Rich Societies Research Articles

The Impact of Society on Science

The Impact of Society on Science

The sickening implications of globalization.

The portended collapse of global markets in Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea and the ominous gathering of the U.S. naval fleet in the Persian Gulf make even the most locality-focused worker start reading the Foreign News section of the paper. There is a hauntingly familiar subtext to the reports - not unlike the poignant articles in this special issue of Health & Social Work - that reinforce our concerns that racist and exploitative attitudes underlie the behavior of the world's rich and powerful toward the health and well-being of women and children worldwide. Globalization is defined as a process of global integration in which diverse peoples, economies, cultures, and political processes are increasingly subjected to international influences, and people are made aware of the role of these influences in their everyday lives (Midgeley, 1997). It includes the emergence of an inclusive worldwide culture, a global economy, and above all, a shared awareness of the world as a single place. Internationalists as diverse as Karl Marx and Woodrow Wilson questioned whether the nation state is the most desirable form of social, cultural, and political organization, and critics such as Noam Chomsky have argued that organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are already de facto governments concerned with protecting the interests of international capitalists to the detriment of nation states and their citizens (Midgeley, 1997). The excesses of the world's trading partners, the wealthy businesses and powerful governments that control the world's economic system, appear to be structuring this system so that its putative benefits never quite trickle down to all the citizens of the involved countries as was promised. To put it in work terms, the world's social rarely keeps up with its economic development (Midgeley, 1997). Inequality is spreading. Wilkinson's (1997) recent book entitled Unhealthy Societies: From Inequity to Well-Being shows how among the developed countries it is not the richest societies that have the best health, but the ones that have the smallest income differences between rich and poor. Inequality and relative poverty quite literally increase death rates. Why? For one, with greater economic inequity, within nations and among nations, comes a host of global threats dangerous for local and indigenous peoples. This article addresses these threats and systems to prevent them. THREATS OF GLOBALIZATION Malnutrition As development swallows lands once used for farming, landless peasants will continue to move to cities, leaving the raising of subject to ever more mechanical and technological approaches and subject to control by international investment capitalists. Of the world's 5.8 billion population, 800 million are significantly undernourished, and fully 3 billion - over half - are deficient in essential micronutrients (United Nations [UN], 1997). Still, one of the successes of increasing world trade is the fact that malnutrition has been declining. Food availability has increased recently in all the world's regions except sub-Saharan Africa. It is hoped that undernutrition worldwide will fall to 12 percent by 2010. The prevalence of malnutrition, however, is highly uneven within and among countries, and improvements can disappear very quickly. The United States, one of the richest countries in the world, for example, had been doing quite well nutritionally for the past decade by expanding the Food Stamp program, but last year's cuts in Food Stamps are dramatically reversing this progress. The Center on Hunger, Poverty, and Nutrition Policy at Tufts University recently reported that 12 percent of American households are food insecure. (Sarasohn, 1997). In September 1997 the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 11 million Americans, including 4 million children, lived in households categorized as moderately or severely hungry (Sarasohn, 1997). …

Solving Equations in a Technological Environment

What is it that a rich society owes to its citizens? Not, I think, warehousing under the pretext that they are in “ninth-grade algebra or learning Macbeth,” but something far deeper, more valuable, more personal, more meaningful. When a student is bored, I do not think it is necessarily a failure of the student, nor of the teacher, but more often a failure of the curriculum. (Davis 1994, 318)

Visualizing corporate data

Corporate databases have been recognized as strategic assets, and a successful corporation will make full use of its data resources to gain competitive advantage to better manage its business. Visualization is a key technology for extracting information from data, therefore, it is becoming increasingly important in our information rich society. It complements other analytic, model based approaches and exploits human pattern perception. Visualization can help users to navigate and explore the fast-growing number of data warehouses far more easily, and to rapidly discover the information hidden within volumes of data.

Bioethics in Ibero-America and the Caribbean.

Bioethics has become a field of new challenges for Ibero-America and the Caribbean. A seeming uniformity in the region hides a rich heterogeneous society. A brief survey of bioethical developments in different Ibero-American countries is provided as well as the bioethical problems and approaches peculiar to the region. Some of the unique features of bioethics in this region, it is suggested, could infuse new life into the U.S. and European bioethics discussion. Finally, a bibliography of Ibero-American bioethics literature is provided for North American and European readers.

From a resource rich country to an information rich society: An evaluation of information technology policies in Malaysia

Abstract Malaysia is a resource rich country and a major socio‐economic force in the Asia‐Pacific region. Historically, the economy of Malaysia was based on agriculture and natural resources. In its efforts to transform Malaysia to a developed and industrialized country, the government started to focus on industry and high technology in the 1980s. A key area of focus was Information Technology (IT). The government chose to adopt several policies with respect to the supply and demand sides of IT instead of a national IT plan1. The policies addressed IT infrastructure, education and training, research and development, use of IT in the public sector, and fiscal incentives. These IT policies and the broad economic and industrial policies implemented during this period had a positive influence on demand for IT products and services, number of IT professionals, number of telephones per 100 population, and IT production and use. This experience has laid a firm foundation for formulating more definitive national ...

The changing consumer in Belgium

Centrally located at the cross-roads of the main European Cultures that constitute its roots, Belgium can in many respects be regarded as a miniature Europe. Indeed, most general economic and consumption tendencies that have a grip over Europe, also reign the Belgian society. Yet, Belgium's macro marketing mix exhibits a number of particular characteristics. The remarkably developed retail apparatus and extensive product assortments are typical of a small but rich consumption society. At the same time, promotional expenditures remain modest, and price competition in major sectors is fierce. In view of the future, the foregoing aspects characterize Belgium as a potentially attractive test market for internationally oriented firms. Conversely, it appears to be an interesting commercial arena only for marketers with high cost efficiency, or with superior targeting skills allowing them to cater to the needs of small market segments with considerable purchasing power.

Perception and Acceptance of Technological and Environmental Risks: Why Are Poor Countries Less Concerned?

The research has been aimed at answering two questions: (1) What factors impact perception and acceptance of technological and environmental hazards? (2) Why are rich societies involved more in protecting their environment and health than poor societies? Data has been collected from representative samples of two countries--Poland and Sweden. The results indicate that (1) contrary to earlier findings, the inverse relations between perceived benefits and dangers of hazards has not been observed, (2) acceptance of a risk has been mostly influenced by perceived benefits, (3) rejection of a risk has been mostly influenced by its perceived harmful consequences. Concerning the second question, it has been found that: (1) perceived hazard's danger and benefit is not the only factor that impacts its acceptance, and (2) a broader economic context can impact acceptance (tolerance) of hazards. It has been found that being aware of high dangers and not very high benefits of hazardous activities, Poles still have accepted them. Thus, Poles seem to follow an old proverb: "When one does not have what one likes, one has to like what one has."

Guest Editorial: Education for Information

A US Education Department paper issued in 1988 stated: The world of tomorrow which would usher in an information rich and technology intensive society, calls for new approaches to learning, These words reflect the challenge ahead for educational planners in every branch of knowledge including information.science.The subject of education for information has been the focus of many seminars, workshops and conferences in recent times. Agreement on what is good, necessary and feasible in India is not easy. This is no different from anywhere else in the world.However, before discussing the subject it is necessary to be on firm grounds; to be sure of what we are talking about. Therefore, definitions must come quite early in any discussion on the subject. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dbit.15.6.3207

Harm reduction in the developing world

This paper examines harm reduction from the perspective of poor countries. In considering which elements of the broad approach are suitable for adaptation and adoption by poor countries, there is a need to examine critically the arguments put forth in support of it and which, if any, of these are supported by evidence. There are also significant indirect influences that the approach is likely to have on how drug use is understood and interpreted by wider society. The likely impact of these on areas other than simply services directed to drug users needs to be assessed. There are some features regarding harm caused by alcohol and other drug use that are specific to poor countries. Most important among these is that levels of use which are not deemed to be harmful in rich societies cause grave harm through diverting meagre resources away from survival needs in the poor world. Alcohol, as well as other drugs, tends in deprived settings to cause dependence and other problems much earlier in people's drinking careers and at much lower levels of consumption than in rich countries.

Sierra Leonais, Créoles, Krio: la dialectique de l'identité

The study of phenomena relating to identity has prompted new approaches to the subject on the part of historians as well as anthropologists. They include the study of ethnicity, a dynamic combination of socio-economic, religious, cultural and political factors. In this regard the population of Freetown is particularly interesting, for it stems from several discrete migrations from the end of the eighteenth century onwards. Some of the immigrants came direct from the African continent, ‘Liberated Africans’ disembarked on the Sierra Leone peninsula, while others, formerly slaves, came from the UK, North America or the West Indies. The result of this diversity of origin was the formation of a very rich and specific society, with a mixture of European, African and West Indian characteristics. Among the town dwellers are those called successively Sierra Leoneans, Creoles and Krio.Since the 1950s several studies have focused on these people. After a polemical article published in 1977, new research was undertaken. Krio identity, which is at the same time a historical theme and politically contested territory, remains at the heart of the debate. In this article, emphasis is placed on terminology, to address the question of ‘ethnicity’ as applied to those known as Creoles. What were they called by administrators or historians (past and present)? What did they call themselves? How did they react to the various attempts at categorisation? How did the names, which are the visible aspect of ethnicity, evolve? What did the terms really mean and how can one move from a given name to the object it represents? These questions take into account several points of view, from within Krio/Creole society and from outside it.

Medea and the reformation of the tragic polis

In the period between the Solonic and the Kleisthenic political reforms, tragedy began to emerge, beginning with Thespis and finding full expression in Aeschylus. As hoplite-democracy expressed the power of political legitimacy in unmistakable military victories over the Persians and in the creation of the Athenian Empire, Attic tragedy and its three greatest exponents flourished. No ornament of a newly rich society, tragedy was a substantive part of the development of Athens. Tragedy was the school of Athenian democracy, training its citizens in emerging forms of the political in an era of unprecedented change. Not only did tragedy help to legitimate new forms of decision-making based on new political structures in the face of rapidly changing events, it altered the Homeric warrior ethic to the needs of hoplite-democracy. More reliable and cooperative heroes were needed and in ever greater numbers if Athens were to win and hold its wealth and power to say nothing of its empire. Tragedy educated Athenians to the requirements of reconciling the individual with the needs of the society, the hero with the army, and the household with the state. Euripides, who fully appreciated the possibilities which flowed from the resolution of age-old human dilemmas, including the expansion of freedom, feared that Athens would not continue to develop. He wished to alert Athenians to the need to reform the polis by expanding the freedom of its citizens. It was time to bring women into the political.

A Society without Poverty—The Norwegian Experience

Yes, there is another way. I went to Norway to teach American methods of alcoholism treatment and to learn of life in a welfare state. My stay of almost two years informed me in the way that firsthand experience informs--rudely, indelibly. My family and I have experienced the Norwegian community--the schools, social services, the health care system. And I have come to see how each dimension is connected to every other dimension of the cultural whole. In the high quality of life in Norway is the key to the larger pattern. To the American visitor, the lack of poverty is striking, even puzzling. The outsider is inclined to see what is in terms of what is not: the southerner noting, for instance, the complete absence of palm trees. The Norwegian, meanwhile, is aware neither of the lack of poverty nor the absence of palm trees. To understand the lack of poverty, you have to first understand poverty. And I am speaking of poverty in a rich society, there being no need to explain poverty in the absence of resources. The sociologists of the 1960s conceived of the existence of poverty in a prosperous society as functional for the total community. What were the social functions of poverty? (For a literature review, see Blau, 1988.) Poverty or the threat of poverty provided a steady pool of compliant workers; poverty provided jobs for bureaucrats who were to ameliorate the poverty; the poverty of some provided for a natural division of classes. The existence of poverty in America is consistent with teachings of the Protestant ethic and the survival-of-the-fittest mentality. Whereas Americans think individually, Norwegians tend to think collectively. Whereas Americans value competition, Norwegians value cooperation. The thesis of this article is that poverty persists in the United States because our values say it will persist. It does not persist in Norway because the society chooses not to tolerate it. This article examines the general economic conditions in Norway and views them against the Norwegian cultural context--values of egalitarianism and the collective will, trust in the social system, and above all a tradition of kindness to the weaker members of society. Implications for the United States and for American social workers are drawn. Norwegian Economy Norway is a socialist country in terms of social policy but a capitalist nation in terms of the ownership of business. Because of Norwegian control of North Sea oil industries, a great deal of wealth is available to the nation. This fact helps compensate for the poor agricultural conditions--rocky, mountainous land and a short growing season. Personal income taxes in Norway are among the highest in the world. The higher the income, the higher the percentage of taxes paid. The value-added tax is a sales tax of 20 percent on virtually all items sold. Consequently, food and services are extremely expensive in Norway. Income differences across occupational groups are relatively slight. Virtually no group of employees earns more than twice the average earnings of all employees (Selbyg, 1987). The equalization of income is a reality in Norway. Poverty Official estimates put the percentage of people living in poverty at 16.0 percent in the United States and 4.8 percent in Norway (Zimbalist, 1988). In fact, these figures were based on relative income in each country. My personal impression is that the gap between poverty in the United States and Norway is much higher than the numbers indicate. Even in my work with alcoholics, I did not come across one truly impoverished person. When an individual gets into economic trouble, the state provides help. Statistics on poverty thus do not portray the reality in a cradle-to-grave, highly protective society. Kohlert's (1989) description of the universalism philosophy in welfare is pertinent to Norway. Universalism views those in need as no different from other people. …

L'histoire des toits «dauphinois». Quelques résultats de recherche

Belmont (Alain). — History of the roofs called «toits dauphinois». Some conclusions of a piece of research. Well known in Dauphinê, big roofs with four sides, sharp slope and «scale-tiles», commonly called «toits dauphinois», were supposed to be born of the roofs built in 1676 by Dom Le Masson on the Grande Chartreuse monastery. So they were called for a few years «toits cartusiens». Using construction agreements («prix-faits») written by légal officers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the author shows that in fact those «toits dauphinois» existed as far back as the 16th century, many years before Dom Le Masson, and that they were born of «French» influences of the Loire Valley and Paris area. Very fashionable in the rich society of Dauphiné since the beginning of the 17th century, those roofs were gradually built even by common people, in spite of their high price. Several restraints (a worse climate, laws against thatched roofs, etc.) account for their success in the provinces. The author ends by proposing to stop calling those roofs «toits cartusiens». Le Monde Alpin et rhodanien, 4e trimestre 1994, pp. 7 à 24.

Cohort replacement in industrialised and developing countries: a social impact assessment

This paper tries to link the problem of over-population in developing countries and the greying of richer societies. It is argued that future western generations could profit from increasing actual development aid in the long run. Solidarity between the present labour force in the developed world and younger people in particular in less developed countries will favour both worlds. (EXCERPT)

Why Northern income growth is not the solution to Southern poverty

Decreasing Southern poverty is arguably today's main goal of economic development. The two main views on how this can be achieved are not compatible. The traditional view, held by most economists and development agencies, is not working well. The traditional view is that rich Northern high-consumption societies should consume yet more in order to help the South by providing larger markets. This paper outlines the alternative view: that the North should stabilize its resource consumption and reduce its damage to global life-support systems. Any higher consumption must come from productivity improvements rather than from increased throughput growth. If natural resources were infinite, then growth would be unreservedly good. Since resources are finite, more Northern growth inevitably means less room for Southern growth. For example, the North has consumed much global sink capacity by its CO 2 and CFC emissions. Productivity improvements must replace throughput growth as the path of progress for the North and eventually for the South as well.

World Order and Its Rules: Variations on Some Themes

There are several far-reaching theses about contemporary history that are widely proclaimed in the rich industrial societies of the West. I would like to consider three major ones. The most general thesis is that history is converging towards an ideal of liberal democracy and classical markets. Second, we have just emerged from a cosmic struggle in which these ideals have been vindicated. Third, in the New World Order that is coming into view, the rule of law will at last prevail, under the leadership of the United States of America, the long-time leader of the crusade for freedom, justice, and international law, with Britain always standing sturdily by her side. The Anglo-Saxon powers are now able to enforce the principles of the United Nations Charter to which they have so long been dedicated, in particular, the principle that the threat or use of force cannot be tolerated in international affairs, the founding principle of world order. The response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, made possible by the defeat of the obstructionist Russians, opens the new age of promise. Reality is a bit different. In the real world, democracy and free markets are considered by the rich and powerful to be a threat, a danger to be overcome. The Cold War was real enough, but'should be understood in rather different terms. As for the rule of law, it requires some audacity to take its guardian to be a state that was condemned by the International Court of Justice for its 'unlawful use of force' against Nicaragua; that opened the post-Cold War era, immediately after the fall of the Berlin wall, by invading Panama to install a client regime, vetoing two United Nations Security Council resolutions that condemned its actions (helped by the United Kingdom, to be sure), and disregarding the United Nations General Assembly resolution that denounced the invasion as a 'flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states' and called for the

Drug Addiction And Trafficking In Paraguay: An Approach To The Problem During The Transition

Paraguay and its closest neighbors, the Rio Plata Basin from one point of view or the Southern Cone from another, have experienced an increasing challenge from the drug traffic in recent years. Initially, everything linked to drug use and traffic was considered—in general, much oversimplified terms — mainly as the social problem of a rich society, primarily that of the United States. The South American countries, preoccupied with surviving the blows of the “lost decade” while trying, simultaneously, both to throw off authoritarian regimes in terminal crisis and to negotiate transitions from democracy, assumed this problem could not affect them. In any event, that aspect of the drug trade which concerned the countries of South America above all was the growing tragedy of Colombia, which was just beginning to make headlines in the world press.

Relative Decline and the Overconsumption-Underinvestment Hypothesis

Eventually, the economies of preeminent states tend to decline relative to the capability positions of rivals and in terms of their own history of growth. One of the explanations put forward to account for this phenomenon is the idea that rich and powerful societies spend too much and, in the process, undercut the material foundations of their own success. We trace the development of this theme from ancient Greece through the 14th century and Ibn Khaldun to contemporary theories of political economy. After suggesting several reasons why modern system leaders (such as nineteenth-century Britain or the United States after 1945) should be less prone to overconsumption problems than traditional empires, we analyze the empirical relationships between five major forms of consumption and spending (total, private, nonmilitary public, military, and governmental deficits) and investment, productivity, and economic growth in the 1831–1913 British and 1950–1986 United States cases. Employing Granger tests of antecedence, the primary finding is that the consumption variables, with the exception of private consumption in the American case, appear to have little impact on investment and economic performance. We conclude that overconsumption arguments pertaining to the relative decline of the modern system leaders, at best, are focusing on derivative effects and not the root causes of relative decline.

Delinking of energy consumption and economic growth The German experience

Since the oil crisis in the 1970s the rigid coupling between energy consumption and economic growth has been broken in FR Germany. The reasons and effects are different in the various energy consuming sectors. The largest increase in energy efficiency is found in industry. The time element and the pace of technological development are major determinants in energy conservation. The price element is more difficult to isolate and may have had a lesser effect in a rich society like Germany. Energy policies have emphasized market forces flanked by substantial investment in R&D for new energy technologies.