diplomas against the background of the integration process is the core of this article. Combining considerations regarding migration and integration of highly educated international migrants on the labour market of their target countries with a closer perspective on the process of validation of foreign higher education and professional competence in Sweden, the article treats this topic as a European example of the development of an issue of increasing importance in years to come. [source] The Modern Girl around the World: A Research Agenda and Preliminary FindingsGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 2 2005Modern Girl Around the World Research Group Our research collaboration examines how the Modern Girl emerged as a global phenomenon in the first half of the twentieth century. By wearing provocative fashions and pursuing romantic love, Modern Girls everywhere appeared to disregard the roles of dutiful daughter, wife and mother. We develop the Modern Girl as a heuristic category that allows new insights into forces of globalisation and manifestations of gendered modernity. Through a case study of cosmetics advertising in China, India, South Africa, Germany and the United States, we show that the Modern Girl in each locale was shaped through multidirectional citations of elements from elsewhere, through transnational processes of racialisation and through distinct articulations of nationalism. [source] Not playing around: global capitalism, modern sport and consumer cultureGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2007BARRY SMART Abstract The development of modern sport is bound up with processes of economic and cultural transformation associated with the global diffusion of capitalist forms of consumption. In this article I draw attention to aspects of the globalization of modern sport that were becoming apparent towards the close of the nineteenth century and then move on to consider the factors that contributed to sport becoming a truly global phenomenon in the course of the twentieth century. Consideration is given to the development of international sport and sports goods companies, the growth in media interest and the increasing significance of sponsorship, consumer culture and sporting celebrities. The global diffusion of modern sport that gathered momentum in the course of the twentieth century involved a number of networked elements, including transnational communications media and commercial corporations for which sport, especially through the iconic figure of the transnational celebrity sport star, constitutes a universally appealing globally networked cultural form. Association with sport events and sporting figures through global broadcasting, sponsorship and endorsement arrangements offers commercial corporations unique access to global consumer culture. [source] The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing CitiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2005LESLIE SKLAIR The focus of this article is on the role of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) in and around architecture in the production and marketing of iconic buildings and spaces, in global or world cities. The TCC is conceptualized in terms of four fractions: (1) Those who own and/or and control the major transnational corporations and their local affiliates (corporate fraction). In architecture these are the major architectural, architecture-engineering and architecture-developer-real estate firms. In comparison with the major global consumer goods, energy and financial corporations the revenues of the biggest firms in the architecture industry are quite small. However, their importance for the built environment and their cultural importance, especially in cities, far outweighs their relative lack of financial and corporate muscle. (2) Globalizing politicians and bureaucrats (state fraction). These are the politicians and bureaucrats at all levels of administrative power and responsibility who actually decide what gets built where, and how changes to the built environment are regulated. (3) Globalizing professionals (technical fraction). The members of this fraction range from the leading technicians centrally involved in the structural features of new building to those responsible for the education of students and the public in architecture. (4) Merchants and media (consumerist fraction). These are the people who are responsible for the marketing of architecture in all its manifestations. (There is obviously some overlap between the membership of these fractions.). My conclusion is that many global and aspiring global cities have looked to iconic architecture as a prime strategy of urban intervention, often in the context of rehabilitation of depressed areas. The attempt to identify the agents most responsible for this transformation, namely the TCC, and to explain how they operate, suggests that deliberately iconic architecture is becoming a global phenomenon, specifically a central urban manifestation of the culture-ideology of consumerism. L'article porte sur la classe capitaliste transnationale (TCC) au sein et à la périphérie de l'architecture, et sur son rôle dans la production et la commercialisation de constructions et espaces iconiques dans les villes mondiales ou planétaires. Cette classe se conceptualise en quatre fractions: (1) Ceux qui détiennent et/ou contrôlent les principaux groupes transnationaux et leurs sociétés affiliées locales (fraction économique): En architecture, il existe de grands cabinets d'architecture, d'ingénierie en architecture et d'architectes promoteurs immobiliers. Par rapport aux grosses sociétés multinationales de la finance, de l'énergie ou des biens de consommation, les recettes des plus importants cabinets sont assez faibles; pourtant, leur place dans l'environnement construit et la culture, notamment en milieu urbain, compensent largement leur impact relativement mince sur le plan financier et économique. (2) Les acteurs politiques et bureaucratiques de la mondialisation (fraction étatique): Il s'agit des politicients et bureaucrates à tous les niveaux de responsabilié et de pouvoir administratifs qui décident effectivement de ce qui est construit et où, ainsi que de la régulation des changements apportés à l'environnement construit. (3) Les acteurs professionnels de la mondialisation (fraction technique): Leur diversité va des techniciens de renom, surtout impliqués dans les caractéristiques structurelles des nouveaux bâtiments, à ceux qui sont chargés d'enseigner l'architecture aux étudiants et d'éduquer le public. (4) Marchands et médias (fraction consumériste): Ce sont les personnes responsables de la commercialisation de l'architecture dans toutes ses manifestations. Ces quatre fractions présentent bien sûr des intersections. On peut déduire que bon nombre de villes planétaires , ou aspirant à le devenir , ont opté pour une architecture iconique comme première stratégie d'intervention urbaine, souvent dans un contexte de réhabilitation de zones en déclin. Identifier les principaux agents responsables de cette transformation (la TCC) et expliquer leur mode de fonctionnement conduit à suggérer qu'une architecture délibérément iconique devient un phénomène mondial, plus précisément une manifestation urbaine essentielle de l'idéologie-culture du consumérisme. [source] Global Intellectual Hegemony and the International Development AgendaINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 166 2000Branislav Gosovic The worldwide homogenisation of thinking, analysis, and prescription, coupled with the de-legitimisation of social critique, dissent, and alternative thinking in the 1990s, are characteristic of globalisation and of the current international system. The homogenisation is the outcome of global geopolitical changes and the end of the Cold War, with the ascendance of a victorious paradigm. The resulting global intellectual hegemony (GIH) is of special concernto developing countries and to the United Nations. It has undermined the goals and aspirations of the former and contributed to their intellectual disarmament and disempowerment; it has undermined the mandate and role of the latter. This essay discusses GIH in the context of international development cooperation, showing how it is nurtured in many different ways. It is argued that the mechanisms at work are well-known in national politics, in particular inundemocratic societies, and are now projected by new technologies and through the global domination by those with power, a task made easier by the lack of organised and credible opposition. It suggests the need for further study and policy debate of this global phenomenon which seems to have largely passed unnoticed in academic, policy, and public opinion circles. [source] Rechnerische Bewertung von Trocknungsverfahren für hochwassergeschädigtes MauerwerkBAUPHYSIK, Issue 2 2006Research Associated Professor John Grunewald Dr.-Ing. Überschwemmungen sind ein globales Phänomen, was durch die jüngsten Ereignisse in Zentral- und Nordeuropa wieder bestätigt wurde. Die Fluten hinterlassen beträchtliche Schäden an Gebäuden und beeinträchtigen das menschliche Zusammenleben. Sind Schäden an Einrichtungen zu verzeichnen, stehen staatliche Institutionen, Versicherungsunternehmen und Reparaturdienstleister in der Verantwortung, die Eigentümer bei der Instandsetzung zu unterstützen. Eine Voraussetzung zur Kostenminimierung ist dabei eine auf die lokalen Gegebenheiten zugeschnittene Trocknungsstrategie, die sowohl die örtlichen klimatischen Bedingungen als auch die verwendeten Baumaterialien einbezieht. Der Beitrag stellt eine Methode zur Bewertung von Trocknungsmaßnahmen hochwassergeschädigter Gebäude aus Ziegelmauerwerk vor. Die Verwendung von Simulationsrechnungen zur Vorhersage des Erfolges verschiedener Trocknungsverfahren wird anhand von unterschiedlichen historischen Mauerwerksarten gezeigt. Es lassen sich Aussagen über die Feuchteabgabe nach innen, über Anzahl und Dauer des Einsatzes von Luftentfeuchtungsgeräten, über den Verlauf der Trocknung, Gesamtdauer und Kosten der Maßnahmen treffen. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) Optimal drying of of flooded masonry structures. Flooding is a global phenomenon as recently highlighted by the major catastrophic events in Central and Northern Europe. When flooding occurs in an area populated by humans, it can cause substantial damage to property and threaten human life. When properties are damaged by flooding, governmental institutions, insurers and repairers are called upon to provide services to homeowners in order to return the dwellings back to a habitable state. As one prerequisite to minimize costs for rehabilitation, such services should comprise drying measures tailored to local particularities as climatic conditions and building material properties. The paper introduces a new methodology to schedule drying measures and to evaluate their success for brick masonry buildings. The capabilities of computer simulation to predict the costs of alternative drying strategies are demonstrated by means of flooded masonry for different types of brickwork frequently used in historical buildings. The numerical simulation of moisture transport in flooded brickwork masonry allows statements about the moisture release to the indoor air, the recommended duration of usage and number of air dehumidifiers, the current drying state, the total time to return the brickwork back to a dry state and the drying costs as function of time. [source] | ||||||||||