Local skirmishes in the contruction of (global) digital business communication technologies

This paper applies Latour’s 1992 translation map as a device to explore the development of and recent conflict between two data standards for the exchange of business information – EDIFACT and XBRL. Our research is focussed in France, where EDIFACT is well established and XBRL is just emerging. The alliances supporting both standards are local and global. The French/European EDIFACT is promulgated through the United Nations while a consortium of national jurisdictions and companies has coalesced around the US initiated XBRL International (XII). We suggest cultural differences pose a barrier to co-operation between the two networks. Competing data standards create the risk of switching costs. The different technical characteristics of the standards are identified as raising implications for regulators and users. A key concern is the lack of co-ordination of data standard production and the mechanisms regulatory agencies use to choose platforms for electronic data submission.

The role of the greens in the local politics of West Germany.

The study examines the contribution of the Greens to the changing nature of West Germany's local politics in the 1980s. The changes correspond broadly to the politicisation and parliamentarisation of a sphere of government traditionally perceived as being "unpolitical". Building upon theories of the New Politics, it is suggested that the varying pace of socio-economic change across the Federal Republic underlies the nonuniform development of its local party systems. The party systems of localities which have witnessed rapid social and economic change are found to be more susceptible to the emergence of a New Politics dimension than those of communities in which change has occurred less rapidly. The thesis continues by addressing aspects of the Greens' role in the development of local party systems across the Federal Republic. Despite the fact that marked differences in the Greens' approach to local political participation are registered in communities of varying socio-economic types, it is argued that the Greens are largely responsible for the introduction of a "New Local Politics" dimension into West Germany's local party systems. In a comprehensive study of the Greens' role in the Mainz party system, the conflicting styles and practices of the Greens and the established political parties in the city are depicted. The failure of the Green Party to form an alliance with the SPD in the city council is attributed to the cleavage between the Greens' New Politics and the SPD's Old Politics approaches. A detailed analysis of the parliamentary initiatives introduced by the four parties represented in the Mainz council between 1984 and 1987 also supports the contention that a New Politics dimension exists in the city's party system. This dimension is identified as representing a significant source of conflict during the period of analysis.

The politics of knowledge in central Asia:science between Marx and the market

Through careful historical and ethnographic research and extensive use of local scholarly works, this book provides a persuasive and careful analysis of the production of knowledge in Central Asia. The author demonstrates that classical theories of science and society are inadequate for understanding the science project in Central Asia. Instead, a critical understanding of local science is more appropriate. In the region, the professional and political ethos of Marxism-Leninism was incorporated into the logic of science on the periphery of the Soviet empire. This book reveals that science, organizes and constructed by Soviet rule, was also defined by individual efforts of local scientists. Their work to establish themselves 'between Marx and the market' is therefore creating new political economies of knowledge at the edge of the scientific world system.

MEG responses to the perception of global structure within glass patterns

The perception of global form requires integration of local visual cues across space and is the foundation for object recognition. Here we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the location and time course of neuronal activity associated with the perception of global structure from local image features. To minimize neuronal activity to low-level stimulus properties, such as luminance and contrast, the local image features were held constant during all phases of the MEG recording. This allowed us to assess the relative importance of striate (V1) versus extrastriate cortex in global form perception.

The politics of the new Germany

The Politics of the New Germany takes a new approach to understanding politics in the post-unification Federal Republic. Assuming only elementary knowledge, it focuses on debates and issues in order to help students understand both the workings of Germany's key institutions and some of the key policy challenges facing German politicians. Written in a straightforward style by four experts, each of the chapters draws on a rich variety of real-world examples. Packed with boxed summaries of key points, a guide to further reading and a range of seminar questions for discussion at the end of each chapter, this book highlights both the challenges and opportunities facing policy-makers in such areas as foreign affairs, economic policy, immigration, identity politics and institutional reforms. The book also takes a bird's-eye view of the big debates that define German politics over time, regardless of which party happens to be in power. It pinpoints three key themes that have characterised German politics over the last sixty years; reconciliation, consensus and transformation. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. Germany and the Burden of History 2. Germany’s Post-War Development, 1945-1989 3. Towards German Unity? 4. A Blockaded System of Government? 5. The Party System and Electoral Behaviour: The Path to Stable Instability? 6. Economic Management: The End of the German Model? 7. Citizenship and Demographics: A Country of Immigration? 8. The Reform of the Welfare State? 9. Germany and the European Union: A European Germany or a German Europe? 10. Foreign and Security Policy: A New Role for the Twenty-First Century? 11. Conclusion

The politics of exclusion:institutions and immigration policy in contemporary Germany

Immigration is one of the most sensitive issues of modern European politics. Nowhere is this more the case than in Germany, as a result of its history and the sheer scale of immigration it has experienced since 1945. Yet despite this background, Germany's immigration, residence and citizenship policy has been more restrictive when compared to that of many other countries; indeed, official policy long maintained that Germany was not a 'country of immigration'. But why has this been the case? The politics of exclusion provides a new analytical perspective on immigration in Germany, tracing the country's immigration and citizenship policy since the Second World War. The book argues that institutional politics are central to understanding why Germany's policy structures have experienced only incremental change over the past 20 years, and have remained comparatively restrictive. With its lively and accessible style, the book will appeal to advanced scholars and students of immigration and Germany.

Between ideology and pragmatism: the politics of dual nationality in Germany

This article discusses the policy and politics of dual nationality in Germany. It contrasts the policy reality, in which dual nationality is tolerated in a wide range of cases, with Germany's continued opposition in principle to this phenomenon. It then analyzes political, cultural and electoral factors to explain why this opposition persists despite these widespread exceptions. In conclusion, the article argues that by continuing formally to oppose dual nationalities, Germany in effect discourages naturalizations and thereby continues to operate a broadly exclusive citizenship.

Higher education reform in Kyrgyzstan: the politics of neoliberal agendas in theory and practice

There would seem to be no greater field for observing the effects of neo-liberal reforms in higher education than the former Soviet university, where attempts to legitimize neo-liberal philosophy over Soviet ideology plays out in everyday practices of educational reform. However, ethnographic research about higher education in post-Soviet Central Asia suggests that its “liberalization” is both an ideological myth and a complicated reality. This chapter focuses on how and why neo-liberal agendas have “travelled” to the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, what happens when educators encounter and resist them, and why these spaces of resistance are important starting points for the development of alternative visions of educational possibility in this recently “Third-worlded” society.

(Re)inventing the past: the politics of 'national' history in the Ukrainian classroom

This article examines how the Ukrainian state has used, and continues to use, history to forge collective identities in Ukraine. It assesses how history textbooks are utilised by the state as ‘tools’ to introduce schoolchildren to key historical episodes around which a modern Ukrainian national identity can be shaped. Attempts to ‘historicise’ Ukrainian national identity must answer fundamental questions such as: Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going? Who are we not? The final question is vital in understanding ‘who we are’ in comparison to the ‘other’. Thus, emphasis is placed on how the Ukrainian state is attempting to form an all-encompassing Ukrainian identity by distancing itself from Russia. The article argues that while a ‘national’ history is being espoused, a ‘regional politics of the textbook’ is subtly being allowed by the state to develop. This stands at odds with state attempts to create one universal, all-encompassing Ukrainian history.

Contestation and negotiation: regionalism and the politics of school textbooks in Ukraine's eastern borderlands

This paper aims to explore the (re)construction of identities in three regions adjacent to the Russian–Ukrainian border. The article analyses the areas' historical and political development and argues that placing such areas within a mega-region term such as ‘eastern Ukraine’ fails to recognise important differences between them. Content analysis of regional history textbooks reveals that the ‘official’ state historical narrative found in school history textbooks is heavily negotiated, with regional elites in each area ‘picking and choosing’ which parts of the ‘official’ state narrative to accept and which parts to reject. In this way, the article demonstrates how the notions of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are highly debated topics in the Ukrainian classroom as the central and local state elites are both part of the dynamic process of (re)definition of national identities.

Simultaneous estimation of global background synaptic inhibition and excitation from membrane potential fluctuations in layer III neurons of the rat entorhinal cortex in vitro

It is becoming clear that the detection and integration of synaptic input and its conversion into an output signal in cortical neurons are strongly influenced by background synaptic activity or "noise." The majority of this noise results from the spontaneous release of synaptic transmitters, interacting with ligand-gated ion channels in the postsynaptic neuron [Berretta N, Jones RSG (1996); A comparison of spontaneous synaptic EPSCs in layer V and layer II neurones in the rat entorhinal cortex in vitro. J Neurophysiol 76:1089-1110; Jones RSG, Woodhall GL (2005) Background synaptic activity in rat entorhinal cortical neurons: differential control of transmitter release by presynaptic receptors. J Physiol 562:107-120; LoTurco JJ, Mody I, Kriegstein AR (1990) Differential activation of glutamate receptors by spontaneously released transmitter in slices of neocortex. Neurosci Lett 114:265-271; Otis TS, Staley KJ, Mody I (1991) Perpetual inhibitory activity in mammalian brain slices generated by spontaneous GABA release. Brain Res 545:142-150; Ropert N, Miles R, Korn H (1990) Characteristics of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents in CA1 pyramidal neurones of rat hippocampus. J Physiol 428:707-722; Salin PA, Prince DA (1996) Spontaneous GABAA receptor-mediated inhibitory currents in adult rat somatosensory cortex. J Neurophysiol 75:1573-1588; Staley KJ (1999) Quantal GABA release: noise or not? Nat Neurosci 2:494-495; Woodhall GL, Bailey SJ, Thompson SE, Evans DIP, Stacey AE, Jones RSG (2005) Fundamental differences in spontaneous synaptic inhibition between deep and superficial layers of the rat entorhinal cortex. Hippocampus 15:232-245]. The function of synaptic noise has been the subject of debate for some years, but there is increasing evidence that it modifies or controls neuronal excitability and, thus, the integrative properties of cortical neurons. In the present study we have investigated a novel approach [Rudolph M, Piwkowska Z, Badoual M, Bal T, Destexhe A (2004) A method to estimate synaptic conductances from membrane potential fluctuations. J Neurophysiol 91:2884-2896] to simultaneously quantify synaptic inhibitory and excitatory synaptic noise, together with postsynaptic excitability, in rat entorhinal cortical neurons in vitro. The results suggest that this is a viable and useful approach to the study of the function of synaptic noise in cortical networks. © 2007 IBRO.