Socioeconomic Organization Research Articles

Environmental trends between 2400 and 1200 BP in Barrancas, Argentinean Puna: Impacts on local resource variability and socioeconomic organization

AbstractThis paper presents a multiproxy analysis—geomorphology, organic matter, and carbonate content, diatoms, pollen, and magnetic properties of sediments—of the Barrancas Pueblo profile, located in Barrancas, Jujuy, Argentina (S 23°18′08,7; W 66°05′15,2; 3666 m.a.s.l.) to explore local environmental change over the last few millennia. This study is part of a broader investigation of the environmental conditions that facilitated and/or triggered the development of a mixed herding and hunting economic strategy during the late Holocene. The results suggest ongoing local moisture availability for most of the late Holocene; between 2400 and 1500 BP there was a stable, low energy environment that supported a vegetated floodplain, resulting in high availability of pasture and water. However, throughout most of the studied period, there were punctual arid episodes and erosion of the river catchment. High environmental variability post‐3000 cal BP could have put a premium on strategies to reduce the risk associated with resource unpredictability, such as economic specialization and intensification and storage practices designed to control and mitigate resource variability. This process could have ultimately lead to the consolidation of the Andean pastoralist way of life ca. 3000–2500 BP.

Bread for advancing the right to the city: academia, grassroots groups and the first cooperative bakery in a Chilean informal settlement

This article describes the creation of a cooperative bakery whose significance is fourfold: (1) it is the first located inside a Chilean campamento (informal settlement); (2) it was organized and managed by inhabitants, mostly Latin American immigrant women; (3) its implementation faced diverse conflicts that serve as lessons for similar experiences; and (4) it provides evidence from the field about strategies for advancing the right to the city agenda. The bakery was conceived by the community as a strategy to control the means of production. The study used a critical research approach, whereby researchers assumed an active role in the community processes around the formation of the cooperative. The article discusses the potential of cooperative socioeconomic organization as a path to developing community autonomy. It presents the Rayito de Sol bakery with its highs and lows, and reflects on the results of the project as a spatial, social and political approach to the relationship between academic communities and public institutions.

Stra.Tech.Man (Strategy-Technology-Management): Theory and Concepts

This volume presents some fundamental elements to the Stra.Tech.Man approach, which the author of this book tried to develop during the last few years. The main challenge of the Stra.Tech.Man approach is to synthesize interpretatively the analytical spheres of strategy, technology, and management, upon the effort of any socioeconomic organization to innovate, survive, and develop. The following chapters search to define and apply in particular the multiple applications of the Stra.Tech.Man concept. They use this approach as an analytical mechanism to perceive in the context of the current transformative phase of globalization the aspects of competitiveness, innovation, and change management. This volume includes the following chapters that apply the aspects of the Stra.Tech.Man analysis: I. The Greek firms into globalization: The Stra.Tech.Man approach Globalization is not a static and finished status quo: it is subject to a continuous transformation and restructuring. At the same time, globalization is not a timeless, a historical, and automatically homogenizing phenomenon. Every attempt of scientific understanding, interpretation, and prediction of the partial socioeconomic dynamics and developments is becoming increasingly infertile and disorientating, insofar as the rigid analytic division between the “national” and the “international” continues unaltered; globalization is a complex, dialectic, and evolutionary phenomenon. The study of globalization through the examination of the synthesizing and co-evolving incorporation of partial socioeconomic structures (social, economic and sectoral) and corporate subsystems in terms of strategy, technology, and management (“Stra.Tech.Man” triangle) constitutes a new approach for the study of the globalization process. II. Innovation in Stra.Tech.Man terms Contrary to the conventional neoclassical perspective, the approaches focusing on the evolutionary nature of the capitalist firm are probably more comprehensive in the study of innovation. This chapter attempts a theoretical refocusing in the analysis of innovation, by following a perspective of “biological” type. It highlights the synthesis of “strategy-technology-management” as the organic center that generates and re-generates the phenomenon of innovation within the socioeconomic organizations. III. Innovation in economics and management: The Stra.Tech.Man synthesis Economics and the theoretical analysis of entrepreneurship and organizational theory keep up with producing innovation theories with remarkably various forms and analyses. This chapter suggests that economics and management science can be “analytically bridged” if we reposition the phenomenon of innovation into the evolutionary/physiological Stra.Tech.Man “core” of the organization. In this theoretical perspective, the firm as a “living organism” operates as structural co-creator of the economic sectors and the socioeconomic systems that host its entrepreneurial activity. IV. Change management and innovation in Stra.Tech.Man terms In the current context of globalization’s restructuring, the concepts of change management and innovation are co-evolving. A counter-proposed theoretical perspective in terms of the evolutionary Stra.Tech.Man triangle is useful for the successful innovative action of all socioeconomic organizations. This chapter suggests the concept of change management in Stra.Tech.Man terms in five consecutive steps as a novel approach to the phenomenon of organizational change. V. Fostering micro and meso competitiveness in Stra.Tech.Man terms In the current restructuring phase of globalization, since all partial socioeconomic systems are inescapably entering an ever-deeper process of “organic restructuring,” the content of competitiveness is changing structurally. To this end, it seems that a repositioned developmental economic policy is necessary, which can focus on fostering the competitiveness of the locally operating entrepreneurial actors. This chapter proposes specifically the concept of competitiveness as a synthesis of the three fundamental micro, meso, and macro levels that create and reproduce the systemic competitiveness. It also presents the Stra.Tech.Man perspective on the proposal of creation of the Local Development and Innovation Institutes (LDIs) as useful dimensions to strengthen local business systems in combined terms of meso- and micro- competitiveness. In conclusion, the “Stra.Tech.Man approach” attempts to define a unifying and evolutionary field of research, by initiating its exploration on the inner “physiology” of the socioeconomic organization. This approach extends analytically from the micro to the meso- and macro- level of socioeconomic system dynamics and vice versa.

Global Crisis and Restructuring: Theory, Analysis, and the Case of Greece

Τhis book examines the global restructuring since its appearance from the late 2000s to the present. It tries to describe and explore the fundamental dimensions of the phenomenon of the current crisis and repositioning of the global socioeconomic system by following an analytical perspective that exceeds a “conjunctural” perspective. It counter-proposes a view of examining the contemporary historical configurations of globalization dynamics in structural and evolutionary terms. Finally, it considers that a valid perception of the current global restructuring requires the simultaneous co-examination of adaptation, innovation, and change management of the partial socioeconomic organizations, sectors of economic activity, and overall socioeconomic systems, at all the “organically linked” levels of space: local, national, international, and global. [...] In conclusion, this book proposes a new perspective of understanding the global dynamics and moves towards a repositioned perception of the phenomenon of global crisis and restructuring in structural and evolutionary terms. Nowadays, according to this analytical proposition, “organic” and transversal innovations and the prerequisite change management mechanisms pose the central development question for the sustainable exit of the global crisis. Moreover, it seems that for socioeconomic systems in a structural crisis, such as the Greek system, “conjunctural” perspective to confront the crisis prevails with insufficient results. The structuration of economic policy in Greece until now reflects this methodological and interventional inefficiency in constructing anti-crisis paths. To rupture the vicious cycle of misunderstandings in economic policy formation and implementation and moving towards a new, virtuous cycle of viable and long-term development, an evolutionary and historical understanding seems a prerequisite not only for Greece but also for other socioeconomic systems at a similar level of development. Finally, this continuous reshaping process of the global environment requires from all the agents of action new adaptation mechanisms. The manner that local and national systems manage to achieve innovation and change management is critical and, therefore, policy initiatives such as the Local Development and Innovation Institutes that focus on fostering local innovation seem essential for constructing sustainable developmental trajectories.

Co-Operative societies and women empowerment in rural provinces

Empowerment of women is a new ideology for carrying democratic values into the family and society. Empowerment of women means equal status to women. Women and children, equal ownership of productive resources, increase participation in economic and commercial sections, awareness of their rights and responsibilities. Rural women suffer the curse of being both socially and economically ‘invisible’. The civil society organizations work towards making them visible in these areas. Among these organizations, one with an open membership and democratic control, i.e., a cooperative organization will be more effective than other organizations working for the promotion of social and economic development. A dairy cooperative is one such civil society organization which aims at improving the rural people. Dairying has been an agriculture allied sector and indoor economic activity for women living in rural areas. It gives mass employment and thereby helps to promote economic development of the rural masses. Rural landless, small and marginal agricultural farmers and women are involved in the process of milk production. Dairy cooperatives, as workers level socio-economic organizations, have been working for the strengthening of the rural masses. In this context, the present study aims at examining the Social Change and Economic Development of Rural Women through Dairy Cooperatives. The purpose of the study specifies that the socio- and economic background, awareness of dairy cooperatives and participation of rural women members in dairy cooperatives have helped them achieve social change and economic development. Keywords: Women empowerment; Dairy cooperatives; employment and development

On a correlative and evolutionary SWOT analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to counter-propose a new approach of SWOT analysis, which can be used in the strategic planning of the contemporary organizations. Design/methodology/approach This paper, after presenting the conceptual context of the existing (conventional) SWOT analysis, presents the existing criticism within the international literature. Then, it articulates gradually the new evolutionary and correlative SWOT analysis, by using the approaches and the literature of evolutionary economics, and the Stra.Tech.Man approach in business dynamics. In conclusion, it presents the new conceptual framework on which a new correlative SWOT analysis can be based. Findings Main finding of this research is that the interpretation of the conventional SWOT analysis tends to study the strengths and the weaknesses of the business with an analytical dichotomy. The conventional SWOT analysis conceptualizes, usually implicitly, the opportunities and threats of the external environment as having the same impact to all the socioeconomic agents, without exception. However, by using a correlative interpretation of SWOT analysis, we understand that the opportunities and threats are always “potential,” depending on the organization’s strategic capability to exercise its comparative strengths and weaknesses. Originality/value In the existing literature of SWOT analysis, despite the growing criticism, there is no critique that can give systemic and correlative answers to the articulation of business strategy in SWOT terms. The Stra.Tech.Man approach, also, is a conceptual framework to study the evolutionary adaptation of all the kinds of socioeconomic organizations.

Application of a Smart City Model to a Traditional University Campus with a Big Data Architecture: A Sustainable Smart Campus

Currently, the integration of technologies such as the Internet of Things and big data seeks to cover the needs of an increasingly demanding society that consumes more resources. The massification of these technologies fosters the transformation of cities into smart cities. Smart cities improve the comfort of people in areas such as security, mobility, energy consumption and so forth. However, this transformation requires a high investment in both socioeconomic and technical resources. To make the most of the resources, it is important to make prototypes capable of simulating urban environments and for the results to set the standard for implementation in real environments. The search for an environment that represents the socioeconomic organization of a city led us to consider universities as a perfect environment for small-scale testing. The proposal integrates these technologies in a traditional university campus, mainly through the acquisition of data through the Internet of Things, the centralization of data in proprietary infrastructure and the use of big data for the management and analysis of data. The mechanisms of distributed and multilevel analysis proposed here could be a powerful starting point to find a reliable and efficient solution for the implementation of an intelligent environment based on sustainability.

Mobile Phone Indicators and Their Relation to the Socioeconomic Organisation of Cities

Thanks to the use of geolocated big data in computational social science research, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of human activities is increasingly being revealed. Paired with smaller and more traditional data, this opens new ways of understanding how people act and move, and how these movements crystallise into the structural patterns observed by censuses. In this article we explore the convergence between mobile phone data and more traditional socioeconomic data from the national census in French cities. We extract mobile phone indicators from six months worth of Call Detail Records (CDR) data, while census and administrative data are used to characterize the socioeconomic organisation of French cities. We address various definitions of cities and investigate how they impact the statistical relationships between mobile phone indicators, such as the number of calls or the entropy of visited cell towers, and measures of economic organisation based on census data, such as the level of deprivation, inequality and segregation. Our findings show that some mobile phone indicators relate significantly with different socioeconomic organisation of cities. However, we show that relations are sensitive to the way cities are defined and delineated. In several cases, changing the city delineation rule can change the significance and even the sign of the correlation. In general, cities delineated in a restricted way (central cores only) exhibit traces of human activity which are less related to their socioeconomic organisation than cities delineated as metropolitan areas and dispersed urban regions.

Economic Geography and the Scaling of Urban and Regional Income in India

We undertake an exploration of the economic income (Gross Domestic Product, GDP) of Indian districts and cities based on scaling analyses of the dependence of these quantities on associated population size. Scaling analysis provides a straightforward method for the identification of network effects in socioeconomic organization, which are the tell-tale of cities and urbanization. For districts, a sub-state regional administrative division in India, we find almost linear scaling of GDP with population, a result quite different from urban functional units in other national contexts. Using deviations from scaling, we explore the behavior of these regional units to find strong distinct geographic patterns of economic behavior. We characterize these patterns in detail and connect them to the literature on regional economic development for a diverse subcontinental nation such as India. Given the paucity of economic data for Urban Agglomerations in India, we use a set of assumptions to create a new dataset of GDP based on districts, for large cities. This reveals superlinear scaling of income with city size, as expected from theory, while displaying similar underlying patterns of economic geography observed for district economic performance. This analysis of the economic performance of Indian cities is severely limited by the absence of higher-fidelity, direct city level economic data. We discuss the need for standardized and consistent estimates of the size and change in urban economies in India, and point to a number of proxies that can be explored to develop such indicators.

Robo-Revolution: A Marxist Approach to Social Uprising in the High-Tech Age

With the increasing role of technological agents in contemporary society, questions surrounding the future of socio-economic organization are intensely debated. A variety of predictions have been made, ranging from conservative views that emphasize the gradual integration of techno-actors into human social collectives to radical outlooks that assume the inevitability of a dramatic historic break. This study employs the method of simulation, exploring the on-going path towards automation with the help of classical Marxism. It seeks to understand whether robots and artificial intelligence (AI) might become new value producers and a revolutionary social class. As demonstrated, the continuity of capitalist relationships may facilitate the formation of new social groups and recast class-based political agendas.

On a Correlative and Evolutionary SWOT Analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to counter-propose a new approach of SWOT analysis, which can be used in the strategic planning of the contemporary organizations. Design/methodology/approach: This paper, after presenting the conceptual context of the existing (conventional) SWOT analysis, presents the existing criticism within the international literature. Then, it articulates gradually the new evolutionary and correlative SWOT analysis, by using the approaches and the literature of evolutionary economics, and the Stra.Tech.Man approach in business dynamics. In conclusion, it presents the new conceptual framework on which a new correlative SWOT analysis can be based. Findings: Main finding of this research is that the interpretation of the conventional SWOT analysis tends to study the strengths and the weaknesses of the business with an analytical dichotomy. The conventional SWOT analysis conceptualizes, usually implicitly, the opportunities and threats of the external environment as having the same impact to all the socioeconomic agents, without exception. However, by using a correlative interpretation of SWOT analysis, we understand that the opportunities and threats are always “potential,” depending on the organization’s strategic capability to exercise its comparative strengths and weaknesses. Originality/value: In the existing literature of SWOT analysis, despite the growing criticism, there is no critique that can give systemic and correlative answers to the articulation of business strategy in SWOT terms. The Stra.Tech.Man approach, also, is a conceptual framework to study the evolutionary adaptation of all the kinds of socioeconomic organizations.

Network, Consumer Co-Operatives and Sustainability

Consumer co-operatives have always embraced the principles of solidarity and collaboration between people, with the ambition to improve the quality of life of poor classes. Therefore, consumer co-operatives can rightly be considered as the first recorded form of socio-economic organization aiming at the search of a primordial sustainability. From the very beginning, the Italian Consumer Co-operatives have been committed to produce good, healthy and safe products at the lowest price on the market and up with new consumer needs.

Igualdad de género en los modelos de bienestar de la Unión Europea

<p align="right"> </p><p>Los indicadores de desigualdad de género elaborados por organismos internacionales permiten distinguir situaciones muy evidentes entre economías con estructuras productivas y niveles de desarrollo muy diferentes. Pero, resultan menos útiles cuando la comparación se realiza sobre países más homogéneos, como los de la Unión Europea (UE). El índice de Igualdad de Género (GEI) de la UE se ha construido con la intención de conocer en detalle las causas de la desigualdad de género de esa zona y, de esa manera, implementar políticas mejor dirigidas hacia su disminución.</p><p>En este artículo se conecta la evolución de dicho índice a lo largo del período en el que hasta ahora se ha calculado, 2005-2015, con la gama de modelos de bienestar presentes en la organización socioeconómica de los países de la UE.<strong></strong></p><p> </p><div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div><p> </p></div></div>

The Impact of Wine Production in the Social Transformation of Northern Mesopotamian Societies during the Third and Second Millennia BCE

Summary In ancient times, wine was usually considered a rare commodity to be used by elites and mostly associated with ritual practices. This is especially the case of ancient Mesopotamian communities, which, starting from the fourth millennium BCE, gave an increasing value to this precious alcoholic beverage that was mostly produced and imported from regions peripheral to Mesopotamia proper, as in the case of the Taurus foothills in southeastern Turkey. Thus, this article aims at demonstrating the value acquired by wine between the late third and the early second millennium BCE, taking into account the archaeological data available from two sites located in this area, specifically, Titriş Höyük, in the upper section of the Euphrates, and Hirbemerdon Tepe, in the Tigris river valley, where wine production, consumption and exchange had a primary importance in structuring the socio-economic organization of the communities inhabiting these ancient settlements.

Questioning Fe isotopes as a provenance tool: Insights from bog iron ores and alternative applications in archeometry

Provenancing metal artifacts with scientific methods is an established tool in archeometry to identify the metal deposits, which were exploited for the production of ancient metal objects. It is thus an important method to reconstruct ancient exchange networks and the socio-economic organization of past societies. Previously introduced isotope-based approaches (Pb, Sr, Os) and chemical analyses of slag inclusions have severe limitations concerning their application or the amount of sample required. Fe isotopes were previously suggested in a quite early stage of investigation as a potential provenance tracer and it was postulated that they would not fractionate during the smelting procedure. However, previously published analytical data from iron ores indicate a wide overlap between deposits. Further, the earlier studies on Fe isotopes did not included bog iron ores, despite their high importance in ancient metallurgy. As geochemical reactions during ore formation are complex and fractionation cannot be generally excluded, the applicability of Fe isotopes as an alternative provenance tracer still asks for further investigation.This purely methodological study focuses on specimens from two sites of the formerly mined bog iron ore deposit Eyller Bruch (Germany), which are analyzed together with products of a smelting experiment based on these ores. The Fe isotopic composition of the bog iron ore from the investigated region suggests an intra-deposit zonation caused by environmental parameters and its overall variation is comparable with that of other deposits. The bog iron ore isotope signature largely overlaps with the isotope range of mineralizations in other regions. As a consequence of this and although the absence of Fe isotope fractionation during the smelting procedure is confirmed, the study demonstrates the lack of discriminatory power of Fe isotopes for provenance studies. Potential applications for archeometry can rather be found in the environmental parameters, especially organic matter, which seems to have a strong influence on Fe isotope compositions of bog iron ores. Zonations within deposits might be identified and could help to reconstruct the exploitation history of the deposit or to reconstruct past bog landscapes.

Socio-Economic Organisation in a Border Area of Tibetan Culture: Tabo, Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Socio-Economic Organisation in a Border Area of Tibetan Culture: Tabo, Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Socio-Economic Organisation in a Border Area of Tibetan Culture: Tabo, Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

Socio-Economic Organisation in a Border Area of Tibetan Culture: Tabo, Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

The technological and socio-economic organization of the Elmenteitan early herders in southern Kenya (3000–1400 BP)

Understanding how the modern world has been shaped by the origins and spread of food production deeper in our past is an enduring and fundamental goal of anthropological archaeology. In Africa, mob...

Produções, ocupações e coexistências possíveis à conservação ambiental: uma análise na Reserva Extrativista Terra Grande-Pracuúba

O sistema capitalista, atual modelo de organização social hegemônico, além de estar vinculado a um “desenvolvimento” baseado na constituição de desigualdades sociais, lançou a sociedade numa forte crise ambiental. A partir da ecologia política, assumimos a premissa que tal crise não é ambiental, mas sim social com desdobramentos na natureza, com o modelo de produção capitalista em seu cerne. Dessa forma, apresentamos neste artigo resultados de uma pesquisa que objetivou descrever e analisar a organização socioeconômica de comunidades tradicionais inseridas na Reserva Extrativista Terra Grande-Pracuúba, bem como suas relações ambientais. Nessa trajetória, partindo-se de uma abordagem psicossocial e qualitativa, foram adotadas as técnicas ‘observação participante’ e ‘entrevistas centradas’ (focused interview). Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a técnica ‘análise de conteúdo’, tendo como ferramenta de suporte o Atlas TI. Foi possível constatar que os grupos sociais analisados exercem suas práticas econômicas - seu trabalho - de maneira espacialmente integrada às demais práticas materiais e imateriais necessárias à sua reprodução social. Tal integração favorece a manutenção ecossistêmica de seus territórios, especialmente diante da alta mobilidade do capital. Frente às possibilidades de avanço deste modelo ambientalmente predatório sobre territórios conservados, fomentar práticas produtivas tradicionais, para além de favorecer a autonomia socioeconômica e política desses povos, tende a potencializar a conservação dos ecossistemas.

Social and economic inequality limits disaster prevention amongst the most vulnerable in Vietnam

Purpose Vietnam is historically hit by extensive disasters. However, the most vulnerable populations are far from being backed by national/local programmes to reduce disaster impacts on their well-being. In practice, political and socio-economic top-down organisation, channels efforts and limited resources into wealthier parts of the country. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Learning from 30 years work in Vietnam, this paper presents how “horizontal” solidarity and networking should be promoted and reinforced to really target the needs of vulnerable poor communities. Findings on conditions and challenges are based on practical experience, from family/village level to provincial/national administration, in promoting safe housing and safer communities and in evaluating the barriers for extending and sharing such practices. Findings Political environments in South East Asian countries become similar to Vietnamese systems, and share a common attitude towards DRR (and CCA): official statements reaffirm the need for DRR at all levels, and the CC threats for local development. But year after year, the situation of marginalised or low-income poor facing disasters does not really see progress. Originality/value New data collecting methods and technologies are proposed, resilience is quoted as criteria for development, but the major issue remains: how could communities be “at the frontline” when receiving so little “backline” support and resources, compared to benefits from capitalist development shared by only richer parts of society – not concerned in the same way by disasters? The SFDRR in encouraging non-compulsory Civil Society involvement will remain inadequate faced with the increased vulnerability by Vietnam and South East Asian inhabitants.