Good governance and the extractive industries in sub-saharan Africa

This article critically examines the challenges that come with implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)a policy mechanism marketed by donors and Western governments as a key to facilitating economic improvement in resource-rich developing countriesin sub-Saharan Africa. The forces behind the EITI contest that impoverished institutions, the embezzlement of petroleum and/or mineral revenues, and a lack of transparency are the chief reasons why resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa is underperforming economically, and that implementation of the EITI, with its foundation of good governance, will help address these problems. The position here, however, is that the task is by no means straightforward: that the EITI is not necessarily a blueprint for facilitating good governance in the region's resource-rich countries. It is concluded that the EITI is a policy mechanism that could prove to be effective with significant institutional change in host African countries but, on its own, it is incapable of reducing corruption and mobilizing citizens to hold government officials accountable for hoarding profits from extractive industry operations.

Study of the petrochemical industries in the countries of the northern portion of the Western Hemisphere : final report on investigation no. 332-109 under section 332 of the Tariff act of 1930 /

Prepared principally by John J. Gersic, Bonnie Noreen, Kenneth J. Conant, and others.

In the matter of: public hearing before Special Industry Committee no. 41-A for the chemical, petroleum, rubber, and related products industry in Puerto Rico. September 3, 4, and 5, 1958 ... San Juan Puerto Rico. . Reporters: John F. Hrozencik [and] Genevieve Biolsi.

Maynard E. Pirsig, chairman.

Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers

Mode of access: Internet.

The data base : the potential for energy conservation in nine selected industries /

v.1. Selected plastics.--v.2. Petroleum refining.--v.3. Cement.--v.4. Copper.--v.5. Aluminum.--v.6. Steel.--v.7. Glass.--v.8. Selected paper products.--v.9.Styrene butadiene rubber.

Health effects due to exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the petroleum reining industry

Introduction: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PaH) are a group of semi-volatile organic compounds composed of 2 or more aromatic rings, generated during incomplete combustion of organic matter. These compounds have been considered as major air pollutants, and also, there is evidence of potential mutagenic and carcinogenic effects in some of them. One of the most important sources of these compounds is industry, and particularly, in processes such as aluminium or coke production, waste incineration and petrochemical and oil reining. This last process is the subject of this article, whose aim is to review the health effects in persons potentially exposed to PAH generated during petroleum reining. Methods: a descriptive review of the available literature was performed, in which PubMed was used as an information source. The following search descriptors were used: refinery, PaH, health, health impact assessment, air pollutants and environmental, as well as their translations in Spanish. Results: eleven articles were included, and most of them correspond to epidemiological studies in which a high incidence of cancer is reported. Conclusions: The reviewed studies concur that there is a signiicant relationship between the presence of oil reineries and the increase of adverse health effects of workers and people living in areas that are close to these industries, particularly, respiratory diseases and cancer. However, it is important to develop studies that simultaneously evaluate the effects on human health and the concentration of these substances in the environment, in order to establish a more direct relationship between the 2 variables.

Creative industries as a globally contestable policy field

The development of the creative industries “proposition” has caused a great deal of controversy. Even as it has been examined and adopted in several, quite diverse, jurisdictions as a policy language seeking to respond to both creative production and consumption in new economic conditions, it is subject to at times withering critique from within academic media, cultural and communication studies. It is held to promote a simplistic narrative of the merging of culture and economics and represents incoherent policy; the data sources are suspect and underdeveloped; there is a utopianization of “creative” labor; and a benign globalist narrative of the adoption of the idea. This article looks at some of these critiques of creative industries idea and argues against them.

From the consciousness industry to the creative industries : consumer-created content, social network markets, & the growth of knowledge

In studies of media industries, too much attention has been paid to providers and firms, too little to consumers and markets. But with user-created content, the question first posed more than a generation ago by the uses & gratifications method and taken up by semiotics and the active audience tradition (‘what do audiences do with media?’), has resurfaced with renewed force. What’s new is that where this question (of what the media industries and audiences did with each other) used to be individualist and functionalist, now, with the advent of social networks using Web 2.0 affordances, it can be re-posed at the level of systems and populations as well.

Creative Industries come to China (MATE)

This paper introduces the special issue “China: Internationalizing the Creative Industries”, describing the Australian Research Council funded “MATE” project which provides the conceptual background for the questions the issue explores. The MATE project began with the expectation that as China evolves from its status as a developing country with an emphasis on primary industries and manufacturing, to a mature, market-driven economy benefiting from high levels of international investment, it will become more actively engaged with the global “knowledge economy” and “information society”. In this context, developments in the “creative industries”, which are playing such an important role in developed economies, might reasonably be expected in China. Although China continues to be characterised by strong central-policy settings, as the domestic consumer market matures there is greater scope for consumer-led creative business development. The “MATE” project aimed to capture some of these changes as they began to gain momentum across a range of services: Media, Advertising, Tourism and Education. This special issue continues this theme with papers that explore the theoretical challenges, economic questions and implications, and practical instantiations of creative industries growth in China. All papers contained in this special issue have been peer-reviewed.

The implications of creative industries for regional outcomes

As the 21st century progresses, the most successful economies and societies will be creative ones. Worldwide, governments are producing strategies to encourage the development of creative industries and to strengthen the role of knowledge cities nationally and internationally. There is a significant policy discussion regarding the role of creative clusters in strengthening local economies and significant energy has been expended discussing the many positive outcomes of such developments. This article takes these issues as a starting point and considers the role of creative industries within broader concerns regarding uneven metropolitan development. By developing a typology of jobs across Australia’s metropolitan regions, the article will consider the broad social and economic impacts of uneven development of creative industry jobs between metropolitan regions and also the implications for individual metropolitan regions and policy outcomes.