Non-state Sources Research Articles

Social protection, food security and sustaining households during COVID-19: Experiences of single mothers residing in Umkhanyakude, South Africa

This study examines the relationship between access to state cash transfers, food security and the sustainability of single-mother households in the rural Umkhanyakude Municipal area in Kwa-Zulu Natal province, South Africa. We explored the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and cash transfers as a primary contributor to the economic well-being of single mothers from low-income rural communities. We also focus on financial transfers from non-state sources such as non-governmental organisations, kin and non-kin support systems. The sustainable livelihoods framework provides an analytical tool to understand how cash transfers from the state enable single mothers to navigate challenges during the pandemic. Drawing on interviews with 16 women from a rural community in Umkhanyakude, we analyse the distribution of family income to meet household expenses and the survival strategies such as livelihood activities initiated by single mothers to sustain households. The challenges and constraints that limit their livelihood outcomes, such as menial state support and financial constraints to sustain their economic activities are highlighted. Three key themes are discussed in this paper: the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on food security, cash transfers as a strategy for reducing food insecurity, and access to sustainable livelihood activities to reduce food insecurities. This paper contributes to understanding single mothers' roles as actors and beneficiaries of the South African social protection system. It highlights opportunities for various state and non-state agents to advocate and support self-initiated economic activities in single-mother households.

Особенности финансирования спорта в Бразилии

The article presents an analysis of the sports financing system in Brazil. The state and non-state sources and main areas of financing are considered, as well as the distinctive features of the Brazilian sports financing system are identified. The high role of lottery revenues among sources of sports financing is noted. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the mechanism of indirect financing, implemented in the form of tax incentives for sponsors and benefactors who direct funds to sports. It is concluded that the Brazilian experience can be useful for Russia in terms of regulation and practice of implementing the mechanism of tax incentives for sports support, as well as the management and distribution of lottery revenues.

Forecasting the Impact of the Structure of Financing Sources on the Results of Production Activity in Agriculture

The study conducted to assess the impact of the source of financing on the results of production activities of small and medium-sized businesses in agriculture in Kazakhstan is presented in the article. When building the model, the authors used the method of correlation and regression analysis, including calculations of pairwise regression, as well as the method of building statistical equations. Statistical data on the volume of financing of SMEs in agriculture by way of own funds, government resources (concessional lending, subsidies, and leasing), and non-state sources of financing such as borrowed funds from banks, microfinance organizations, credit partnerships, and leasing companies were used as the factors. Firstly, the results of the study showed that such factors as bank lending and leasing financing by private companies do not have a significant impact on production volumes. Secondly, of all the factors analyzed, the greatest impact on gross output was made by financing by microfinance organizations and credit partnerships, which determines and indicates the need for the development of non-state sources of financing. Thirdly, a comprehensive approach combining state financial support as well as available non-state financial resources is needed to achieve the strategic objectives of economic development and ensure the required level of food security.

Spherically-symmetric non-static solutions of Einstein’s equations

In this paper, we considered non-static vacuum spherically symmetric solutions of the Einstein equations and harmonicity conditions in the coordinate system with a non-zero space-time component in the metric. For the case of the weak field, a particular solution of the approximate equations was obtained, which corresponds to a nonstatic source whose boundary moves with a constant speed. For the exact Einstein’s equations we obtained a wave-type solution, determined by two implicitly specified functions, depending on the retarded argument and on the radial coordinate, respectively. The connection between these solutions and the Birkhoff theorem is discussed.

Pro-liberalism vs. Nationalism: how critical opinion leaders challenge the persuasive effect of propaganda in China

In Chinese cyberspace, mass media and opinion leaders struggle over socio-political discourses. While the former propagates positive views on national policies, the latter often expresses dissenting opinions that challenge authoritarian rule. In the context of China–US competition, do citizens still perceive non-state sources as more credible? Taking the Belt and Road Initiative as the issue, this experimental study investigates how Chinese netizens process conflicting information from a government-owned news agency and two opinion leaders with varying levels of source credibility. Our findings reveal that high-credibility propagandistic news is effective, whereas low-credibility propaganda is not. Furthermore, an opinion leader perceived as independent surpasses government propaganda in influence, regardless of information credibility. However, when an opinion leader is perceived as backed by a rival nation, the former’s influence is counterproductive unless their message credibility exceeds that of propaganda. This study sheds light on the prevalence of nationalistic sentiment in China, which has raised concerns about the manipulation of Chinese netizens by hostile forces.

Управління фінансуванням державного бюджету в аспекті співпраці України з МВФ

Introduction. During the war, the tasks of implementing new approaches to managing operations involving the attraction and use of resources within the framework of state budget financing arose. At the same time, the risks of maintaining financial stability and debt sustainability intensified. The resolution of these issues became the subject of cooperation between the state administration bodies of Ukraine and the IMF. Problem Statement. The gaps between the growing expenses of the state budget and their revenue coverage have increased. The result was an increase in the burden on the financing of the state budget, which required making significant changes to the sources of attracting funds and the mechanisms for their implementation. Purpose. Conducting an analysis of changes in the management of the state budget financing of Ukraine during the war in the aspect of Ukraine's cooperation with the IMF. Methods. An analysis of state budget financing during the war and overcoming its consequences was carried out. The main tasks, sources and mechanisms of state budget financing are revealed. The problems of resource attraction from the domestic financial market, as well as financing from external sources, are highlighted. Results. At the initial stage of the war, budget expenditures were significantly increased and changes were made to their structure. At the same time, deficit indicators increased, and its coverage was provided by budget financing operations. Due to the high risks of increasing the non-debt resource (on the basis of privatization and active operations), there arose a need of increasing state borrowing. During the use of internal resources, monetary financing was allowed, which had a negative impact on the dynamics of macroeconomic indicators. External debt obligations are provided on preferential terms and have a long-term nature. The use of such financing made it possible to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability in Ukraine, but was accompanied by an increase in public debt indicators. It is noted that the allocation of domestic state borrowing needs to be reviewed, and external financial assistance is subject to changes in the direction of rationalization and replacement by internal financing. Conclusions. Measures developed within the framework of cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF allow to ensure budgetary capacity and debt sustainability. In order to strengthen them, it is proposed to increase the volume of non-debt resources for financing the budget, to replace monetary financing with non-state sources of its provision, to adopt programs for the gradual restoration of fiscal rules, as well as access to international capital markets, to make changes to the attraction of financial assistance (gradual replacement of it by other sources), adjusting the strategic principles of public debt management, taking into account the effects of the war and the needs of post-war recovery.

Climate Change and Revisiting Security from Traditional State-Centric to Human Security and Beyond

Traditional security premised on state and its military apparatus has got itself emasculated in the face of continuing emergence of new kind of threats from the non-traditional and nonstate centric sources. Climate change and deepening environmental crisis along with other crises like demographic change, incidence of poverty, and rise of fatal and dangerous diseases have already thrown down the gauntlet to the realist paradigm of security built on state. Out of all these what stands out as the greatest threat to entire humankind is the climate change with all its devastating consequences like global warming, sea level rise, floods, cyclones and storms not only killing and uprooting poor people from their homeland etc. but also dragging people into an unsafe, insecure and sepulchral uncertainty of life. The answer to the fundamental question of survival and security and of providing a dignified way of life to the individuals was tried to be found out in various world summits on climate change from Kyoto to Paris summit but it was not sufficient to keep the temperature of the earth down at 1.5 degree Celsius at the pre industrial level by reducing emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as agreed to by the world leaders. Climate change inextricably connected with security and development based on fossil fuels necessitates a rethinking that urges upon all to view the earth, both animate and inanimate not mechanically as mere instruments to redound to human wellbeing, security and primrose way of life but they are co-constitutive of each other’s life tied in the web of togetherness or being together as propounded by the proponents of worldly security.

The Ottoman archive and methodological Ottomanism in the history of Iraq

This article explores how Ottoman sources can help us reconsider geographies of belonging in the history of Iraq. Focusing on two figures often excluded from conventional histories of Iraq – Mubārak al-Ṣabāḥ of Kuwait, and Khaz‘al bin Jābir of Muḥammara – it investigates how late imperial belonging was tied to the consolidation of property in land and how the political economy of land was tied to an emerging international system. The article reads these sources alongside non-state sources to understand how competing conceptions of Ottoman space and identity together shaped political and economic belonging in the ‘Gulf of Basra’. At the same time, the article argues that historians should be wary of the pitfalls of ‘methodological Ottomanism’ in using the Ottoman past to rewrite the histories of Ottoman Iraq. The ‘Ottoman’ should be treated as an open question, and bringing together multiple Ottoman archives is one way to do that.

Implications of the Selection of Islamic Law in European Private International Law

The English Court of Appeal in Beximco v. Shamil Bank chose to apply only English law in a breach of contract case, even though the choice of law clause in the contract at issue also selected Islamic law. The court cited three main reasons for this decision. First, article 3(1) of the Rome I Convention “contemplates” that a contract can be governed only by the “law of a country,” and there is no mention of the application of a “non-national system of law such as Sharia law.” Second, Islamic law does not consist of “principles of law” but instead a system of principles which “apply to other aspects of life and behaviour.” Third, even if Islamic law was interpreted to include principles of law, there is no consensus among the Islamic legal community as to what they would be when applied to a financial transaction. As this note will demonstrate, none of these arguments should hold weight in a contemporary European Member State court. For one thing, the court’s ruling is not consistent with the implications of the 2008 Rome I Regulation (“the Regulation” or “the Rome I Regulation”), which updates the Rome I Convention (“the Convention” or “the Rome I Convention”), both of which regulate choice of law issues in the European Union (“EU”). Although the Rome I Regulation was passed four years after the Shamil Bank decision, the content and legislative history of the Regulation suggest that it should be understood to support the validity of non-state sources of law like Islamic law. For another, the Shamil Bank decision misconstrued the nature of Islamic law. Islamic law’s approach to financial issues is demonstrably specific enough to enforce, as is evidenced by the fact that international arbitration proceedings have no difficulty enforcing choice of law clauses which select Islamic law. The weaknesses of the court’s arguments are not the only reason that future European Member State courts should not follow the reasoning of the Shamil Bank decision. In a global system that is trending toward prioritizing party autonomy, as evidenced by the Rome I Regulation and The Hague Principles on Choice of Law in International Contracts (“the Hague Principles”), European Member State court systems should be more open-minded about enforcing the legal systems that parties choose to rely upon in negotiating and drafting their contracts. This is especially true when the contract at issue selects both state law and non-state law, as was the case in Shamil Bank. If parties choose, as they did in that contract, to apply English law “in the spirit” of Islamic law, it would be disrespectful of their autonomy—and would materially alter the nature of the bargain they have entered into—for the court to choose to apply only English law, as the English Court of Appeal did. This is not to say that courts should be forced to apply parties’ selection of all types of non-state law, only those systems that are demonstrably specific enough to administer, as Islamic law is. This note will contend that even though no European Member State court has dealt with the application of Islamic law directly since the 2004 Shamil Bank decision, to the best of this author’s knowledge, if the issue were to arise again, courts should not follow the reasoning of the Shamil Bank decision.

ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ ОСНОВИ СЛУЖБОВИХ ВІДРЯДЖЕНЬ

Nowadays, it is impossible to imagine the activities of any enterprise, institution or organization without sending their employees on business trips. Business trips are work trips, in relation to which a number of practical questions always arise: both regarding their implementation and accounting. In view of this, a thorough normative and legal framework for the organization of business trips should be created, which would fully cover the entire range of problematic issues regarding their organization and accounting. To date, the legal framework governing business trips is scattered across various legal acts, which does not allow to fully establish the theoretical foundations of the organization of business trips. Also, an important aspect of this regulatory framework is that its norms apply only to enterprises, institutions and organizations that are fully or partially financed by the state, which does not cover the legal regulation of enterprises with non-state sources of financing. In view of this, an important aspect of this study is the establishment of the theoretical foundations of business trips, which would equally cover both business trips in the state and non-state economic sectors. In this article, the author analyzes the existing approaches to the definition of the concept of "business trip", comes to a conclusion about their inaccuracy and subjectivism in the formulation. The author offers his own definition of the studied concept, on the basis of which he outlines the peculiarities of business trips through the disclosure of the latter's features. The author also establishes the classification aspects of the division of business trips into types. The author notes that the existing normative theoretical definition of the concept of a business trip and the basic principles of organization of business trips within Ukraine have certain gaps in regulation, in particular, the most problematic aspect is the irregularity of business trips in non-state enterprises. As a result of the study, the author states the need for normative consolidation of the established theoretical foundations of official business trips to the same extent both in the application to organizations of the public and private sectors of operation.

Healthcare of South Korea

South Korea is one of the most developed Asian states, located in the northeastern part of the Asian continent. This country has a powerful economy and highly developed industry, being one of the world's major suppliers of computer technology. Korean statehood traces its history from the 4th-3rd centuries BC, when the country was under the control of the Japanese Empire. As a result of the Second World War, Korea was divided into the northern part, controlled by the USSR, and the southern part, under US patronage. The Republic of Korea was founded on August 15, 1948, after which the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea) was proclaimed on the territory of the Soviet zone on September 9. The subsequent Korean War, which lasted for three years (1950-1953), only consolidated the division of the country. Over the 70 years of its existence, South Korea has achieved tremendous economic progress, and the changes could not but affect the health sector. Despite the fact that compared to other highly developed countries, South Korea spends not so much on the development of medicine — about 7.6 % of GDP, this figure is slowly but steadily growing. More than half of the capital that goes to meet the needs of the healthcare system is of private origin. In addition to compulsory medical insurance, which covers 96 % of the country's population, non-state sources of funding include the system of voluntary medical insurance, payment for treatment received, as well as funds from charitable foundations. On average, each Korean spends about 5 % of their income on healthcare annually.

Lex petrolea, globalization and the future of private international law

This article analyzes the interrelationships of three levels of regulation of cross-border activities in the oil and gas sector: non-state sources of lex petrolea, national and international law. Among the current trends, the author notes the rapid development of the transnational normative plane due to he«denationalization» of law; the process of«materialization» and its impact on the blurring of the boundaries between public and private law; the transformation of the methodology and functions of classical private international law. The central hypothesis is that the globalization of all sectors of the economy provokes the spontaneous growth of flexible, neutral, non-national «rules of law» that are convenient for direct application, bypassing the appeal to national legislation through the system of conflict of laws, which to a certain extent is a «leap into the unknown». It is predicted that in the future, private international law may lose its former importance as the main tool for solving the conflict of laws problem.

Remaking higher education for the post‐COVID‐19 era: Critical reflections on marketization, internationalization and graduate employment

This Special Issue was conceived and developed following a series of international conferences held in Asia, with a particular focus on critically reflecting upon higher education development in the region from broader social and political economy perspectives. Some of the papers in this Special Issue were selected from presentations in the East Asia Social Policy (EASP) Research Network Conference successfully held in Taiwan in 2018, while others were chosen from international events held at Lingnan University in Hong Kong presenting critical reviews and reflections on internationalization, marketization and graduate employment of higher education in Asia. This introductory article puts the discussions of the selected papers in this issue in context, with critical reflections on the key issues being examined in these papers. The Special Issue is published when the world is still confronting the unprecedented global health crisis resulted from the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article discusses the higher education development trends in Asia through the massification, diversification and internationalisation processes in transforming the higher education system and examines how these development trends are affected by the COVID‐19 crisis.

Підприємницький потенціал внутрішньо переміщених осіб: механізми залучення та використання

The information and analytical support of the entrepreneurial activity of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is analyzed. There is a lack of statistical accounting of the number of actually relocated businesses, IDP entrepreneurs from the Crimea and Donbass. The needs and problems of these displaced persons do not have a quantitative and qualitative dimension. There is no information on the regional distribution of resettlement of IDP entrepreneurs. The main problems and obstacles of IDP entrepreneurship have been identified. They are limited opportunities for self-employment, rehabilitation, start-up and development of SMEs and micro-entrepreneurship of IDPs in places of relocation. The state does not compensate for the loss of the ability of IDP entrepreneurs to continue their business activities due to partial or complete destruction of fixed assets, lack of business support programs, inability to obtain loans for resumption of activities and limited access to financial resources, etc. The priority directions of preservation, support and development of entrepreneurial potential of IDPs are offered, which are directed on maintenance of social justice concerning realization of the rights, freedoms and guarantees of IDP-entrepreneurs; creation of favorable institutional, legal, financial and economic, information and communication conditions for the restoration and development of IDP business; providing ample opportunities for IDP entrepreneurs to obtain loans and fixed assets, etc. The advantages of non-state sources of support for IDPs' business activities are revealed. These are international lending instruments: investment financing, reorientation of existing projects; international grant funding; international technical assistance. It has been proven that social entrepreneurship is an effective option for using the entrepreneurial potential of IDPs. The institutional, legal, financial and economic mechanisms of the state regulatory policy for the development of SMEs in Ukraine regarding IDPs have been identified. The need to establish partnership and coordination networks between the public, public and private sectors is noted. Strategic directions of formation of entrepreneurial potential of IDPs for regional and local development are offered.

The improvement of the investment attractiveness of industrial enterprises in the convention of the COVID-19 pandemic

In this article we consider the directions of increasing the investment attractiveness of the holding’s industrial enterprises in the COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In today's challenging industrial environment, most companies need to raise additional funds to pursue an active anti-crisis and investment policy. At the same time, while determining the potential object of investment resources, an investor focuses on the investment attractiveness of the enterprise and the region as a whole. The main tendencies for increasing the efficiency of the investment activity at the state and regional levels are developed. The basic methods of regulation of investment processes, the priority directions of use of the state and non-state sources of financing are determined. The main factors hindering the processes of the investment activity are summarized. The priority tasks for the reform of administrative mechanisms at the enterprise level are identified. Therefore, there is a need to consider ways to increase the investment attractiveness of enterprises in modern conditions.

Can Intergovernmental Organizations Be Peacebuilders in Intra-State War?

ABSTRACT This article examines the sources of authority of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) conducting peacebuilding independently of peace operations. Expanding Inis Claude’s notion of the two identities of the UN, the article suggests re-imagining the state/non-state divide in international organization by distinguishing between governmental and non-governmental sources of authority, rather than between different types of organizations. Similar to international non-governmental organizations, IGOs depend on moral and expert credibility as non-state sources of authority in peacebuilding. This reliance and the in-built pro-government bias curtail their ability to engage in transformative peacebuilding, rendering it likely that IGO interventions contribute to maintaining existing power imbalances.

Potential of development of the professional (technical and vocational) educational services market in Ukraine

Potential of development of the professional (technical and vocational) educational services market in Ukraine

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ КУЛЬТУРНОЇ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА: СИНЕРГЕТИЧНИЙ ПІДХІД

The article attempts to outline the essence of transformation processes in Ukrainian culture. Analyzed are both positive and negative phenomena in the cultural sphere of modern Ukrainian society. The analysis of culture from the point of view of a synergistic approach, which is based on the provisions of holism, the recognition of the integrity of culture as its immanent property, is supported thanks to and despite differentiation and integration, changes in instability and stability, qualitative changes associated with the emergence of new formations and the preservation of traditional foundations in culture. It is noted that the likelihood of the emergence of new cultural forms and institutions of culture is still not guaranteed to overcome social instability. The level of chaos and risk increases in a situation of changes in the external context for the socio-cultural organism and corresponding changes in culture in society. It is substantiated that the dialectical connection between «chaos and risk», a one-sided interpretation of sociocultural instability arises from an underestimation of the capabilities of culture, many of its components, such as anthropo-socio-cultural systems that self-organize. It has been proved that socio-cultural processes of self-organization allow a certain degree of influence on them, because at one of the stages of development, the «measure of chaos» and «measure of order» are violated, due to which the spontaneity, unstructuredness of changes contribute to the formation of «false attractors» that enhance negative processes and tendencies. Comprehension of the unity of all components of the sociocultural sphere in the integral system of sociocultural reality creates the preconditions for the regulation of contradictory cultural and transformational processes. One of these mechanisms of state regulation is cultural policy. Based on a comparison of the basic principles of cultural policy of Ukraine and the countries of the European Union, it was stated that the latter approve the concepts of «public-private partnership» and «distribution of efforts» between state and non-state sources of funding for culture. One of the main tasks of cultural policy was the desire for democratization, decentralization and development of the cultural life of the population as a whole. In Ukrainian society, the processes of self-organization in culture are activated, there are manifestations of a new social order — civil society and its socio-cultural institutions, a legal state based on democratic principles.

Review essay: Alternative histories of revolutionaries in modern South Asia: context, chronology, and archives

This review essay discusses two recent monographs on revolutionaries and political violence in South Asia, Kama Maclean’s A Revolutionary History of Interwar India: Violence, Image, Voice and Text (2015) and Durba Ghosh’s Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919-1947 (2017). Ghosh and Maclean’s books contribute to an expanding body of scholarly work on anticolonial politics in India, a rich historiography on liberalism in the British Empire, and studies of visual culture and oral histories in modern South Asia. Specifically, Maclean’s A Revolutionary History centers on the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) in Punjab and Delhi in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Maclean reconfigures the political terrain of India’s independence struggle and illustrates the importance of revolutionary violence in nonviolent politics through unstudied visual sources and oral histories. In turn, Ghosh’s Gentlemanly Terrorists focuses on Bengal, particularly revolutionaries in the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar from 1919 to 1947. Complicating the history of colonial constitutionalism as a gradual expansion of rights and representation, Ghosh demonstrates how constitutional reforms that aimed to promote liberal governance in India were tied to repressive emergency legislation. This review essay addresses how Gentlemanly Terrorists and A Revolutionary History contribute to ongoing efforts to rethink both the political chronology and the wider political landscape of interwar India by incorporating revolutionaries into the story of independence. It also considers how Maclean and Ghosh creatively utilize non-state archives and vernacular sources, in conjunction with colonial records, to follow the retelling of revolutionary histories in different media.

Управління фінансовими ресурсами територіальної громади

Висвітлено роль фінансового управління у формуванні місцевої політики розвитку територіальних громад. Показано роль органів місцевої влади у формуванні місцевої політики розвитку території. Сформовано індикатори оцінки ефективності виконання функцій органами місцевої влади. Проведено порівняльний аналіз забезпеченості фінансовими ресурсами об’єднаних територіальних громад. Запропоновано використання порівняльного аналізу для удосконалення управління місцевими фінансами