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Diagnostic assays for developing countries have a prerequisite of low-cost along with high sensitivity and specificity. Paper, a commonly available material, provides a great economical and portable platform for fabricating biosensors. The present work focuses on the fabrication of a paper-based analytical device (PAD) using commonly accessible materials. The electrodes have been drawn using a pencil followed by filling with in-house prepared graphite ink and the barrier wall around the detection/sample zone has been prepared using a glue gun. The PAD has been developed in 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) designs. The principle of antibody-antigen interactions has been used for the realization of an economical and highly selective paper-based biosensor for E. coli O157:H7, paving way for economically weaker sections of the society to monitor their health. The electrochemical measurement results on paper substrate have turned out to be highly promising for the advancement of paper-based point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for pathogens like E. coli O157:H7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a rapidly evolving Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market and increasing debate about the design of a future global climate regime, it is essential to understand which types of projects are undertaken along industrial value chains, and also the influence of company characteristics (e.g. size, raw material base, product type, ownership and location) on firms' CDM participation and choice of project type. The Indian pulp and paper industry was examined for its energy intensity and its diversity in terms of both mitigation opportunities and company characteristics. Large firms were found to be more likely than small firms to participate in CDM. Although CDM projects in large and small firms generate similar amounts of certified emission reductions (CERs), the type of technology implemented in those projects varies strongly with company size due to differing levels of capabilities and capital. Mill size and raw material base also affect participation and choice of project type. A structured approach is suggested for analysing how to engage different subsectors of an industry in mitigation efforts based on transnational sectoral approaches, domestic sectoral approaches, and programmatic CDM. Preliminary policy recommendations are offered for the Indian pulp and paper industry, as well as insights that are transferable to other countries. A one-size-fits-all sectoral approach is difficult to implement and a strategy for differentiated treatment based on company characteristics is required to reflect local development priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Romania's burgeoning development aid policy to the post-colonial space. By leveraging its expertise in petroleum extraction to forge a strategic relationship with India in the 1950s, Bucharest was able to gain a strategic foothold as oil assistance provider to the non-aligned countries. This text details Romania's efforts to help build India's national oil industry by bringing into focus the broad nexus of forces at play in such process. It therefore aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of 'the Second World's Third World' by discussing the ideological and geopolitical considerations of both East-East and East-South relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial for a special issue of the journal "Innovation & Development" focused on the financing of innovation for development in the Global South. The editorial highlights the need to address the relationship between finance and innovation, particularly in underdeveloped countries. It discusses the role of public financial institutions, such as national development banks, and explores novel forms of financing for innovation, such as micro-finance and venture capital. The editorial also introduces six research papers included in the special issue that touch on various aspects of finance and innovation in the Global South. Overall, the editorial aims to inspire new research questions and studies in this field. [Extracted from the article]

A shift in how to measure well-being using more appropriate and coherent indicators has been long called for. Nonetheless, monetary indicators, such as income and GDP, or utilitarian frameworks, remain the most common approaches used. The capability approach (CA) has been advocated as an alternative framework to measure well-being. This paper aims to capture the state-of-the-art of how the CA has been applied to assess or characterise the well-being impacts of project-based development interventions in Global South countries. The ultimate goal is to discuss whether the CA provides more varied and complex indicators of well-being and therefore more comprehensive impact assessments. The results highlight that qualitative and participatory approaches are frequently applied methods to assess individual capabilities, most often related to educational, economic, social and empowerment dimensions. Capabilities linked to environmental and recreational activities, as well as collective capabilities, were significantly overlooked. Quantitative approaches to impact evaluation were less frequently used. This paper provides a first systematic review on the use of the CA to assess well-being impacts. Future applications of the CA could focus on better integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches for robust impact assessments and targeting understudied capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal of New Music Research aims to advance research in a diverse range of musical traditions. While the journal historically focused on Western art music, it now includes articles that explore a wider range of cultures, particularly those in the Global South. This double issue features articles on topics such as computational assessment tools for music novices, automatic music transcription for sitar music analysis, structural segmentation and labeling of tabla solo performances, classification of relationships between rāgas in Carnatic music, machine learning approaches to Turkish makams, and redefining street barrel organs performance practice. These papers demonstrate the journal's commitment to disseminating state-of-the-art technology and methods that can be applied to various musical traditions. [Extracted from the article]

The paper examines the implications of COVID-19 pandemic on multi-level governance (MLG) in Ghana. Adopting a qualitative document analysis approach supported by 18 key informant interviews, the findings revealed four enablers of recentralization: COVID-19-induced legislations for centralized decision, centralized distribution of relief packages and medical supplies, centralized institutional response, and centralized government communication strategies. Despite the use of centralized policy making, the management of pandemic is fraught with institutional inefficiencies, rigidities, and ambiguities. The paper argues that the recentralization of COVID-19 management is symptomatic of a long period of neglect of MLG in Ghana. Since, local governments are perceived as inept and ill-equipped, there is a mistaken believe that recentralized decisions are more effective during emergencies. To ensure an effective response to public emergencies, its mitigation and post-crisis recovery in developing countries, a MLG approach – where central, local, and other non-state actors work together in equal partnership is crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As successors to structural adjustment programmes, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) were introduced in 1999 as preconditions for World Bank and imf concessional financing and for debt relief. prsps now serve as the basis of negotiations for a variety of development financing and have influenced the design of other aid instruments. This paper considers the impact of the prsp framework on the constitution of global economic governance, in particular its effect in foreclosing possibilities for a radical revision of the rules and institutions of international economic law. The paper argues that the prsp project not only reframes fundamental tenets of international co-operation and global communal responsibility but also establishes a new disciplinary framework for Third World state engagement with the global economy and the international law which sustains it. In this way the discourse and methods of resistance against the injustices of the international order have been appropriated to distil such dissent through qualified operationalising of contestable notions of ‘participation’, ‘ownership’, ‘partnership’ and ‘poverty reduction’, disabling the resurgence of any form of emancipatory politics in the international economic order, whether through a state-led nieo-style revival or cosmopolitan social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This editorial summarises the papers published in issue 15.4 in order to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends and knowledge. The first paper challenges the standard notion that more growth is better. The second paper challenges macroeconomic models by looking at them from a regional micro-grounded lens, where the effect of productivity shocks depends on the distribution of economic activity and the locations where shocks occur. The third paper investigates the wage-productivity nexus using the latest techniques on cross-sectional dependence. The fourth paper introduces a new method to determine regional price differentials. The fifth paper tests whether economic-theoretical insights obtained from urban economic models apply not only to cities in developed countries but also to those in developing countries. The sixth paper sets out an estimation method for a spatial random coefficients model for clusters of observations. The seventh paper proposes a new method for regionalizing national input–output tables. The final paper focuses on Big Data and its role in regional growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the 'Decolonising the Internet' themed special issue which includes research presented at the 23rd annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2022). The conference theme centred on decolonisation, highlighting the persistence of colonial practices but also the resistance they generate. Focusing on the internet as entailing colonial appropriations, reproducing inequalities, and foreclosing alternative ways of being, the conference theme asked participants to consider not only the ways in which the internet walks on the path forged by colonialism, but also how research practices are implicated in reinforcing the same exploitative patterns. This special issue includes seven papers that cover new and innovative approaches to studying decolonising the internet, including contexts related to LGBTQIA + digital spaces, neighbourhood and local surveillance, data colonialism, misinformation and conspiracies, and inclusion and access problems for Indigenous peoples. The papers in this issue also focus on various geographic locations in the Global South, including Africa, South America, and the Asia Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of service trade globalization on low-carbon globalization. Two newly developed non-radial directional distance functions of UEI (Unified Efficiency Index) and EEPI (Energy-Environmental Performance Index) were adopted to evaluate energy and CO2 emission performances of 30 countries during the period 1980–2013. A multiple regression analysis was conducted based on the Tobit model. Results showed that: (1) Service trade openness has a positive effect on energy and CO2 emission efficiency, and the effect has been intensified with time. (2) Emerging service sectors promoted the improvement of energy and CO2 emission efficiency, while the traditional sectors hindered the efficiency improvement. (3) There existed a "catch-up" effect between less developed countries and developed countries on energy and CO2 emission efficiency. Policy implications are thus drawn on how to promote the improvement of energy and carbon emission efficiency in the context of low-carbon globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are a central instrument in international development cooperation and of key importance in guiding donors' policies towards southern recipients. However, many aspects of the PRSP have been criticised by a variety of development stakeholders. A checklist of 85 questions has been developed to analyse the inclusion of aspects of sustainable development in PRSPs and to point to sustainability challenges and opportunities. It thus facilitates targeted advice and quality improvements. The checklist was applied to a selection of 12 PRSPs of developing countries. The results reveal an insufficient integration of the ecosystem services concept, of biodiversity and of climate issues. Property rights, gender issues, water and energy are as a rule well elaborated. PRSPs show significant variation in the integration of environmental sustainability issues. Sustainability assessments can contribute to significant improvements between first and second generation PRSPs provided the assessments are supported by a strong institutional framework and a dedicated political commitment towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders involved and/or affected by existing paper-based decision support guidelines (known as Community Case Management (CCM)) and a proposed digitised mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) of CCM in rural settings of Malawi, Africa. Data was collected using field notes and semi-structured interviews with 17 key stakeholders (i.e. clinical, technical, development aid support (NGO), government and community health workers both in Malawi, Europe and USA). Stakeholders provide a rich insight into the variety of both perceived benefits and challenges of the existing guidelines and the proposed electronic CDSS. It was found that all stakeholders believe that the CDSS will improve adherence to guidelines and subsequently result in better care for children. It is further envisioned that the time needed for administration with the current paper-based approach could be reduced using electronic, as opposed to manual, collation and sending of records. This paper acts to underpin the rationale and motivation for the development and rollout of an electronic CDSS to support community health workers in their assessment, classification and treatment of young children in rural settings in Malawi, Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Global economic restructuring since the 1970s, and the rollback of the welfare state in the Global North has been a major contributor to a reduction in the affordable housing stock. Similarly in the so-called Global South recent economic development has been accompanied by a lack of sustainable affordable housing and housing policies. In this short paper, I aim to analyse important policy papers from the central government of Turkey and local government of Istanbul focusing on the housing policies. I will use content and policy analysis to examine the legal and policy framework in the city of Istanbul and compare this with what is happening on the ground. These policy papers include Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Strategical Plan (2020–2024), Turkey 11th 5 year Development Plan Housing Politics (2019–2023), Urban Development Strategy (2010–2023) and Istanbul Regional Plan (2014–2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization presents opportunities and challenges for developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa as they seek to improve their levels of socioeconomic development. Processes of globalization increasingly depend upon information and communication technologies (ICTs), and these normally need modifications to fit local contexts. This requires that processes that affect interactions between global, regional, and local levels need to be understood. It appears reasonable to conjecture that understanding the roles or effects of socioeconomic and cultural factors (among others) would lead to more effective ICT policies for sustainable development at regional and local levels. Drawing on Sen's capability theory of human development, a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is presented, and validated by analyzing survey data gathered in two sub-Saharan African countries, although no claim is made as to the model's generalizability. Some diagnostics and prescriptions for how to effect sustainable technology adoption and development across the region to enhance human capabilities are then presented. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation and development of routine health information systems continue to provide a number of challenges for managers—the more so in developing countries where resources are scarce and human resource and technical skills limited. This article conceptualizes the interdependence between the local adaptation and appropriation of global standards, and the value that this adds to the global standard through improved quality of data. These processes reinforce one another in the creation of sustainable information systems. The article draws upon a case study of a rural hospital in South Africa. A successful change process is documented, wherein the organization, through innovative management and leadership, actively and successfully appropriated the national standard. The case study is used to highlight three main messages, namely, that standards should be able to be locally appropriated, that the creation of networks helps to support the local adaptation of standards, and that the layering of information systems is important to encourage the use of information and helps to improve data quality. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is policy for information and communication technology (ICT) for developing countries actually formulated? How are the negotiations made, and with whom? What are the dialectical queries and responses, the give and take that compose policy discussions? Some of this is accomplished behind the scenes, and will remain inaccessible to our scrutiny. However, much of the critical interaction among key players such as government officials, academics, consultants, employees of non-government organizations, donors, and development officers is available publicly for analysis and interpretation via the text exchanges produced on open forum Internet discussion groups. Thus, when subjected to systematic analysis, this data becomes a prime source for developing a rich understanding of policy formulation. In this article the authors use a special kind of qualitative rhetorical analysis called dramatism to analyze and thus understand the formulation of policy online through an open discussion forum. Rationales for ICTs for development, appropriate ICT impact assessment, and implementation for economic development in a variety of countries were available via the Internet forum studied. The language of the discussion from actual, unedited texts of Internet discussions using dramatistic analysis is examined. The ensuing discussions reveal a collective vision that helps influence ICT policy formulation, rationales, distribution, implementation, and use in developing countries. Dramatism is construed to be a humanistic method that rests on the assumption that dramas are created through small group interaction and chain through written speeches and documents until they reach the mass media and are picked back up by small groups once again. Through analysis, the emerging main plot, subplot, hero, and villain of the ICT policy drama that took place from 1998–2002 in an Internet discussion forum are identified. The conclusions drawn are intended to be useful to both researchers and policy makers, who will be able to draw on this contribution to create a wide-ranging set of information technology strategies and policies that can be implemented in many developing nation contexts. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current landscape of the information systems research literature concerned with developing countries is surveyed by examining a range of research articles published from 2000 onward. These are discussed in terms of the key challenges addressed, including the role of technology, and the methodological and theoretical approaches used. Prospects for future research are discussed, based on a conceptual view as to how to study information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries, to classify existing work, identify gaps, and suggest future opportunities. The authors contribute to the important debate on how ICTs in general, and information systems research in particular, can make a positive difference in the developing countries. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid diffusion of the Internet worldwide, there has been considerable interest in the e-potentials of developing countries giving rise to a first generation of e-readiness studies. Moreover, e-readiness means different things to different people, in different contexts, and for different purposes. Despite strong merits, this first generation of e-readiness studies assumed a fixed, one-size-fits-all set of requirements, regardless of the characteristics of individual countries, the investment context, or the demands of specific applications. This feature obscures critical information for investors or policy analysts seeking to reduce uncertainties and make educated decisions. But there is very little known about e-readiness for e-banking. In particular, based on lessons learned to date and their implications for emerging realities of the 21st century, the authors designed and executed a research project with theoretical as well as practical dimensions to answer the question of “e-Readiness for What?,” focusing specifically on e-banking, based on the very assumption that one size can seldom, if ever, fit all. The authors also propose and develop a conceptual framework for the “next generation” e-readiness—focusing on different e-business applications in different economic contexts with potentially different pathways—as well as a data model—to explore e-readiness for e-banking in 10 countries. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of donor-supported information technology (IT)–based projects developed or implemented in less-developed economies (LDEs) end up as complete or partial failures or unsustainable. Notably, a number of intra-organizational and external factors are associated with this problem, including inadequate infrastructure and human resource capacity, fragmented donor policy, and lack of policies to manage the sustainability problem. Accordingly, IT initiatives are often donor-driven, top-down, and hijacked by top managers who (normally) do not have adequate skills, but have enormous power to enforce such initiatives across organizational hierarchies. In analyzing the concepts from sustainability and institutionalization, key insights towards a better understanding of the problem of unsustainability are developed. It is argued that health information systems (HISs) become sustainable if they are institutionalized in the sense of being integrated into the everyday routine of the user organization. However, a sustainable HIS should also be flexible enough to allow changes as the user needs change. Moreover, introduction of a new HIS is not only a technical change, but requires the cultivation and institutionalization of a new kind of culture. Through a comparative case analysis of the HIS development and implementation processes in Tanzania and Mozambique, we have identified two sets of relationships, between the Ministry of Health (MoH) and donor agencies and between the MoH and software development agencies as critical and contributing factors to the unsustainability of a HIS. Given this setting, we highlight three key strategies for dealing with the problem of unsustainability in LDEs: (a) integration of a HIS, (b) local shaping of new cultures, and (c) cultivation approach to systems development. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education is a fundamental right of all students. Despite international policy initiatives, educational exclusion is pervasive, especially in the Global South, and disproportionately affects disabled students. Barriers to inclusive education have been itemised in the literature, but in this conceptual paper that offers a novel perspective on the topic, we argue for a complexity approach to understand its evolution. Using a qualitative deductive content analysis of South African laws, policies, reports and scholarly literature, we explore three path dependencies from colonial/apartheid times that lock the country into historical patterns of categorisation and segregated schooling. These operate alongside the emergence of new and inclusive practices by actors at a system-wide and local level, made possible by inputs into the policy ecology. South Africa represents a complex, contradictory educational environment that confounds the expectation of linear progression towards greater inclusivity. Instead of identifying barriers to inclusive education, we argue for a nuanced understanding of the imbrications of historical investments and drivers of inequality, with policy possibilities and the impetus for transformation among system actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prolific film production in the nascent People's Republic of China (PRC) during the 'Seventeen Years' from 1949 to 1966, Maoist cinema received limited critical analysis. While recent scholarly attention has shifted towards examining Chinese film production and exchange within the socialist bloc, a notable gap remains in the literature concerning Sino-Arab film collaboration during this period. This paper seeks to address this gap by utilizing textual analysis and archival studies to explore the practice of Sino-Arab film weeks through the lens of cultural diplomacy. Building upon the framework of the three schools of thought on cultural diplomacy, this study posits that Sino-Arab film collaboration from the 1950s to 1960s operated within the realm of people's diplomacy. This term denotes cultural diplomacy with distinctively Chinese attributes within the Cold War context. This paper also complements the third trend that focuses on the transcendental realm of the state by exploring the little-studied interactions between film screenings and reality in Sino-Arab film weeks. Under the common goal of anti-imperialism and nation-building, people's diplomacy deviates from the conventional paradigm of bipolar rivalry and embodies the spirit of internationalist solidarity among Third World countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture has expanded rapidly over the past half century and has surpassed capture fisheries as a source of seafood globally. However, most of the aquaculture production growth has occurred in developing countries. Despite early leadership in the global aquaculture industry, most developed countries have played only a minor role in the Blue Revolution. This paper examines the potential for developed nations to increase aquaculture production using recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) based production. The United States is used as a case study to highlight potential benefits associated with RAS-based production for developed country producers. The paper examines potential marketing and production benefits associated with RAS-based production in developed countries and evaluates the potential for RAS to avoid some regulatory and social opposition obstacles that have hindered other forms of aquaculture in developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an introduction to a special issue on what sustains informality. The papers in the special issue contribute significantly to critical issues related to the nature of informal employment and its determinants, how informal firms can grow their business and productivity, and the effects of labor market regulations and social insurance policies on informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a history of the 'Kaldor-Hicks' concept of economic efficiency from its European birth in the 1930s to its American resurgence in the 1970s to its widespread implementation in the Global South by the early twenty-first century. While philosophers, economists and legal theorists have written widely about Kaldor-Hicks – global-minded intellectual historians have not. As a result, scholars have yet to place its creation, dissemination and ascendency into a broader historical context or examine the reasons behind its global spread. As this paper will demonstrate through the rise of cost–benefit analyses based on 'willingness to pay' metrics, while Kaldor-Hicks efficiency was invented by neoclassical economists in the late 1930s, its ascent to policy dominance is part-and-parcel of the neoliberal revolution of the past half century. Linking the history of economic thought with the rise of global neoliberalism, this paper demonstrates how Kaldor-Hicks efficiency emerged as a central pillar of a new, interventionist, wealth-maximizing and market-based form of depoliticized technocratic governance that not only marginalizes distributive concerns but actively exacerbates the problem of global inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical analysis of urban displacement and acts as an introduction to the Special Feature: 'Putting urban displacement in its place'. It begins by noting the magnitude and significance of displacement, and summarises its constituent components. Drawing upon the work of Hirsh, Eizenberg and Jabareen [2020. "A New Conceptual Framework for Understanding Displacement: Bridging the Gaps in Displacement Literature between the Global South and the Global North." Journal of Planning Literature 35 (4): 391–407], the paper then outlines four kinds of urban displacement processes which span cities in the Global South and North: development-induced displacement, slum clearance, eviction, and gentrification. Brief consideration is also given to the significance of studentification, touristification, and austerity for driving urban displacement. Next the paper explores three crucial issues regarding the conceptualisation of urban displacement: temporality, vulnerability to displacement, and its emotional impacts. The following section discusses rehousing/resettlement and post-displacement experiences. We then examine the contested relationship between displacement and gentrification. The penultimate section outlines some of the methodological challenges in undertaking research on displacement, and also returns to the theme of placing urban displacement via a discussion of urban politics. The final section summarises the four papers in the Special Feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects upon the aftermath of the eviction of working-class communities from the core locations of Delhi to Narela, over 42 kilometres from Delhi's centre. The evictees were previously residing in 'informal settlements', which are colloquially known as bastis or labelled as 'slums' in policy documents. Drawing on interviews and focused group discussions, the paper examines the impact of displacement as experienced by the basti residents. I highlight the struggles that residents faced while making 'home' in their new area. Familiarity, repetition, networks, and safety are the few aspects I engage with to explain the process of placemaking in the city. I argue that displacement should be understood beyond the idea of physical dislocation. It should be seen through the lens of 'place' and how a place is constructed over a period of time against the larger spatial order that is produced in the cities. The paper contributes to academic understanding of the varying experiences of displacement within the affected communities and the contestations which produce spaces on the margins of cities in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity is vividly witnessing the loss of life, the massive destruction, and human rights violations due to new authoritarian regimes and protracted wars that have intensified in the last few decades, particularly in countries of the Global South. Such conflictual situations have also resulted in devastating attacks against academic institutions and values and, in turn, the displacement of scholars, mainly to neighbouring countries and to Europe. In a pressing situation involving the radical disruption of scientists' social and academic lives in their homelands, international support networks, the history of which goes back to the 1920s, could quickly respond to the scholars' urgent needs. This paper analyzes the impacts of this recent migration flow of scholars on 'academic humanitarianism' in Europe, which is a form of humanitarianism and a regime of governing that emerged at the intersection of humanitarianism and academia. While analyzing the changing nature of this regime, the paper focuses on governing discourses, technologies, and strategies of the following organisations: Cara (UK), PSI (Germany), and PAUSE (France). It concludes that the flow of scholars from the countries of the Global South to Europe has resulted in important changes in their humanitarian approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Containerisation has changed the geography of production, trade, and distribution in the global economy. Particularly, the use of containers may have reduced the constraints imposed by distance. However, this hypothesis has not been specifically addressed in the literature, arguably due to a lack of available data. This paper makes use of the European Comext database and examines if there are significant differences in the effect of distance on EU containerised and non-containerised seaborne trade flows with third countries. The empirical results support the idea that containerization reduces the effect of distance on seaborne trade. The estimates of distance elasticity for containerised seaborne trade flows are smaller than those for non-containerised ones, both at the aggregate and sectoral levels. The container may bring remote and less developed countries closer to the central nodes of the world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is an attempt at applying Samir Amin's lens in the analysis of socio-economic development in Africa. Social and economic development in Africa has been substandard, largely because of the economic system followed and because effective structural transformation has not taken place – Samir Amin's works explained what needed to be done to transform Africa (and the broader global south). It is in this context that the paper posits that post-colonial Africa has had to contend with disruptive socio-economic and political realities instituted by European colonialism, slave trade and inappropriate integration of Africa to the so-called global economy. The fundamental explanation for the poor socio-economic development in Africa is global capitalism, and one of the possible solutions is in Samir Amin's delinking proposal as well as the restructuring of the African economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigated the usage of mobile technology in marketing academic libraries in developing countries. The main purpose, apart from awareness, is to look at how researchers are studying mobile technology in marketing academic libraries, what are the current issues investigated and what has to be the direction of the topic globally. The paper employed 23 research papers for systematic review. The findings reveal that academic libraries are aware of mobile technology and use it at various levels for academic library promotion, visibility, and teaching and learning. Factors influencing the use of mobile technology in marketing academic libraries were identified and further noted that little has been studied regarding mobile technology in marketing academic libraries and its performance in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Feature explores the socio-spatial transformations of cities in the Global South under hybrid neoliberal regimes over the last few decades, which have resulted in significant harm to poor and marginalised groups. Our focus is on identifying the nature of this harm as violence enacted through the very structures – cultural, social, political and institutional – that organise social life. We also aim to illuminate the often contradictory and negotiated responses – ranging from resistance to complicity – of the poor and marginalised populations that disproportionately face such violence. The papers presented offer case studies from four different cities in the Global South and demonstrate the emergence of a state-capitalist nexus around the pursuit of grandiose urban (re)development visions. This nexus is historically and socio-spatially specific but reveals an increased capacity, willingness, and even appetite, for enacting structural violence via diverse mechanisms over long temporalities through interplays between slow and spectacular forms of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory open access journals and predatory conferences' main purpose is to make profit rather than promoting good science. In Peru, the University Law 30220 asks that professors and lecturers undertake research duties at universities. Hence, nowadays part of this academic staff is required to write scientific articles. However, not all of them are experienced on how to write a scholarly paper. Thus, in the rush to comply with the publication requirements that their individual institutions demand from them, a great number of these professors and lecturers are likely to fall prey of predatory publishing, which already is happening in other developing nations. This publishing method is not only unethical because it produces low-quality articles but also is an egregious mismanagement of the resources that universities allocate to fund research. Moreover, the time and effort that the academic staff put to the production of low-quality papers also completely go to waste. Professors and lecturers who follow these bad practices should be penalized; this also avoids the emergence of fraudulent research authorities. Thus, vice-rectorates for research in Peruvian universities should take corrective or preventive measures to promote the production of high-quality papers by part of their academic staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging climate-development processes jeopardize water supply, especially in the Global South. In the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, disrupted water flows driven by climate change and hydropower development have caused water scarcity, threatening agricultural systems in both upstream and coastal areas. Based on insights from desk reviews, stakeholder workshops and interviews with local informants, this paper argues that while grey (engineered) solutions take precedence in addressing water scarcity, securing water sustainability (water retention) for agricultural resilience demands integrated 'grey–green' (engineered-nature-based) solutions. This paper suggests demands for translating this approach into the water governance framework for the delta's agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal education has all too often been portrayed as a means of achieving social and economic mobility, there is a need to address the unequal footing for adolescents in the Global South attempting to achieve social mobility through education. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Sri Lanka, this article considers the impact of upward mobility-driven discourses of the North on the type of aspirations formed by adolescents in the Global South, and the social implications that arise as a result. Through observation, interviews and focus groups carried out at a secondary school for girls and a private tuition centre in Sri Lanka, the paper considers the value given to private tuition compared to government-funded schooling. In doing so, it examines the implications of mobility-driven discourses on the schooling experiences of adolescents in the Global South, particularly the heightening of educational and social inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the debate on how harmful online content translates into violent offline actions continues in the Global North, this debate should be enriched by data from the Global South. In Libya, the kidnapping of a female politician (Seham Sergiwa) in 2019 was arguably foreshadowed on social media, with some analysts warning of an imminent danger to her life when tracking social media discourse in June/July 2019. Following her abduction, the outcry was loud and reverberated outside of Libya. However, this was short lived and similar occurrences happen in Libya still. This paper contributes a systematic analysis of Facebook content in the months leading up to and after Sergiwa's disappearance. Using thematic content analysis to explore 259 posts and 4,367 comments – between January and December 2019 – this paper outlines three dominant themes: Contempt, ridicule and indifference. This study presents a refocus on the dangers of online speech while acknowledging complexities around categorising the former. The study adds nuanced understandings on online discussions in Libya and gendered dynamics in a violent, post-revolutionary environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that ideas about tax matter as much as interests and institutions for understanding social attitudes and responses to attempts by the state to raise revenues for development agendas. Tax is a profoundly political problem, reflecting different and sometimes opposing ideas about the role of the state, the market and business-state relationships, and tax rises in developing countries can become linked to wider conflicts of development. Using the case of Argentina, the paper examines, empirically, the attempts by the government of Cristina Kirchner to finance state expenditure and social welfare via raising taxes on commodity exports after 2008. It argues that ideas of tax became embedded with deeply contested ideas of what the state's role in development should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive literature has investigated the driving forces behind high-technology exports, but most studies focus on developed countries and developing countries outside Africa. The purpose of this paper is to assess the main factors determining export-oriented technological change, using the technological content of exports (high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech exports) as a proxy. For this purpose, instrumental variable regressions are applied to a panel dataset of 33 African countries. The findings revealed that the main determinants of high-technology exports are: imports of components, rule of law, human capital, FDI inflows, GDP per capita and manufacturing. For medium-technology exports, the determinants identified are similar to high-technology exports with population included. The main determinants of low-technology manufactured exports are imports of components, rule of law, population, FDI inflows, GDP per capita and manufacturing. These give policymakers in African countries a targeted approach in formulating policies related to exports by technological category. This paper contributes to the literature in that it assesses the main factors determining export-oriented technological change, using different levels of technological content of exports (high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech exports). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the evidence on the relevance of the ownership choice for electricity and water and sanitation utilities with respect to access and affordability in developing countries. It shows that most of the widely quoted evidence is outdated and fails to reflect the long-term effects of choices made in the 1990s. The most recent data suggests that ownership affects social outcomes less than regulatory governance and market structure. The evidence is however not precise enough yet. More research is needed to determine how context and institutional constraints, including regulatory capacity, should influence ownership choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper for the special issue on Reconstructing the International Peace Architecture (IPA) in the Asian Century outlines the background to, the objective and the scope of, and the key contributions of the special issue. A fundamental problem that each contributor has underlined is the inability of the existing IPA to effectively cope with emerging counter-peace challenges in the face of the rise of Asian powers and the global geopolitical rivalry. This special issue seeks to address the following questions: (1) how would the rise of Asian powers affect global power's framing of peace, and its international and local hybridity within the IPA; (2) how might the interests of the Global North, Emerging Powers, and the Global South be addressed simultaneously or be integrated with the IPA; and (3) how global institutions such as the United Nations might incorporate non-Western values, customs, norms and standards into their doctrines and practices of peacebuilding? This paper offers some speculations about peacebuilding, statebuilding and development assistance in the new international relations in which China plays a major role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within urban studies, the emerging post-network approach explores infrastructure transitions towards hybrid mixing of grid and off-grid technologies, resources, services, and actors. However, scholarship addressing off-grid transitions in the global south focuses almost exclusively on the poor as non-networked infrastructure consumers. This paper adopts a landscape perspective to consider broader processes of technological, institutional and behavioural change. Using a case study of Day Zero in Cape Town (South Africa), the paper draws on existing studies to demonstrate how the off-grid infrastructure transitions of non-poor households and businesses have potentially catastrophic (but largely ignored) consequences for cities in terms of environmental sustainability, urban governance and citizenship, network quality, and municipal finance. The paper concludes that broadening the landscape of infrastructure analysis, to consider the off-grid infrastructure transitions of the non-poor in the global south, is crucial to address contemporary global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study another approach to the profit shifting costs function of multinational profit shifting. First, we describe the modelling approaches of such costs functions and provide a synthesized analysis. More precisely, we investigate the involved resource costs that multinational firms incur through a tax-motivated reallocation of profit across tax jurisdictions. Second, we set up a simple theoretical model of a representative multinational firm within which we conceptualize our new cost function. We expand the literature by including a relationship between profit shifting costs and tax uncertainty. Furthermore, we describe the costs split, the property of our costs function and we express its parameters. Finally, we discuss our results in conjunction with the literature, emphasizing that profit shifting costs and tax uncertainty cause more concerns for developing countries than advanced economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Money & Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The internationalization of economic history is everywhere except in the publication outputs. Using a new dataset of publications in the top four economic history journals, we investigate this puzzle and attempt to explain why relatively few papers on and from developing countries are published in top journals despite the growing internationalization of economic history more broadly. We find little evidence to suggest that this is due to a bias against papers on developing country topics and by developing country authors. Developing country papers and authors also do not perform worse in citation analyses. Authors from developing countries, it seems, are less productive, or discouraged from submitting their papers to top quality journals, choosing instead local journals. This journal aims to reduce this disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growth models approach (GMA) has become increasingly prominent in Comparative Political Economy over the last years. While it has originally been developed for advanced economies, there is a growing number of applications for developing countries. This raises the question of how readily transferable the GMA concepts are to the peripheral capitalist experience. This paper explores the analytical building blocks for an extension of the GMA to developing economies from post-Keynesian-structuralist perspective. It argues that in a developing country context supply-side considerations will be more important and build on structuralist theory to understand the 'real' constraints in the developing countries' growth process. It uses Minskyan theory to understand how currency hierarchy creates financial causes for international economic stratification. As a consequence, the role of the state is more crucial than in advanced economies, but at the same time states are more vulnerable. This paper concludes by reflecting on the key concepts of GMA, finance-led, export-led and state-led growth in the light of developing economies and identifying neoliberal as well developmentalist versions of these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper considers Sino-Uzbek relations by critically assessing the positivist depictions of CA states in their relations with larger countries like China. It uses the post-positivist and constructivist framework and adaptations made from the four-factor analysis framework adopted in the case of Uzbekistan to demonstrate avenues in which Uzbekistan demonstrates active agency in relations with China. This paper argues that Uzbekistan and other CA states utilize nudging strategies which refer to a subtle and often indirect way of encouraging or guiding China's behavior in a particular direction as opposed to so-called "nagging" which associates with persistent and repetitive pressuring China to perform a certain function. Accordingly, Uzbekistan's approach to China can be described as the nudging strategy of designing the environment or context which makes China's choices in its relations with Uzbekistan easier and more attractive in favor of policy decisions desired by the Uzbek government. As is depicted in the narrative of cooperation road maps, Uzbekistan's approach involved both indirect signaling of certain policy preferences, choice-preserving (involving diversification of foreign partners), and positive reinforcement (through various policy incentives). This contrasts the persistent and repetitive pressuring, criticism, threats, or guilt-tripping, seen in relations between China and other Western states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mainstream area of marketing maintains that consumerism is a social movement that seeks to support consumers against corporate wrongdoings. Led by the area's canons, particularly Philip Kotler, marketing has associated consumerist values with neoliberal-capitalist principles; however, it has failed to address the issues, realities, and contexts of consumerism and consumerists in the Global South, in their multiple and non-homogenous forms, which are onto-epistemically aligned to such realities. The present paper aims to analyse, through a decolonial perspective from Latin America, how the consumerism led in marketing by Kotler fails to promote consumer protection in multiple realities and for multiple groups, especially (if not only) in the Global South. Latin American decolonial theorisations related to hierarchies of power, locus of enunciation and universalisation of knowledge are adopted, in order to critically analyse these failures, based on a perspective that originates in a non-hegemonic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper envisages how the concept of 'Inequality' has been perceived by the Trade Unionists in late colonial Bengal. Informed by the ideology of Communism, these activists penned down a myriad of insightful analytical tracts, primarily in vernaculars, ranging from propaganda pamphlets to articles in the party organs. Their critique of Imperialism, and how it precipitates economic and socio-political inequalities was grafted in the ethos of class struggle. Through delineating their stark ideological differences with Gandhian mass politics, and by focusing on their intellectual endeavours concerning various structural inequalities of class, religion, caste, and gender it aims at charting out the indigenous response to the global doctrine of Communism. Often overlooked as conventional intellectuals, their literature brings to fore an alternative discourse on anti-colonialism in South Asia, overwhelmed by the theme of Nationalism. This paper is a methodological probe in doing intellectual history from below, adding to the edifice of the existing scholarship on Decolonisation, Communism, and Inequality in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, democratization has slowed, stopped, and even reversed across the world. At the same time, societies have become more oriented toward free markets as measured by indexes of economic freedom. Relying on a panel sample of 141 developed and developing countries between 2006 and 2017, this paper is the first to investigate whether the two phenomena are related by employing economic freedom data. It finds that there is no net-negative relationship between aggregate economic freedom and democracy in this time-period. Instead, mixed findings of both an overall positive and overall neutral (but not negative) association are uncovered in between-country and within-country analyses, respectively. In between-country analyses, using the disaggregated index shows that the legal system/property rights component drives most of the positive relationship between aggregate economic freedom and democracy in the developed world. The same between-country analyses in the developing world show that freedom of international trade is positively associated with democracy, while modest regulation has a negative relationship. However, additionally controlling for omitted variable bias using country-fixed effects, the paper does not find evidence for either a positive or negative relationship between subsequent changes in levels of economic freedom and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]