Global Public Domain Research Articles

Restorative benefits of soundscapes for individuals with psychological disorders

Mental health is a significant focus in the global public health domain today. Soundscapes have been identified as having positive environmental restorative benefits, yet the discussion on the mechanisms through which soundscapes contribute to the recovery from psychological disorders remains insufficiently explored. To guide the creation of restorative soundscapes in psychotherapy settings, this article adopted an "exposure-response" research paradigm. Through a soundscape intervention experiment involving 98 participants, it analyzed the perceived restorativeness evaluations and both physiological and psychological responses of populations with different psychological states. Overall, this article explored the restorativeness of soundscapes for individuals with psychological disorders in a solitary listening condition, with specific soundscapes such as rain sounds, bird songs, and river sounds demonstrating restorative effects. Individuals with psychological disorders rated rain sounds highest, while psychologically healthy individuals gave the highest ratings to bird songs.

The Influence of Maternal Factors on the Incidence of Stunting in Toddlers: A Narrative Review

Stunting, a severe challenge in the global public health domain, significantly impacts efforts to improve children's quality of life worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines stunting as a growth disorder in children's height, based on the height-for-age index with a Z-score of less than -2 standard deviation. This study aims to determine the influence of maternal factors on the incidence of stunting in toddlers. It is a narrative literature review. We studied national and international articles published in ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases within the past ten years (2014 -2024). The keywords used to search for these articles were stunting and maternal factors. Based on the literature review, eight maternal factors contributed to the incidence of stunting in toddlers: maternal education, maternal knowledge, parenting style, maternal nutritional status, anemia during pregnancy, maternal height, maternal age, and birth spacing. There is evidence that improving these factors is essential for preventing stunting. Keywords: Stunting; Maternal Factors; Toddlers

Legal imagination and the US project of globalising the free flow of data

Today, the US pursues the global capture of data (understood as a significant engine of growth) by way of bi- and plurilateral trade agreements. However, the project of securing the global free flow of data has been pursued ever since the dawn of digital telecommunication in the 1960s and the US has made significant legal efforts to institutionalise it. These efforts have two phases: In the first 1970s and 80s “freedom of information” phase, the legal justification (and contestation) of the global free flow of data hinged on imagining data as information, and its exchange as a practice of liberty. The second phase began in the late 1990s and continues today. In this phase, the free flow of data is aligned with a free-trade agenda in the context of first e-commerce and, starting in the 2000s, through attempts at creating a global public domain of personal data for the platform economy. The global free flow of data is an intrinsic aspect of informational capitalism. Assuming a constitutive, but not commanding role for law in informational capitalism, we conclude that the US attempt at ensuring free flow for its informational corporations is neither an entirely contingent nor a necessary outcome. It is a product of legal imagination.

The road to the Sustainable Development Goals: building global alliances and norms

ABSTRACTSeveral insider accounts of the formation of the Sustainable Development Goals suggest that the process (the procedures used and the emergent organizational and governance system features) was as important as the resulting goal-set. The paper looks at both aspects, and relationships between them: the rising influence of Southern nations (seen in the roles played by Colombia, Brazil, some African countries and the G77); the partial transcendence of traditional inter-bloc negotiation, including through adoption of elements of deliberative decision-making; the major involvement of civil society and business organizations, thanks especially to the IT revolution; the adoption of a goals-targets-indicators frame that has flexibility at national level and implicit reliance on intensive further civil society activism and monitoring. The paper considers these features and the implied prospects for the SDGs in relation to various perspectives on global governance, with special reference to norm-setting: Ruggie’s concepts of ‘global public domain’ and ‘polycentric global governance’, Risse and Sikkink’s ‘norms cascade’, Murphy’s posited required elements for progressive global innovation, and Raskin’s model of transition through responses to crises. It concludes with questions for further work, including regarding the possibly problematic absence of an explicit inspirational value-core.

From a Stark Utopia to Everyday Utopias

This article considers the emergence of the Business and Human Rights agenda at the United Nations (UN). It argues that the agenda can be seen as an example of the UN Human Rights Council attempting to institutionalise everyday utopias within an emerging global public domain. Utilising the concept of embedded pragmatism and tracing the underlying rationale for the emergence of the agenda to the work of Karl Polanyi, the article argues that the Business and Human Rights agenda seeks to institutionalise human rights due diligence processes within transnational corporations in order to create a pragmatic alternative to the stark utopia of laissez-faire liberal markets. It then provides an analytical account of the implications of human rights due diligence for the modes and techniques business utilises to assess human rights harm. It argues that due to the constraints imposed by the concept of embedded pragmatism and the normative indeterminacy of human rights, the Business and Human Rights agenda risks instituting human rights within the corporation through modes and techniques that maintain human rights as a language of crisis, rather than creating the space for novel, everyday utopias to emerge.

State Governance, Global Governance and the Construction of World Order

State governance and global governance are two intertwining aspects in the construction of world order. A peaceful, prosperous and equitable world order encompasses internal order of sovereign states and international order of the international systems. Effective state governance nurtures internal order of sovereign states, eschews internal disorder, and prevents the spillover of negative externality into the international systems. In this sense, state governance is the cornerstone for constructing world order. In the meantime, effective global governance constructs world order and assists sovereign states in constructing internal order. In the construction of world order, different actors in the international systems represented by sovereign states inter alia must cooperate with a view to dissolving conflicts of interests and policies among states, managing global public domain, responding to common challenges and sharing responsibilities in assisting internally disordered states to govern effectively. Since the reform and opening up, China has contributed its distinctive part to the construction of world order by means of responsible state governance and global partnership governance.

Life in the Global Public Domain: Response to Commentaries on the UN Guiding Principles and the Proposed Treaty on Business and Human Rights

This paper addresses the foundational logics of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and comments on the recent decision by the UN Human Rights Council to commence treaty negotiations on this subject. As the author of the Guiding Principles, the paper reiterates the important contributions of Amartya Sen to my understanding of human rights. Sen insists that human rights are much more than laws’ antecedents or progeny. Indeed, he states, such a view threatens to “incarcerate” the social logics and processes other than law that drive public recognition of rights. My work, including the Guiding Principles, has sought to contribute to the freeing of human rights discourse and practice from these conceptual shackles, by drawing on the interests, capacities and engagement of states, market actors, civil society, and the intrinsic power of ideational and normative factors. Moreover, now that negotiations on an international legal instrument are about to commence, my sole concerns are that they build on what has already been achieved, not undermine it; and that the effort be meaningful and actionable where it matters most: not in legal treatises, journals of ethics, or the mesmerizing effects that the word “binding” has on the critical faculties of many committed activists, but in the daily lives of people — and not in some far-off promised future that may or may not ever materialize, but starting in the here and now.

A Game Change in Global Health: The Best Is Yet to Come.

Health will continue to gather strength as a global public domain if it links itself strategically with other transnational agendas and strengthens its political ability to produce global public goods for health. Three new political spaces offer opportunities to take the global health agenda a significant step forward: the emerging new development paradigm, the post-2015 debates at the United Nations and the dynamics created through the increasing trans-border health challenges the World Health Organization (WHO) must deal with under conditions of globalization. Presently there are concerns whether the major initiatives that have boosted global health in the last 20 years will continue to grow and attract sufficient funding. But the more pertinent question is whether they are still suited to address the major concerns global health faces between now and 2030. In addition many of the global health challenges can only be addressed through actions in sectors other than health and by facing the inherently political nature of health as well as strong opposition from parts of the private sector. A well-financed and rules based governance system — adapted to complex multilateralism — is needed to manage, complement and integrate the many issue-based initiatives. The next era of global health will be judged by its political capacity to ensure global health security, build universal health coverage, address the commercial determinants of non-communicable diseases and reduce global health inequalities. This will require a focus on producing global public goods for health (GPGH) through strong international organizations, in particular the WHO, supported by governments who have the political will and the institutional capacity to practice smart sovereignty, reach beyond the heath sector and engage with non-state actors.

Writing otherwise: A critical cosmopolitan approach to reflecting on writing and reading practices in fiction and non-fiction

In reaction to the opening up or redrawing of the world’s borders – virtual and real, material and ideological –the language of conventional western political communication seems to become increasingly dogmatic and even strident. In this paper, I argue that critical cosmopolitanism provides a framework within which students, teachers, researchers and practitioners can explore contemporary issues represented in the writing of literary fiction as a means of critiquing the limited and limiting vision of such political writing. I outline a critica lcosmopolitan orientation to approaching, practising and reviewing writing practices in the global public domain, primarily an ethical and relational endeavour, alert to writers’ obligations to (often distant and unknown) others, as well as to the complexity and ambivalence of those relationships. The paper then explores how Lloyd Jones novel, Hand me down world, serves to trouble the text of the Australian Government’s ‘No topeople smuggling’ campaign. As a means of disrupting its (non-fiction) other, fiction writing can offer us ethical, political and aesthetic insights into imagining alternative relations between subjects situated within and moving across shifting borders.

Applicability of global public domain data versus local detailed data for distributed hydrological modelling: a study form Gin river basin Sri Lanka

This study investigates the applicability of global public domain data versus local detailed data for distributed hydrological modelling using a case study approach. Major hydrological characteristics in Gin river basin are simulated in the study by applying the distributed hydrological model, YHyM/BTOPMC (University of Yamanashi Distributed Hydrological Model with Block-wise use of TOPMODEL and Muskingum-Cunge method) utilizing the global public domain data sets (Case 1) and local detailed data sets (Case 2). Evaluation of the model outputs for Case 1 and Case 2 shows that the overall hydrological behavior of the Gin river basin is adequately simulated by the model for both Case 1 and Case 2. The simulated average annual discharge volumes in Case 1 and Case 2 at Agaliya during 2002–2006, vary from the observed average annual discharge volume by +4.25 and +1.31 %, respectively. In general, simulated daily discharge in Case 1 shows slightly higher value than that of Case 2 resulting a difference of 0.9 m3/s during 2002–2006, on average. The relative differences between the simulated daily discharges in Case 1 and Case 2 become higher during the recession limbs of the flow hydrographs at Agaliya. Reasons for these variations are being discussed in the study. The results of the study give motivation towards the use of global public domain data for hydrologic simulations in data-poor (limited availability of local data) basins.

Pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines – social integration and ethical CSR resolution of a global public choice problem

This article argues that effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational pharmaceutical companies in developing countries should reflect context, opportunity, proximity, time and impact in accordance with the social integration and ethical approaches to CSR. It proposes a CSR model expressed as CSR=COPTI+SI+E, which acknowledges access-to-medicines as a matter in the global public domain, a public choice problem and a moral responsibility issue for multinational pharmaceutical companies. This model recognises the globalisation of the principle of humanity in communities of place and communities of interest as highlighted by the Global Economic Ethic Manifesto 2009 as an integral part of the responsibilities of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The model reflects a global application of the concept of disadvantaged consumer already known to some national laws. The article suggests an access-to-medicines CSR framework for pharmaceutical companies which may include pricing, patents, testing and clinical trials, research and development, joint public private initiative and appropriate use of drugs.

An Application of Distributed Hydrological Model, YHyM/BTOPMC to Gin Ganga Watershed, Sri Lanka

Modelling approach is a useful tool which provides information on spatial distribution of basin hydrologic components. In that context distributed hydrological models play a vital role in efficient planning and managing water resources systems. But their applications are partly limited due to the requirement of large amount of data which are not always available and difficulties in obtaining such data due to bureaucratic constraints. Global public domain data sets have become increasingly available on the internet and it is appropriate to make use of such data which can often be supplemented for ground-based data. The objective of this study is to investigate the applicability of the distributed hydrological model, YHyM/BTOPMC to simulate the major hydrological characteristics in Gin ganga watershed utilizing the global data sets readily available in public domain along with the local available rainfall and discharge data. Gin ganga is a river which is one of the main sources of water supply to the southern region of Sri Lanka. It’s catchment entirely lies within the wet zone of the country and frequently subjected to flooding during the rainy seasons. Hence, it is vital to comprehend the hydrology of the watershed in order to gain knowledge on current and future hydrological conditions. In the study, YHyM/BTOPMC model performance was evaluated by the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (E) and the volume ratio of simulated discharge to observed discharge (Vr). The results show that the overall hydrological behaviour of the Gin ganga watershed is adequately simulated by the model. Further the results are discussed in the context of how the model simulation results replicate the temporal variation of basin hydrological characteristics such as ground water saturation deficit, soil moisture states, base flow etc.

Human Rights, Transnational Corporations and Embedded Liberalism: What Chance Consensus?

This article contextualises current debates over human rights and transnational corporations. More specifically, we begin by first providing the background to John Ruggie’s appointment as ‘Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises’. Second, we provide a brief discussion of the rise of transnational corporations, and of their growing importance in terms of global governance. Third, we introduce the notion of human rights, and note some difficulties associated therewith. Fourth, we refer to Ruggie’s scholarly work on ‘embedded liberalism’, the ‘global public domain’ and ‘social constructivism’. Following this, we refer to the other five papers contained in this Journal of Business Ethics special issue, ‘Spheres of Influence/Spheres of Responsibility: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights’, and consider some of the potential obstacles to Ruggie’s recent suggestion that a ‘new consensus’ has formed, or is forming, around his ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ framework. We conclude by raising questions regarding the processes of consensus-building around, and the operationalisation of, Ruggie’s ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ framework.

Global maskanda, global music historiography? Some preliminary enquiries

Maskanda is increasingly being sold and appreciated as ‘world music’ outside South Africa. Thus, maskanda’s narratives, symbols and signs that served the particular purpose of Zulu identity formation in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa now enter a global public domain. In this international context, ‘Zuluness’ seems to be a token for even vaguer constructions of ‘Africanness’ in which long-standing aesthetic ideals and fantasies are embedded. Archetypes such as the ‘wandering musician’, and qualifications of music as central to the oral transmission of heritage powerfully exert their influence on the commercial dynamics of global ‘world music’ markets, and they all prominently feature representations of maskanda. The article reveals how these fantasies can be retraced to European as well as Zulu traditions of musical thought. By describing these traditions as part of a shared history, rather than as disparate ones, the author intends to ‘indigenise’ European aesthetics as just some of many intellectual traditions in the world, in the hope of arriving at a global historiographical discourse in which musicologists from various parts of the world have a more equal opportunity to frame (their) local traditions on their own terms and in their own languages.

Global principles for sustainable biofuel production and trade

This article examines international attempts to regulate the production of and trade in biofuels by establishing criteria and indicators and certification schemes. It focuses on the norms underlying the criteria and the community constructed on the basis of them. The theoretical approach here rests on a discussion of these norms and on their constitutive role. This role creates a community and gives an institutional basis for the global public domain. Accordingly, different norms create the network on which environmental governance is based. It is assumed that commonly accepted criteria form a common norm. The article analyses eleven criteria and indicator systems and compares the criteria adopted. Eight were created for biofuels and bioenergy and three are used in forest certification. Comparison reveals that the criterion aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is used in Northern systems, whereas commonly accepted environmental criteria are biodiversity and minimization of pollution. The web of norms on which biofuel production and trade is based comprises environmental norms together with the general norm of sovereignty and the norms of the market economy.

What enables innovation in the private sector? Lessons from the development of salt‐tolerant hybrid rice

AbstractUnder what circumstances can a private company succeed in developing new crops? This paper examines the experience of an Indian seed company that sought to use an advanced new technology (molecular breeding) to develop a salt‐tolerant form of hybrid rice. It demonstrates that the company's success was made possible by its effective linkages with national and international institutions, which mean that the company received indispensable inputs to its work; namely DNA sequence data from the global public domain and germplasm from the Indian public sector. Provision of these inputs was not mediated by a market system: indeed, recent changes that tend to make such interactions subject to market forces, notably the commodification of germplasm, have increased transaction costs and been a source of inefficiency. At the same time, the internal characteristics of different parts of the firm meant that (i) a number of technically demanding tasks were successfully completed; but (ii) progress was slower than could reasonably have been expected and (iii) at one point the project suffered a severe setback. These experiences confirm the innovation systems framework and also highlight the critical importance of the internal culture of a firm in determining success or failure in innovation. Interestingly, they also demonstrate that key aspects of organisational culture may vary between different parts of the same company. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

New Rights Advocacy in a Global Public Domain

Social and economic policy decisions are increasingly being taken in a global public domain in which national/transnational boundaries are blurred, and the `public' domain includes non-state actors. We argue that a new rights advocacy, advancing economic and social human rights as well as civil and political, is essential to understanding rule-making in the global public domain. New rights advocacy involves traditional human rights and development NGOs, social movement organizations and new `hybrid' organizations, in using human rights standards and methods to influence states, international organizations, and corporations. The new patterns of NGO engagement are studied through case studies of advocacy on HIV/AIDS and on the right to water. New rights advocacy constitutes a direct challenge to development orthodoxy, suggests a new interpretation of the social movements protesting globalization, and manifests a complex relationship between NGOs and poor country governments, in which NGOs often advocate on behalf of these governments' sovereign rights to set economic and social policy.

Towards development of a high quality public domain global roads database

There is clear demand for a global spatial public domain roads data set with improved geographic and temporal coverage, consistent coding of road types, and clear documentation of sources. The currently best available global public domain product covers only one-quarter to one-third of the existing road networks, and this varies considerably by region. Applications for such a data set span multiple sectors and would be particularly valuable for the international economic development, disaster relief, and biodiversity conservation communities, not to mention national and regional agencies and organizations around the world. The building blocks for such a global product are available for many countries and regions, yet thus far there has been neither strategy nor leadership for developing it. This paper evaluates the best available public domain and commercial data sets, assesses the gaps in global coverage, and proposes a number of strategies for filling them. It also identifies stakeholder organizations with an interest in such a data set that might either provide leadership or funding for its development. It closes with a proposed set of actions to begin the process.

Reconstituting the Global Public Domain — Issues, Actors, and Practices

This article draws attention to a fundamental reconstitution of the global public domain — away from one that for more than three centuries equated the ‘public’ in international politics with sovereign states and the interstate realm to one in which the very system of states is becoming embedded in a broader and deepening transnational arena concerned with the production of global public goods. One concrete instance of this transformation is the growing significance of global corporate social responsibility initiatives triggered by the dynamic interplay between civil society actors and multinational corporations. The UN Global Compact and corporate involvement in HIV/AIDS treatment programs are discussed as examples. The analytical parameters of the emerging global public domain are defined and some of its consequences illustrated by the chain of responses to the Bush Administration’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol by a variety of domestic and transnational social actors.

SHIBBOLETH AND SAML: AT LAST, A VIABLE GLOBAL STANDARD FOR RESOURCE ACCESS MANAGEMENT

The library and publishing communities have used various imperfect solutions for the management of access to online resources, but now Shibboleth and an infrastructure based on it look set to become a global public domain standard that has been designed to meet all the requirements. This paper reviews the business issues of access management, briefly describes common mechanisms currently in use, and explains what Shibboleth is and how it works. Britain is one of several countries planning for and investing in Shibboleth for use by its’ national academic community by providing programme funding of over £7 million for technology development projects and infrastructure support. To conclude the history of progress to date with this rapidly moving work is outlined.