Strategic Turn Research Articles

A missed opportunity to implement a 3D digital twin in strategic planning in the Ålesund region, Norway: What to blame?

ABSTRACT While there have been academic discussions regarding the strategic and relational shift in spatial planning, and the potential of digital geospatial planning support systems (PSS) in this regard, the integration between these two has been given less attention. Understanding the obstacles associated with this integration is crucial to enhance strategic spatial planning and the utilization of geospatial PSS in this respect. To address this gap, the authors examine the tensions that arise when the planning systems of three municipalities in Norway intersect with the potential capabilities offered by a 3D digital twin. The authors found that the study findings not only supplemented those of studies concerned with the implementation gap, but also provided more general insights into possible obstacles for a strategic turn in spatial planning. In conclusion, they identify five key tensions in the Norwegian planning system that affect the uptake of a 3D digital twin.

Energy-Efficient Flexible Flow Shop Scheduling Under Time-Of-Use Rates with Renewable Energy Sources

In response to climate change, industries strive to curtail energy consumption while maintaining production efficiency. Focused on time-dependent electricity prices, this paper addresses the scheduling challenge in a flexible flow shop machine environment. The goal is to minimize both makespan and total electricity costs in a grid-connected manufacturing setup with battery storage, solar power, and a strategic turn on/turn of machine approach. A multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model is developed, employing the ϵ-constraint method to reveal the trade-of between objectives and present Pareto-front solutions. The ensuing experimental study allows for the validation of the model and identification of its limits.

The EU and Internet standards – Beyond the spin, a strategic turn?

ABSTRACT This article investigates the nature and implications of the European Union (EU)’s recent discourse and policy approach towards Internet standards. Internet is a network of interconnected networks that can communicate with one another thanks to shared protocols, most often produced by standard-developing organisations. This research analyses the effects of the discursive turn of the EU – as part of its new digital sovereignty agenda – and investigates whether it has materialised into actual changes in the way the EU engages with the making process of Internet standards since 2019. This article shows that the EU’s approach towards these arenas has been and remains inconsistent. It argues that the EU’s increasing ‘digital assertiveness’ and digital sovereignty discourses have led to a few noticeable policy evolutions, whose effects remain largely unintended and that could further normalise state-based interventions in the Internet architecture.

Strategic stories: weaponized or worldmaking?

The deployment of strategic stories, that is, stories designed to prevail over adversaries, is at work in domestic politics as well as in diplomacy. In both cases, the strategy has two aims: to create a division between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and at the same time to ascribe moral supremacy to ‘our side’ while posing ‘their side’ as an existential threat. Strategic storytelling specialises in discrimination and foe creation, but the nature of the actors involved has changed in the digital era. Now, ‘we’ and ‘they’ are organised into decentralised and mediated classes based on common identities, enabling collective action at planetary scale (e.g. climate activism, gender and ethnic justice, far-right extremism). At the same time, media platforms and news organisations are part of the apparatus by which strategic narratives are weaponised for warfare. Thus, I argue, digital media analysis needs to understand the ‘strategic turn’ in storytelling, and its deployment by states and ‘non-state actors’ alike, in this case, news media. Alternative models of worldmaking, in which popular culture acts as a pedagogic platform for class formation and activism, enter an ecology in which narrative is already a weapon of war – where it’s aircraft carriers, all the way down.

ТОРГОВО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЕ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ РОССИИ С ЛАТИНСКОЙ АМЕРИКОЙ КАК ЧАСТЬЮ ГЛОБАЛЬНОГО ЮГА

Russia’s strategic turn towards the priority development of cooperation with friendly and neutral states involves both increasing interaction with the World Majority as a whole and with individual regions of the Global South, including Latin America (Latin and Caribbean America - LCA). It is precisely because of the ongoing global geo-economic and geopolitical transformations that relations between the Russian Federation and Latin American countries, and most importantly, their core, trade and economic ties, are entering a period of profound changes, in fact, at the stage of forming an up-to-date agenda that meets modern realities, current and future. This trend sets the task for the domestic expert community to take a fresh look at the needs and capabilities of partners within the objectively defined framework of economic cooperation, to reveal the available reserves and indicate ways to increase the potential of Russian-­Latin American cooperation. This is the main purpose of the present article.

СПЕЦИФИКА И ОСОБЕННОСТИ СТРУКТУРЫ И ДИНАМИКИ ДОХОДОВ КОНСОЛИДИРОВАННОГО БЮДЖЕТА В РОССИИ

The budget system of the Russian Federation, characterized by the presence of a consolidated budget, including federal, regional and local levels, plays an important role in ensuring the socio-economic dynamics of the country. This study is devoted to the study of the structure and dynamics of revenues of the consolidated budget of Russia in the five-year period from 2018 to 2022. In the context of global economic shifts and nuances of domestic policy, the analysis provides a comprehensive view of the evolution of the Russian budget sector. The main conclusion of this study is the strategic turn of Russia towards the diversification of the revenue side of the budget, which has reduced the historical dependence on the export of hydrocarbons. Such diversification has made it possible to increase the stability of the country’s budget system, especially in the face of external economic shocks. The data indicate a constant increase in both direct and indirect taxes, among which a significant place is occupied by value added tax (VAT), income tax and personal income tax. These tax revenues not only indicate active economic activity, but also reflect the effectiveness of the tax policy pursued in Russia. The fiscal measures taken in response to the unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the adaptive potential of the State. By providing tax incentives and tax incentives, Russia has demonstrated its commitment to support the business community and minimize the economic consequences of the pandemic. At the same time, the analysis also revealed potential problems related to income inequality, as evidenced by a sharp increase in personal income tax against the background of a static wage fund. In addition, the study traces the relationship between Russia’s budget policy and geopolitical dynamics, especially in the context of foreign policy implications for the budget system. Summing up, we can say that this study is a comprehensive review of the budget trajectory of Russia for the specified period. It highlights the country’s active efforts to diversify its revenue base, overcome economic difficulties and continue the path to creating a balanced and sustainable budget ecosystem. The conclusions made in this report will be useful for politicians, financial experts and scientists interested in the intricacies of the Russian economic and budgetary paradigm. Keywords

Biocompatibility and Connectivity of Semiconductor Nanostructures for Cardiac Tissue Engineering Applications.

Nano- or microdevices, enabling simultaneous, long-term, multisite, cellular recording and stimulation from many excitable cells, are expected to make a strategic turn in basic and applied cardiology (particularly tissue engineering) and neuroscience. We propose an innovative approach aiming to elicit bioelectrical information from the cell membrane using an integrated circuit (IC) bearing a coating of nanowires on the chip surface. Nanowires grow directly on the backend of the ICs, thus allowing on-site amplification of bioelectric signals with uniform and controlled morphology and growth of the NWs on templates. To implement this technology, we evaluated the biocompatibility of silicon and zinc oxide nanowires (NWs), used as a seeding substrate for cells in culture, on two different primary cell lines. Human cardiac stromal cells were used to evaluate the effects of ZnO NWs of different lengths on cell behavior, morphology and growth, while BV-2 microglial-like cells and GH4-C1 neuroendocrine-like cell lines were used to evaluate cell membrane-NW interaction and contact when cultured on Si NWs. As the optimization of the contact between integrated microelectronics circuits and cellular membranes represents a long-standing issue, our technological approach may lay the basis for a new era of devices exploiting the microelectronics' sensitivity and "smartness" to both improve investigation of biological systems and to develop suitable NW-based systems available for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Developing Teacher Leadership in Educational Technology: A Systematic Literature Review

In the age of intelligence with artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, and other new technologies as the core, the development of digital technology has had a significant impact on the role and responsibilities of school leaders. Teacher technology leadership is the key factor affecting the development of school informatization. As a dynamic process, educational technology leadership is integrated by educational theory, information technology, and leadership, with an ability to promote the transformation of learning methods in the information age. With the continuous development of information technology and deepening of education and teaching reform, educational technology leadership presents a new strategic turn. In this paper, a literature review is conducted based on the concept of teacher technology leadership. Teacher leadership in technological transformation and application in the age of intelligence is analyzed, practices and models that can be learned are summarized, and methods for the improvement of teacher technology leadership are explored, so as to provide reference for academic research and teaching practice.

Concurring Data Policy Cycles? Global Data Strategies Conference, University of Passau, 20 and 21 September 2021

Abstract Global data law is on the rise, and the competitiveness of societies is at stake. Today, the competing approaches to data law around the world are still manifold. But is it likely that these approaches will be unified by a strategic turn towards a global data strategy? The first conference of the Global Data Law Conference Series of the University of Passau Research Centre of Law and Digitalisation (FREDI) turned to this question in September 2021. The ensuing discussions led by international experts highlighted the interplay between policymakers and private corporations in shaping data strategies and protecting as well as empowering data subjects. Different data protection levels worldwide were evaluated and factored against the data-driven competitive advantages of private corporations. The range of aspects spread from prospects of a global data governance architecture, the notion of data colonialism and the European digital single market to the Chinese digital silk road.

„Ukraine is above all else“ or „Pushkin is our everything“? (Ukrainian education and Russian literature)

The paper investigates three types of war hybridly imposed on Ukraine by Russia, namely «War of Ares» «War of Athena» and «War of Apollo» as well as the reasons, process and results of using the culture and literature as a brilliant veil to mask the imperial essence, «crooked mug of Russia» (M. Gogol). The author analyzes why, despite full-scale Russian military aggression against Ukraine waged on February, 24, 2022 and also shocking war crimes of the rashists, the piety to Russia and its «great» culture and literature has still been remained in a wide circle of the world community and even Ukrainian society. The conclusion is drawn that deadly (like «Snow White’s apple») combination of aesthetic appeal, on the one hand, and imperial ideological toxicity, on the other hand (especially in the conditions of full-scale Russian military aggression when even the language in which the mentioned works were written has become a trigger for millions of Ukrainians), makes Russian literature absolutely unacceptable for studying in Ukrainian secondary educational institutions. The origins and stages of rooting the myth about the «world greatness» of Russian literature are observed, and the reasonable conclusion is drawn that the significant number of Russian works in our school programs is not an evidence of their supposed «world» ideological and aesthetic level, but severe heritage of the imperial (including Soviet) epoch when in lands colonized by Muscovy (in particular, in Ukraine) there was forced assimilation (russification) of the population, so all Russian was imposed by force. The effective ways of updating the strategies of studying Russian literature in Ukrainian higher educational institutions are predicted, for example, intensive use of postcolonial interpretation and comparative analysis, updating and / or expanding the range of studied literary works and using new approaches to study the writer’s biographies. It is claimed that a strategic turn in teaching Russian literature and culture in Ukrainian higher educational institutions will require not only titanic efforts of educators but also the whole state, the development and implementation of a strategic target government program.

Policy interactions with research trajectories: The case of cyber-physical convergence in manufacturing and industrials

From the early 2010s, policymakers and firms in advanced industrial economies began introducing approaches to systemically exploit manufacturing and industrial data using the notion of cyber-physical convergence. Three innovation concepts have been especially highlighted: Smart Manufacturing, the Industrial Internet and Industrie 4.0. In parallel, academics have employed these concepts in numerous ways to advance their work. Despite this broad interest, precise definition and delineation of the cyber-physical convergence research domain have received little attention. Also missing is systematic knowledge on the interactions of these concepts with research trajectories. This paper fills these gaps by operationalising a newly constructed definition of convergence, and delineating the associated research domain into five data-centric capabilities: Monitoring, Analytics, Modelling and Simulation, Transmission and Security. A bibliometric analysis of the domain is then performed for 2010–2019. There are three findings. First, Analytics and Security have assumed strategic positions within the domain, coinciding with a “strategic turn” in policy. Second, backed by concerted policy and funding efforts, growth in Chinese scientific output has outpaced key competitors, including the U.S. and Germany. Finally, the patterns of promoting their works in terms of the three concepts differ significantly amongst U.S.-, Germany- and China-based authors, which mirrors the different policy discourses prevalent in those countries.

Enesemääramise paleus ja pragmaatika: Tartu versus Pariis

Enesemääramise paleus ja pragmaatika: Tartu versus Pariis

Strategising management accounting: liberal origins and neoliberal trends

PurposeThis paper draws on the concepts of biopolitics and neoliberal governmentality to provide a sociological analysis of the strategic turn in management accounting.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual and review paper addresses four interrelated questions: How can the early history of management accounting be revisited from a biopolitical angle? How has strategising been linked to the neoliberal evolution of capitalism? How has this neoliberal connection transformed management accounting into its new form of strategising? What are the implications of this transformation for future research and pedagogical practices in management accounting?FindingsManagement accounting is strategised in four interrelated directions: by absorbing the jurisdictional and veridictional roles of the market into the calculative practices of management accounting; by transforming management accounting's centripetal hierarchical order of calculations to a centrifugal order the neoliberal governmentality demanded; by re-calculating the point of production as a site in which labour now takes the form of entrepreneurs of the self, performing not only material but also immaterial elements of managerial labour; and by rescoping management accounting to address issues the “fourth or the global age of security” brought, including the social and the environmental ones.Research limitations/implicationsThe research expands the existing frames of reference for exploring contemporary calculative practices in neoliberal governmentality.Social implicationsStrategic turn in management accounting implicates in issues of security, governance and ethics and offers “new opportunities” for expanding management accounting's relevance beyond economic enterprises to various civil society and political constituencies.Originality/valueThis paper makes a theoretical contribution to management accounting's contemporary developments by demonstrating how it moves into biopolitical circulation.

Co-creation: the new kid on the block in public governance

This article has three objectives. The first is to show that while co-production was originally tied to service production, co-creation has broader applications in the field of public governance and involves a broader range of actors and activities. The second objective is to demonstrate how the co-creation concept both builds on and extends the concept of collaborative governance, thus adding new dimensions to an already well-established literature. The final objective is to show how a strategic turn to co-creation introduces a new type of ‘generative governance’ aimed at solving complex problems by constructing platforms enabling the formation of arenas for co-creation that bring together a plethora of public and private actors, including citizens, in creative problem-solving processes. The three objectives are achieved through prospective theoretical analysis aimed at providing a conceptual foundation for analysing cutting-edge societal developments that are not yet commonplace.

Military Intervention in Syria and the “Unwilling or Unable” Test: Lawful or Unlawful?

As is known, military intervention by the U.S.-led coalition was commenced in September 2014 in Syria. The justification invoked by some participants of the coalition was that the Syrian government was “unwilling or unable” to deal with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an international terrorist group. The “unwilling or unable” test gives rise to various debates among international scholars and practitioners. Some international publicists argue that military intervention on the basis of the “unwilling or unable” test is an emerging rule of customary international law, while others are rather opposed to it. The U.S. announced its intention to withdraw its troops from Syria on 19 December 2018. This, however, does not mean an immediate cessation of operations of the U.S.-led coalition in Syria. It is expressed in the statement made on 6 February 2019 by Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, in which he articulated that the arms cut in Syria is not a shift in mission but a strategic turn in essence. What can be inferred is that it seems unlikely that the military intervention of the U.S.-led coalition in Syria will be terminated in the near future. In fact, it arouses deep concern of humanity that the military intervention in Syria justified by the “unwilling or unable” test might recur in other regions or states. In this respect, the present article argues the compatibility of military intervention based on the “unwilling or unable” test proposed by some states, including the U.S., and some international publicists under universal principles of customary international law formation and international conventions.

The Emergence of Patronage and Changing Forms of Rent Seeking in East Central Europe

ABSTRACT The foreign direct investment (FDI)-led development path of the East-Central European (ECE) countries has been queried most recently. Using mainly the evidence of Hungary and Poland the paper analyses one of the potential reasons of this strategic turn: the struggle between political elites. One elite was bound to the strong presence of multinational business and the institutions of the ‘competition state’. Their positions were challenged by another political elite that allied mainly with local bourgeoisie. One main arena of conflicts is the economy where political elites try to widen their influence in order to gain financial support. New forms of rent-seeking and corruption became possible after the V4 accession to the European Union (EU) when the flow of financial aid increased. Aid was channelled to partisan firms in public procurement tenders that made legal corruption possible. Political and social control over this practice declined with the demise of classic program parties’ role in politics and the raise of populist ‘business firm’ political parties.

CSR as hypocrisy avoidance: a conceptual framework

PurposeThe theoretical understanding of CSR is caught on the horns of the dilemma between the ethical and instrumental approaches. The strategic turn in CSR has brought the dilemma to a new head. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel argumentative strategy to address the dilemma.Design/methodology/approachThe paper weaves together the insights from the literatures on sociological institutionalism, organization theory, business ethics and institutional economics to elaborate the distinction between CSR communication and CSR action that is actually undertaken and visible to stakeholders. This distinction is at the core of the “hypocrisy avoidance” approach which puts the above dilemma in a new light.FindingsAccording to the “hypocrisy avoidance” approach, the CSR communication constitutes a competitive arena where corporations are looking for reputational gains. Competitive pressures give rise to an inflationary dynamics of the CSR communication which consequently runs up against credibility problems. These problems are addressed by the real CSR policies which legitimate the corporate employment of the CSR communication as an instrument of competition.Practical implicationsThe theoretical dilemma between the ethical and instrumental approaches manifests itself in the justification of skepticism toward CSR communication. This skepticism, which may be to the detriment of a corporation’s license to operate, may turn out to be a driving force of CSR action.Social implicationsDespite the charges of corporate hypocrisy, CSR communication may play a role in the alleviation of business-society tensions. This role is however subject to two limitations. First, if CSR communication is used as instrument of competition, it is unlikely to translate into CSR action perfectly. Second, corporations would likely prioritize more visible CSR actions over less visible ones.Originality/valueThe novel implication of the “hypocrisy avoidance” approach is that CSR actions present credible commitments or “hostages” enabling the productive interaction between corporations and their stakeholders. This implication integrates some of the components of the ethical and instrumental approaches, while drawing inspiration from the institutional economics and institutional ethics literatures.

Chico Mendes, the rubber tappers and the Indians: reimagining conservation and development in the Amazon

In the mid-1970’s rubber tapper leaders Chico Mendes and Wilson Pinheiro reformulated strategic objectives of the rubber tappers’ movement, from protesting and denouncing violent dispossession of families and deforestation to defending rubber tappers’ forest territories and diversified land use. This strategic turn laid the basis for the rubber tappers’ transformation from a solely class-based union movement to one that incorporates a specific cultural identity associated with land and resource uses defined as opposed to the government-sponsored socio-environmentally destructive development model. The rubber tappers’ conceptual transformation of “extractivism”, from an archaic, outdated and primitive economic activity into an alternative for a modern, sustainable development model, based in their distinct culture, mirrored and paralleled the emergence of identity-based social movements globally. It also mirrored the re-emergence of “submerged” indigenous ethnicities and subsequent “ethnogenesis” of allegedly extinct or forgotten indigenous peoples, in both cases contrary to the assumptions and predictions of both policy and some anthropological theory. The rubber tappers’ definition of extractive reserves as collective land rights – and access to technology, social services and markets on terms in some measure controlled by the communities – in exchange for environmental and forest protection enabled significant territorial gains (parallel to indigenous territories), as well as proliferation of extractive reserve analogues in both environmental and land reform policy. Alliances with indigenous peoples and environmentalists were central to the development of this vision. The model of collective rights, with access to technology, services and markets could have very broad applicability for poor populations globally, in light of climate change and other environmental crises, if at-scale incentives for climate change and other environmental mitigation can be created.

Terrorist Decision Making in the Context of Risk, Attack Planning, and Attack Commission

ABSTRACTTerrorists from a wide array of ideological influences and organizational structures consider security and risk on a continuous and rational basis. The rationality of terrorism has been long noted of course but studies tended to focus on organizational reasoning behind the strategic turn toward violence. A more recent shift within the literature has examined rational behaviors that underpin the actual tactical commission of a terrorist offense. This article is interested in answering the following questions: What does the cost–benefit decision look like on a single operation? What does the planning process look like? How do terrorists choose between discrete targets? What emotions are felt during the planning and operational phases? What environmental cues are utilized in the decision-making process? Fortunately, much insight is available from the wider criminological literature where studies often provide offender-oriented accounts of the crime commission process. We hypothesize similar factors take place in terrorist decision making and search for evidence within a body of terrorist autobiographies.

Umkhonto We Sizwe: A Critical Analysis of the Armed Struggle of the African National Congress

This paper offers a critical analysis of the ANC’s armed struggle. The core argument advanced is that the turn to armed struggle marked a strategic turn away from the masses, which was born out of a historical failure to organise and mobilise around the actual and potential militancy of the working/poor masses. The subsequent externalisation of the ANC, it alliance partners and MK situated the foundation of the liberation struggle, both in content and context, outside the mass of the movement’s own constituency. The political and practical result was that the armed struggle was prosecuted with minimal involvement of the oppressed sectors of the population, effectively side-lining specific working class struggle and organisation. In turn, armed struggle increasingly became largely an armed propaganda exercise; a pressure tactic for a larger accommodationist strategy that by necessity had to rely on international conditions and actors for sustenance. This trajectory was cemented by the specific lack of coordination of political and military aspects of the struggle which cumulatively meant that the way in which the ANC prosecuted the armed struggle ensured there would be no insurrectionary seizure of power.