Global Aspirations Research Articles

Are Mega-Events Only for Global Cities? Analyzing Host Cities through the Global and World Cities Framework, 1990–2020

Abstract Mega-events have long been promoted as opportunities for cities to become more globalized, thereby enhancing tourism- and consumption-based economic development. But does this mega-event strategy actually work for smaller cities? This article compares the recent history of mega-event planning to cities’ ratings on the Global and World City (GaWC) ranking system, a typology for evaluating cities’ connectivity within the global economy. We surveyed 138 cities that bid on or hosted a variety of multi-sport mega-events. Competition for the most prominent mega-events is dominated by the most globalized “alpha” ranked cities, though less-globalized cities regularly bid for and host smaller mega-events. On average, hosting a mega-event has no significant effect on a city's GaWC ranking. Using a subsample of bids for the Summer Olympics, we further find that there is no specific model of mega-event planning in alpha cities: simply being a large and highly globalized city appears to be central to their success. This suggests mega-events are not a realistic mechanism for smaller and less-globalized cities to advance their global ambitions.

Creating a “Feminist Nation”

Drawing on archival records, oral histories, and the 1970s underground press, this article retraces the history of International Videoletters, a feminist video exchange network that operated from 1975 to 1977. Though primarily based in the United States, the network expressed global aspirations to transform the televisual landscape, a goal it shared with other activist video collectives of the era. However, in contrast to many male-led guerrilla television groups, International Videoletters prioritized its independence from broadcast television, structuring its network instead as an autonomous, women-run media system. I argue that by emphasizing the relationship between video producers and viewers through nonhierarchical organizational structures, independent distribution systems, and dynamic feedback sessions, International Videoletters fostered a feminist counterpublic committed to transforming media representation of women. Through analysis of the network’s operations and output, this article asserts the centrality of grassroots feminist media initiatives like International Videoletters to the history of guerrilla television, where they have largely been overlooked.

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture: Review of Indicators

Sustainable agriculture strives to ensure future food and energy supply while safeguarding natural resources. The interpretation of sustainability varies by context and country, yielding distinct indicators. Researchers have studied sustainable agriculture for the past 25 years and have developed several indicators. Renewable energy holds a vital role in sustainable agriculture, aiding energy needs and mitigating environmental harm tied to agriculture. It curbs fossil fuel dependency and harnesses agricultural waste for energy. However, a consistent update of renewable energy indicators for agricultural sustainability is needed. Employing SALSA (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis) and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodologies within the PRISMA protocol, this study extracts 84 indicators from 420 papers via SCOPUS. These indicators span social, environmental, economic, institutional, and technical dimensions. The study refines these indicators based on significance and influence, offering an enriched perspective. Furthermore, the analysis categorizes papers by publication year, continent, and topic, providing insights for stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers. By ensuring periodic indicator updates, this research promotes sustainable agriculture, informs priority areas, and guides strategic decisions. This contributes to global resilience and food security aspirations in a changing world. The future of renewable energy and sustainable agriculture will involve cutting-edge technologies, refined policy frameworks, and inclusive cross-sector collaboration to address pressing global challenges and create a greener, more resilient world.

Evolving shared value, sustainability and the leadership challenge: Grootbos Private Nature Reserve

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are to assess the shared value model and elaborate on new multi-stakeholder approaches to business, where the stakeholders include the founders, investors, partners, employees, clients and the surrounding community; to consider the synergies between community development, environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices and the long-term health of organisations and communities, considering these as the new fundamentals of business; to examine the interconnectedness of vision, strategy, purpose and leadership in creating and evolving the shared value model; to explore the relationship between shared value practices and collective well-being, and a specific reference to nurturing transformative experiences through nature, personal development and community upliftment is made; and to assess Grootbos’ ability to translate their purpose and value proposition into a strategy and sustainable vision with a possibility of Grootbos achieving global impact through its evolving model, beyond the founder. Case overview/synopsis This case study explores the evolution of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Foundation, a luxury hospitality lodge and award-winning ecotourism destination, from humble beginnings in the Western Cape of South Africa to a global example of conservation, community, commerce sustainability and transformative experiences. The establishing of Grootbos and its growth and widespread recognition can be attributed to the vision and inspirational leadership of its founder, Michael Lutzeyer. Although much success has been achieved in conservation, community upliftment and individual development of community members within their region, Lutzeyer’s and ultimately, Grootbos’ vision extended well beyond South Africa and aspired to elevate their floral kingdom and model of development and conservation to a global platform of awareness. Although a shared value vision and strategy had transformed the business, placing Grootbos as a leader in transforming their industry and sparking an evolution in the shared value model itself through the interjection of transformative experiences, the larger question remained: How can Grootbos extend the impact, towards people and planetary well-being, beyond the scope of their individual place-based business and their industry? And in terms of the dilemma Lutzeyer and the management team at Grootbos faced: How will this vision and global ambition continue through succession, beyond Luzeyer’s personal drive at the helm? Complexity academic level Experienced leaders within a graduate degree program, executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) or executive education in the areas of leadership development, strategy, shared value and international business. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS4: Environmental management.

Comparative Assessment of Insect Processing Technologies for Sustainable Insect Protein Production

Considering the projected increase in demand for protein sources, finding alternative sources with lower environmental impacts has become of great importance. Insect mass production has emerged as a potential solution, particularly in Western countries. Previous studies indicate that insect farming together with insect processing stages are responsible for most of the environmental impacts associated with the final product. This study compares the environmental impacts linked to alternative processing technologies for insect protein production to traditional ones using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) following the Environmental Footprint methodology. The most relevant impact categories were identified as land use, energy use, freshwater ecotoxicity, water use and climate change. Among the processing treatments, FOP (freezing–oven drying–hot pressing) showed the best environmental performance in terms of all selected impact categories except water use, while the BOS (blanching–oven drying–SFE with CO2) group had the highest environmental impacts in all categories. The results from this study indicate that the environmental impacts of insect protein production can be reduced by using alternative processing technologies. These findings underscore the importance of carefully selecting processing technologies in order to align with global sustainability ambitions in the food industry. This study contributes to the development of ecologically responsible methods that can be adopted across protein production industries.

Tiger Parenting Beyond Cultural Essentialism: Discourses of Class, Culture, and Competition in Hong Kong

Purpose This study explores a nuanced understanding of tiger parenting by moving beyond cultural essentialist perspectives and an East (Chinese)-versus-West binary framework. Design/Approach/Methods The study draws on data from 80 parents in Hong Kong SAR, an example of a culturally-hybrid East Asian metropolis. We applied maximum variation sampling to recruit participants with diverse school choices encompassing different education levels, occupations, social classes, and ethnicities. We used semi-structured interviews to investigate parental beliefs, practices, and understandings of tiger parenting. Findings The findings suggest that tiger parenting is a cross-class and cross-culture phenomenon that would be more fruitfully analyzed by considering parental mindsets, educational structures, peer pressure, generational influences, cultural roots, class preferences, and global aspirations. We posit that tiger parenting and similar parenting practices are increasingly necessitated by fiercely competitive education systems, and becoming globalized across ethnic groups and social class spectrums. Originality/Value This study contributes to the discussion on tiger parenting by highlighting previously understudied factors underpinning the concept. We argue that our analytical approach avoids the previous narrow and cultural essentialist understanding of tiger parenting, and advances the theoretical cogency of the concept.

Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping. By Bates Gill. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 320p. $29.95 cloth.

Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping. By Bates Gill. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 320p. $29.95 cloth.

Emerging Donors' Engagements in Africa: China, India, and the Localizing Peacebuilding and Development Interventions

Today's development and peacebuilding donor landscape is much more complex than it was just a few decades ago. In addition to traditional donors, emerging donors have come to play much more prominent roles in development and peacebuilding assistance. This article explores these shifting dynamics of the donor landscape by analyzing China's and India's engagements with African states. In particular, it investigates whether these two emerging donors' development and peacebuilding interventions are framed around the localization of aid concerns that have animated traditional donors. The article shows that nationally led and nationally owned development and peacebuilding priorities are central to the provision of aid by these emerging donors. However, neither China nor India has explicitly joined the localization of aid debate. The term “localization” does not appear in the key documents produced by the government agencies that oversee these countries' development and peacebuilding interventions. Moreover, neither China nor India has signed onto the various international agreements that place localization at the forefront of traditional donor agendas. This article argues that the local is important to both China and India. However, for these two countries, localization is reflected in the emphasis on nationally led and nationally owned development and peacebuilding priority setting; and the promotion of state capacity and strength rather than as a way of working with civil society and nongovernmental organizations. These engagements with the local by China and India in the context of Africa have shifted over time as their footprints across the continent have expanded and their global aspirations have shifted.

Narratives on Education for Sustainable Development in Malaysian Universities

Higher education institutions are powerful forces in producing the human capital necessary to drive sustainable development. To support global aspirations to improve our planet, higher education institutions worldwide have been integrating the education for sustainable development agenda within the curriculum of a wide range of disciplines. This study aims to describe how Malaysian public universities have been implementing education for sustainable development. By adopting a qualitative research approach, this study gathered data through in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with 16 sustainability experts from five public universities in Malaysia, renowned for their education provision and research in the field of sustainable development. Thematic analyses of the data reveal four prevailing approaches to implementing education for sustainable development at Malaysian higher education institutions. They are the organisational adoption approach, the competitive approach, the continuity approach, and the transformative approach. This study also projects the idea that the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) requires solid support from the institutions’ senior management to prioritise it in their managerial agenda.

Who believes in green growth? Strategic framing and technology leadership in the UNFCCC negotiations

ABSTRACT Policymakers and governments increasingly frame climate protection in terms of green growth, arguing that continued economic growth and climate protection are complementary and mutually beneficial. With such framing, governments hope to overcome the global common goods problem associated with climate change and to enable higher ambition on climate action within and across states. Yet, no empirical evidence to date has been provided on how widespread the support for green growth is in international climate politics. This paper, therefore, investigates which countries employ green growth framings at UNFCCC negotiations, and whether this relates to domestic factors, in particular economic structure, level of development and climate impacts. We conduct panel-data analysis on green growth positions derived from hand-coding a unique dataset of High-level Segment statements at the Convention of the Parties (COPs) from 2010 to 2019 for 151 countries. The results reveal that, to date, green growth proponents are those countries with the most advanced national clean energy technology (CET) capacities – as measured by the Green Complexity Index. The findings highlight that green growth is not promoted by all countries at international climate negotiations. Key policy insights: In international climate negotiations, climate protection is increasingly framed as a green growth opportunity to motivate global ambition. Clean Energy Technology (CET) leading countries are more likely to use green growth framings than other less-technologically advanced peers and those with high exposure to climate risks. Mechanisms to support green growth pathways for all countries should be scaled up, including technology transfer and finance to foster local capacities and human capital. Given that green growth framings are not universally endorsed, further emphasis should be placed on additional co-benefits of climate action beyond economic growth, such as food and energy security, adaptation and resilience-building.

Imagining machine vision: Four visual registers from the Chinese AI industry

Machine vision is one of the main applications of artificial intelligence. In China, the machine vision industry makes up more than a third of the national AI market, and technologies like face recognition, object tracking and automated driving play a central role in surveillance systems and social governance projects relying on the large-scale collection and processing of sensor data. Like other novel articulations of technology and society, machine vision is defined, developed and explained by different actors through the work of imagination. In this article, we draw on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to understand how Chinese companies represent machine vision. Through a qualitative multimodal analysis of the corporate websites of leading industry players, we identify a cohesive sociotechnical imaginary of machine vision, and explain how four distinct visual registers contribute to its articulation. These four registers, which we call computational abstraction, human–machine coordination, smooth everyday, and dashboard realism, allow Chinese tech companies to articulate their global ambitions and competitiveness through narrow and opaque representations of machine vision technologies.

Analysis of Crypto-assets, Blockchain Investor Protection, and U.S. Market Risks using the Mlogit Classifier Model

We present insights into novel and complex issues regarding cryptocurrency activities, the related investor protection, and blockchain market risks. Crypto digital assets embody global economic ambition with their significant growth and creativity levels. This study employs a novel research approach using multinominal logit (mlogit) classifier modeling techniques to present unique findings regarding crypto-assets. The machine learning model confirmed better accuracy compared to previous research studies. These findings could contribute to a better understanding of the impact of business consumers on cryptocurrencies and blockchain used by business experts and policymakers worldwide. The research results should help future studies develop more machine learning models to ensure more accurate findings and discussions. The mlogit method research presented here confirms that business artificial intelligence methods and human domain knowledge interpretation can help current business leaders to better understand essential business decisions and their significant role in modern business behavioral prescriptive analytics. We derive important perspectives about cryptocurrency and blockchain strategy improvements, which may produce positive policy changes by enhancing the quality of investor protection in blockchain worldwide.

Essential planetary health workers: Positioning rangers within global policy

AbstractOur planet is facing increasing challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, poverty, and many other problems closely linked to a deteriorating environment. Meanwhile, one of our most important assets, rangers working in protected and conserved areas responsible for managing large tracts of the planet's lands and waters, are often underutilized, underrecognized and underequipped. They are generally left out of the debate about conservation and sustainable development policy, despite being central to the success of those policies. This paper outlines the need for global leaders across multiple sectors to recognize the profession of rangers as essential planetary health workers and to position rangers more effectively within global conservation and environmental policy mechanisms. It introduces the challenges facing rangers, the emerging diversity of roles within the ranger profession and the important contribution of rangers to conservation and sustainable development. It presents policy and implementation avenues to improve recognition and professionalization of rangers as key executors of conservation and development policy, particularly considering the recent Global Biodiversity Framework ambitions.

UK Policy on the Indo-Pacific: Balancing Global Ambition in an Era of Resource Scarcity and Rising Insecurity

UK Policy on the Indo-Pacific: Balancing Global Ambition in an Era of Resource Scarcity and Rising Insecurity

The EU's Global Ambitions: The Maritime Agenda

The EU's Global Ambitions: The Maritime Agenda

Promoting Public Value Through International Organization

Purpose: This article explores the evolution of practical global governance measures aimed at promoting public values in an anarchic (in the sense of without government) international operating environment. The process of international organization has occupied a central position in the discourse, and the physical manifestations of various formal international organizations and informal institutions have provided practical experiments in policy implementation. From the starting point of the universal lowest common denominator of values generated by an overlapping consensus of competing epistemological traditions (that of avoiding interstate war), the process of international organization has gradually expanded to embrace non-traditional security public values. Middle powers have played a key role in the expansion of the global governance paradigm, and aspirations for more comprehensive public value generation. The centrality of multilateralism and the roles of middle powers have, however, increasingly come under pressure from the realities of great power contestation in the international operating environment. The relatively new “minilateral” manifestations of international organization are also demonstrated as coming up short when providing public value promotion. This article, therefore, asks and attempts to answer the central global governance question of how can public values be promoted in the international operating environment in the absence of a central governing authority?
 Method: This research project used a qualitative approach consisting of literature review and document analysis. The results of this study should be supplemented by quantitative and qualitative studies in the future. The literature review consists of a comprehensive assessment of scholarly academic publications from competing perspectives in the fields of political and moral philosophy, public administration, and international relations. The document survey is mainly related to the policy documentation output of national governments and international organizations, as well as media reports.
 Results: The research identifies how new practical challenges to established multilateral manifestations of international organization and the global normative aspirations of middle powers, as well as shortcomings of the more recent minilateral arrangements require radical out of the box thinking. Hence, new modalities and conceptualizations are proposed to address the challenges of public value provision through the process of international organization. These include non-traditional security minilaterals, regional international commissions, and a central role for the new conceptualization of “second-tier” powers.
 Conclusion: Global public values are generated at the international level, in the absence of global government, through the process of international organization. Various models of practical manifestation of the related theoretical concepts have been proposed, and have been implemented, with varying degrees of success. In a time of increased great power contestation, however, multilateral institutions and middle powers, their chief proponents, have been undermined. The proliferation of minilaterals and minilateralism has proven to be an inadequate procedural replacement. Hence the need to explore additional agencies of “disruptive innovation.”

How did Saint-Gobain's European deindustrialisation finance the group's global industrial ambitions (1978-1991)?

How did Saint-Gobain's European deindustrialisation finance the group's global industrial ambitions (1978-1991)?

Shaping food environments to support sustainable healthy diets in low and middle-income countries

The global ambitions to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture demand a complex transition of the current food environments for enabling sustainable healthy diets. The food environments in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) have been experiencing rapid and dynamic transitions across the globe, necessitating a system-level thinking and systemic approach to understand opportunities for improvement. There is a need for valid, reliable measures of food and nutrition environments for reorienting thinking and data collection toward determinants of food demand, especially the food environment components, which are critical to understand the transforming food systems. Food environment transformations are urgently required to provide consumers with more affordable and nutritious diets capable of meeting social and environmental challenges. In the present perspective, we aim to provide insights on prioritizing research on understanding and designing evidence based inclusive food environments which is crucial for promoting long-term food system innovations that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable and, above all, contribute to sustainable healthy diets.

Deconstructing media narratives of the Indo-Pacific strategy: Exploring India’s ontological security and national identity in the Times of India

India’s attempt to forge a distinct role for itself in the global order started soon after independence in 1947. Since this watershed event, India’s policymakers have gradually recast their initial strategy of nonalignment, as they realized that Nehruvian “soft” power was not adequate for creating an especially dynamic presence in an increasingly volatile international environment. In response to this realization, India embarked on a journey of transforming its diplomatic benchmarks. In 2017, to counter China’s assertiveness across the region, India joined then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s advocacy in launching the Indo-Pacific strategy. Transforming the nation’s diplomatic benchmarks while maintaining a coherent narrative of national identity was the main challenge. This paper examines the role that media narratives play in maintaining that coherent national identity. To do so, we analyzed 47 reports by the Times of India (TOI) on the Indo-Pacific strategy in order to reveal how elite media strategically framed the nation’s regional policy, thereby ensuring its ontological security—its sense of continuity and order—while conveying its global aspirations.

Marine-Based Biorefinery: A Path Forward to a Sustainable Future

Biofuels and bio-based products are among the best alternatives to fossil-based fuels and chemicals due to their capacity for net-negative carbon emissions, which is a vital contribution to the global ambition of a net-zero economy [...]