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Main Propositions (main + proposition)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Resilience thinking: Interview with Brian Walker

ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 2 2007
Tein McDonald
Summary This interview with Brian Walker, chair of the research-based Resilience Alliance, outlines the main concepts and propositions behind ,resilience thinking' and touches on the importance of this paradigm for individuals and organizations involved in managing complex social-ecological systems. It refers to the origins, work and publications of the Resilience Alliance, listing and elaborating the key case studies used to illustrate the Alliance's main proposition that complex social-ecological systems do not behave in a predictable linear fashion. Rather, research indicates it is normal for complex systems to go through cycles of increasing and decreasing resilience and to have potential to shift, (in a self-organising way) to potentially undesirable states or entirely new systems if certain component variables are severely impacted by management. Such shifts can be novel and ,surprising', and are often not beneficial or desirable for societies. This is particularly the case where small-scale solutions push the problem upwards in a system, causing loss of resilience at a global scale. Predicting thresholds is therefore important to managers and is a key research focus for members of the Resilience Alliance who are currently building an accessible database to support decision-making in global natural resource management. [source]

The Effects of Experience on Entrepreneurial Optimism and Uncertainty

ECONOMICA, Issue 290 2006
STUART FRASER
This paper develops an occupational choice model in which entrepreneurs, who are initially uncertain about their true talent, learn from experience. As a consequence, both optimistic bias in talent beliefs and uncertainty diminish with experience. The model gives rise naturally to a heteroscedastic probit estimator of occupational choices, in contrast to the commonly used homoscedastic estimator. The model is applied to British data on self-employment and optimism for the period 1984,99. The empirical analysis supports the main propositions of the model: principally, entrepreneurs are found to be more optimistic than employees, and both optimism and uncertainty diminish with experience. [source]

Globalization and the National Security State: A Framework for Analysis,

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2005
Norrin M. Ripsman
A growing body of scholarly literature argues that globalization has weakened the national security state. In this essay, we examine the globalization school's main propositions by analyzing the national security strategies of four categories of states: (1) major powers, (2) states in stable regions, (3) states in regions of enduring rivalries, and (4) weak and failed states. We conclude that the globalizations school's claims are overstated given that states of all types pursue more traditional security policies than they would expect. To the extent that globalization has affected the pursuit of national security, it has done so unevenly. States in stable regions appear to have embraced the changes rendered by globalization the most, states in regions of enduring rivalries the least. Although the weak and failed states also show signs of having been affected by globalization, many of the "symptoms" they manifest have more to do with internal difficulties than external challenges. [source]

Policy Networks and Policy Learning UK Economic Policy in the 1960s and 1970s

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2000
Hugh Pemberton
Policy networks are advanced as an alternative to the Westminster model of the UK polity but the theory lacks an internal dynamic and has typological problems. This article applies Peter Hall's (1993) concept of ,social learning' to policy networks and maps the networks found in two case studies of British economic policy making: Hall's own study of the shift from Keynesianism to monetarism in the 1970s and the author's research on the advent of ,Keynesian-plus' in the early 1960s. The article advances three main propositions. Firstly, that integrating the concept of social learning can dynamize the policy network model. Secondly, the case studies suggest that different network configurations are associated with different orders of policy change but that Hall's definition of ,third order change' may be too restrictive. Thirdly, policy networks can be much more complex and fluid then is generally claimed, sometimes becoming so extensive that they might be termed a ,meta-network'. [source]