Reconstructing institutional complexity in practice:a relational model of institutional work and complexity

This article develops a relational model of institutional work and complexity. This model advances current institutional debates on institutional complexity and institutional work in three ways. First, it provides a relational and dynamic perspective on institutional complexity by explaining how constellations of logics - and their degree of internal contradiction - are constructed rather than given. Second, it refines our current understanding of agency, intentionality and effort in institutional work by demonstrating how different dimensions of agency interact dynamically in the institutional work of reconstructing institutional complexity. Third, it situates institutional work in the everyday practice of individuals coping with the institutional complexities of their work. In doing so, it reconnects the construction of institutionally complex settings to the actions and interactions of the individuals who inhabit them. © The Author(s) 2013.

State control and corporate governance in transition economies:25 years on from 1989

Research Question/Issue - Which forms of state control over corporations have emerged in countries that made a transition from centrally-planned to marked-based economies and what are their implications for corporate governance? We assess the literature on variation and evolution of state control in transition economies, focusing on corporate governance of state-controlled firms. We highlight emerging trends and identify future research avenues. Research Findings/Insights - Based on our analysis of more than 100 articles in leading management, finance, and economics journals since 1989, we demonstrate how research on state control evolved from a polarized approach of public–private equity ownership comparison to studying a variety of constellations of state capitalism. Theoretical/Academic Implications - We identify theoretical perspectives that help us better understand benefits and costs associated with various forms of state control over firms. We encourage future studies to examine how context-specific factors determine the effect of state control on corporate governance. Practitioner/Policy Implications - Investors and policymakers should consider under which conditions investing in state-affiliated firms generates superior returns.

Non-uniqueness through duality in the von Neumann growth models

Duality can be viewed as the soul of each von Neumann growth model. This is not at all surprising because von Neumann (1955), a mathematical genius, extensively studied quantum mechanics which involves a “dual nature” (electromagnetic waves and discrete corpuscules or light quanta). This may have had some influence on developing his own economic duality concept. The main object of this paper is to restore the spirit of economic duality in the investigations of the multiple von Neumann equilibria. By means of the (ir)reducibility taxonomy in Móczár (1995) the author transforms the primal canonical decomposition given by Bromek (1974) in the von Neumann growth model into the synergistic primal and dual canonical decomposition. This enables us to obtain all the information about the steadily maintainable states of growth sustained by the compatible price-constellations at each distinct expansion factor.

Translating international norms: Filters to women's rights in Lebanon

In 1979 the United Nations passed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international bill of rights for women. Much scholarship has focused on the degree to which states have adopted these new international gender norms, but have paid little attention to the fact that norms change in the processes of implementation. This dissertation focuses on that process assessing the translation of international gender equality norm in Lebanon.^ The study traces global gender equality norms as they are translated into a complex context characterized by a political structure that divides powers according to confessional groups, a social structure that empowers men as heads of families, and a geopolitical structure that opposes a secular West to the Muslim East. Through a comparison of three campaigns – the campaign to combat violence against women, the campaign to change personal status codes, and the campaign to give women equal rights to pass on their nationality – the study traces different ways in which norms are translated as activists negotiate the structures that make up the Lebanese context. Through ethnographic research, the process of norm translation was found to produce various filters, i.e., constellations of arguments put forward by activists as they seek to match international norms to the local context. The dissertation identifies six such filters and finds that these filters often have created faithless translations of international norms.^

Space time coding for polynomial phase modulated signals

Polynomial phase modulated (PPM) signals have been shown to provide improved error rate performance with respect to conventional modulation formats under additive white Gaussian noise and fading channels in single-input single-output (SISO) communication systems. In this dissertation, systems with two and four transmit antennas using PPM signals were presented. In both cases we employed full-rate space-time block codes in order to take advantage of the multipath channel. For two transmit antennas, we used the orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) proposed by Alamouti and performed symbol-wise decoding by estimating the phase coefficients of the PPM signal using three different methods: maximum-likelihood (ML), sub-optimal ML (S-ML) and the high-order ambiguity function (HAF). In the case of four transmit antennas, we used the full-rate quasi-OSTBC (QOSTBC) proposed by Jafarkhani. However, in order to ensure the best error rate performance, PPM signals were selected such as to maximize the QOSTBC’s minimum coding gain distance (CGD). Since this method does not always provide a unique solution, an additional criterion known as maximum channel interference coefficient (CIC) was proposed. Through Monte Carlo simulations it was shown that by using QOSTBCs along with the properly selected PPM constellations based on the CGD and CIC criteria, full diversity in flat fading channels and thus, low BER at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) can be ensured. Lastly, the performance of symbol-wise decoding for QOSTBCs was evaluated. In this case a quasi zero-forcing method was used to decouple the received signal and it was shown that although this technique reduces the decoding complexity of the system, there is a penalty to be paid in terms of error rate performance at high SNRs.

Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Coding Using Polynomial Phase Modulation

Recently, polynomial phase modulation (PPM) was shown to be a power- and bandwidth-efficient modulation format. These two characteristics are in high demand nowadays specially in mobile applications, where devices with size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints are common. In this paper, we propose implementing a full-diversity quasiorthogonal space-time block code (QOSTBC) using polynomial phase signals as modulation format. QOSTBCs along with PPM are used in order to improve the power efficiency of communication systems with four transmit antennas. We obtain the optimal PPM constellations that ensure full diversity and maximize the QOSTBC's minimum coding gain distance. Simulation results show that by using QOSTBCs along with a properly selected PPM constellation, full diversity in flat fading channels and thus low BER at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) can be ensured. More importantly, it is also shown that QOSTBCs using PPM achieve a better error performance than those using conventional modulation formats.

Talom Rukbo and the Donyipolo Yelam Kebang: restructuring Adi religious practices in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine and contextualize the recent changes in the articulation of Donyipolo faith among the indigenous community of the Adi from the 1980s until the present. This is achieved by documenting both ‘non-formalized’ and ‘formalized’ belief and ritual within this Eastern Himalayan community. Since the mid-1980s, the Adi – led by indigenous activist Talom Rukbo and the Donyipolo Yelam Kebang (Donyipolo Faith Council) – have been restructuring Donyipolo to fit the model of more mainstream religions via a series of processes that could be called ‘formalization’ or ‘institutionalization’, a reformation blueprint that has subsequently spread to neighboring ethnic groups. This ethnography, exploring both folk practice and the modern reformation, is rooted in radical empiricism – in this context, meaning to collect data and allow analysis to arise organically. Radical empiricism is employed alongside vernacular theorizing to allow for the acknowledgement of indigenous theory through which we can trace indigenous agencies and the construction of indigenous lifeworlds. Facilitating this space for the acknowledgement of ‘religious re-imaginings’ as a means of cultural preservation – and as a representation of creativity – is significant particularly when viewed in the context of contemporary research on similar movements in Northeast India, which sometimes tends toward the negation of indigenous innovation by representing such religious revivals as conversion tools attributed to the Hindu right. It is hoped that the reader will come away from this dissertation with an understanding of the ‘constellations of faith’ that comprise ‘traditional’ Donyipolo and a comprehension of the innovative institutionalization processes that have shaped the new Adi praxis. Donyipolo should be viewed as a complex, nuanced, and independent indigenous faith, whether in its forms of folk expressions or in its new structure as expressed through the Donyipolo Yelam Kebang.

Waged domestic work in Argentina: the regulation of care provision

This paper addresses the condition of domestic work in Argentina, in a perspective that draws from the literature on care work. In this approach, domestic work can be interpreted as one of the mercantile forms in which care work is socially organized, due to the persistence of the traditional sexual division of labor and the weakness of public policies. From these considerations, I develop a quantitative study on the levels of informality, precarity, and wage inequality that characterize domestic work in that country. Thereafter, I discuss the main measures adopted by the Argentine government since 2003, with the goal of reducing legal discrimination of domestic workers and promoting their formalization. On this basis, the paper highlights the advances in the recognition of domestic workers’ labor rights, while emphasizing how social and cultural restraints still permeate labor relations in this sector.

Narrative Deliberation? On Storytelling as a Necessary Component of Public Deliberation

This paper deals with the place of narrative, that is, storytelling, in public deliberation. A distinction is made between weak and strong conceptions of narrative. According to the weak one, storytelling is but one rhetorical device among others with which social actors produce and convey meaning. In contrast, the strong conception holds that narrative is necessary to communicate, and argue, about topics such as the human experience of time, collective identities and the moral and ethical validity of values. The upshot of this idea is that storytelling should be a necessary component of any ideal of public deliberation. Contrary to recent work by deliberative theorists, who tend to adopt the weak conception of narrative, the author argues for embracing the strong one. The main contention of this article is that stories not only have a legitimate place in deliberation, but are even necessary to formulate certain arguments in the fi rst place; for instance, arguments drawing on historical experience. This claim, namely that narrative is constitutive of certain arguments, in the sense that, without it, said reasons cannot be articulated, is illustrated by deliberative theory’s own narrative underpinnings. Finally, certain possible objections against the strong conception of narrative are dispelled.

Value creation in a reregulated market : Divestments, firms and dynamic processes

This thesis makes use of the unique reregulation of pharmaceutical monopoly in Sweden to critically examine intraindustry firm heterogeneity. It contributes to existing divestiture research as it studies the dynamism in between reconfigurations of value constellations and its effects on value creation of divested pharmacies. Because the findings showed that the predominant theory of intraindustry firm heterogeneity could not explain firm performance, the value constellation concept was applied as it captured the phenomena. A patterned finding informed how reconfigurations of value constellations in a reregulated market characterized by strict rules, regulations, and high competition did not generate additional value for firms on short term. My study unveils that value creation is hampered in situations where rules and regulations significantly affect firms’ ability to reconfigure their value constellations. The key practical implication is an alternative perspective on fundamental aspects of the reregulation and how policy-makers may impede firm performance and the intended creation of new value for not only firms but for society as a whole.

Techniques en appui des formats de modulation avancés pour les futurs réseaux optiques

Les systèmes de communication optique avec des formats de modulation avancés sont actuellement l’un des sujets de recherche les plus importants dans le domaine de communication optique. Cette recherche est stimulée par les exigences pour des débits de transmission de donnée plus élevés. Dans cette thèse, on examinera les techniques efficaces pour la modulation avancée avec une détection cohérente, et multiplexage par répartition en fréquence orthogonale (OFDM) et multiples tonalités discrètes (DMT) pour la détection directe et la détection cohérente afin d’améliorer la performance de réseaux optiques. Dans la première partie, nous examinons la rétropropagation avec filtre numérique (DFBP) comme une simple technique d’atténuation de nonlinéarité d’amplificateur optique semiconducteur (SOA) dans le système de détection cohérente. Pour la première fois, nous démontrons expérimentalement l’efficacité de DFBP pour compenser les nonlinéarités générées par SOA dans un système de détection cohérente porteur unique 16-QAM. Nous comparons la performance de DFBP avec la méthode de Runge-Kutta quatrième ordre. Nous examinons la sensibilité de performance de DFBP par rapport à ses paramètres. Par la suite, nous proposons une nouvelle méthode d’estimation de paramètre pour DFBP. Finalement, nous démontrons la transmission de signaux de 16-QAM aux taux de 22 Gbaud sur 80km de fibre optique avec la technique d’estimation de paramètre proposée pour DFBP. Dans la deuxième partie, nous nous concentrons sur les techniques afin d’améliorer la performance des systèmes OFDM optiques en examinent OFDM optiques cohérente (CO-OFDM) ainsi que OFDM optiques détection directe (DDO-OFDM). Premièrement, nous proposons une combinaison de coupure et prédistorsion pour compenser les distorsions nonlinéaires d’émetteur de CO-OFDM. Nous utilisons une interpolation linéaire par morceaux (PLI) pour charactériser la nonlinéarité d’émetteur. Dans l’émetteur nous utilisons l’inverse de l’estimation de PLI pour compenser les nonlinéarités induites à l’émetteur de CO-OFDM. Deuxièmement, nous concevons des constellations irrégulières optimisées pour les systèmes DDO-OFDM courte distance en considérant deux modèles de bruit de canal. Nous démontrons expérimentalement 100Gb/s+ OFDM/DMT avec la détection directe en utilisant les constellations QAM optimisées. Dans la troisième partie, nous proposons une architecture réseaux optiques passifs (PON) avec DDO-OFDM pour la liaison descendante et CO-OFDM pour la liaison montante. Nous examinons deux scénarios pour l’allocations de fréquence et le format de modulation des signaux. Nous identifions la détérioration limitante principale du PON bidirectionnelle et offrons des solutions pour minimiser ses effets.

Fachliche Publikationskulturen und Open Access. Fächerübergreifende Entwicklungstendenzen und Spezifika der Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung

Open Access zu öffentlich geförderten wissenschaftlichen Publikationen ist unter dem Vorzeichen der „Openness“ Teil einer zunehmend bedeutsamen globalen Entwicklung mit strukturellen Folgen für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Bildung. Dabei bedingen die jeweiligen fachkulturellen Ausgangslagen und ökonomischen Interessenskonstellationen sehr stark, in welcher Weise, mit welcher Reichweite und Akzeptanz sich das Open-Access-Paradigma konkret materialisiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht dieser Frage am Beispiel des inter- bzw. pluridisziplinären Feldes der Erziehungswissenschaft/Bildungsforschung nach. Zum einen werden die fachlichen und soziokulturellen Konstellationen des Publizierens im disziplinären Feld, die verlagswirtschaftlichen Marktkonstellationen sowie die informationsinfrastrukturellen Bedingungen des Fachgebietes analysiert und ein differenziertes Gesamtbild erstellt. Gestützt auf eine Online-Befragung der Fachcommunity Erziehungswissenschaft/Bildungsforschung werden weitergehende Erkenntnisse über vorhandene Open-Access-Erfahrungen im Fachgebiet und Hemmnisse bzw. Anforderungen an das neue Publikationsmodell aus der Sicht der Wissenschaftler/innen selbst – sowie explorativ aus Sicht der Studierenden und der Bildungspraxis - ermittelt. Wesentliche Faktoren bei der Betrachtung der Potenziale und Effekte von Open Access im Fachgebiet bilden die Faktoren akademischer Status und Funktion, Interdisziplinarität und fachliche Provenienz sowie das Verhältnis von Bildungspraxis und akademischem Sektor. (DIPF/Orig.)

La imagen en el discurso multimodal cortazariano, una poética en movimiento

The selection and proposed cortazarian image in multimodal speech, a poetic moving as a doctoral thesis title, is the result of a process that forms several progressive stages. more than satisfy our curiosity and literary artistic concerns, the questions multiply increases our desire to bring more creative Cortazarian the colossus, that not only ruins a way of making literature , but in its revolutionary labyrinth gives a turn of the screw to the already tangled world of artistic writing , breaking in 1967 with the first of four hybrids books, La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos through which converts the traditional plastic unitextual and unimodal space in a palempsesto inexhaustible generator senses and meanings. Far from appeasing the wrath of conservative critics, caused by his narrative masterpiece, Hopscotch (1963), sparked the debate to denounce the regression of the classic molds of writing, proposing the imagination as the setting for creative freedom, it is not as arbitrary and nonsense, but as a process of higher state of consciousness in which it operates an underlying logic. Hence, our objective is to crawl into the underworld and plastics other multisígnicas border spaces, fleeting and ephemeral alliances that relate not just as complementary and similar texts which may be the same speech and can transmit the same, but quite the contrary, the oft-repeated notion of analogy is the first victim, fortunately, this kind of creative-artistic operations that raise the creative act to a sublime state capable of converting the inexhaustible multitextuales constellations in different ways: opposition, confrontation, invasion, dialogue, shadow, duplication, theft, etc. However this multiple transgression pushed to the limit by Julio Cortazar and his friend Julio Silva through four books proposed for analysis often does not translate into jobs and research in literature departments of the universities of the world, nor the critics are echoes the striking abundance and clarity of expression multimodal phenomenon as is the case with other works of Cortazar unimodal type, which makes it impassable fences mysterious worlds...

The Principle of Proportionality in International Law

Whilst the principle of proportionality indisputably plays a crucial role in the protection of fundamental rights, it is still unclear to what extent it applies to other fields in international law. The paper therefore explores the role it plays in selected fields of public international law, beyond human rights. The examination begins in the classical domain of reprisals and in maritime boundary delimitation and continues to analyse the role played in the law of multilateral trade regulation of the World Trade Organization and in bilateral investment protection. In an attempt to explain differences in recourse to proportionality in the various fields, we develop in our conclusions a distinction between horizontal and vertical constellations of legal protection.

Spheres of Influence: A Few Reflections on the Concept

In the frame of the Ukrainian crisis the question of spheres of influence has returned to political discourse. This may be an awkward subject, but what if we only deny the existence of such power constellations as spheres of influence? Do spheres of influence exist, or are they relics of history, and mere rhetoric? And if they exist, where can we find them? The hypothesis in this article is that instead of being a tangible reality, spheres of influence are obscure and contested political constructions, which nevertheless can have an impact on political behaviour. To demonstrate this, the article will first introduce a few examples of the current use of the concept. Secondly, a few remarks follow concerning the different IR schools of thought, and conceptual history as a method. Next, the article turns to discussing a few dictionaries and the empirical material for the present inquiry, which consists of recent textbooks, i.e. the current political science curriculum in one particular university, at the University of Tampere, Finland. More empirical cases deal with the division of Africa, the post-WWII situation, and the Hungarian revolution of 1956.