ASSESSMENT OF INTEGRATION EFFECTS IN THE EURASIAN

Theory on environmental governance and water governance emphasises decentralised, devolved forms of interaction between stakeholders. As previously excluded actors are empowered to take part in governance, new forms of cooperation are created. This paper examines how the cooperative principle has influenced stakeholder interaction at the local and international scales of water governance in South Africa. Water policies and initiatives have been set up to promote multi‐level governance that emphasises cooperation between various stakeholders. The emphasis on cooperation and inclusiveness is particularly pertinent to the South African context because of its apartheid past. The paper asks whether there have been new forms of cooperation between a wider array of actors, as the theory proposes. By using the case studies of the Sabie catchment and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project to examine local and international level governance, the paper finds challenges related to power disparity and interdependence of actors, and risk perceptions of inclusive decision‐making. It is found that at both the local and international level, the state, which is a ‘traditional’ actor, still plays an influential role in decision‐making. ‘New’ actors such as businesses, civil society, and regional institutions are more visible but have limited decision‐making power. Non‐linear, time‐consuming forms of cooperation occur in water governance.

The concept of digital transformation, which refers to the use of strategically managed digital technologies to achieve various economic and social goals, is increasingly visible in various development programs of the European Union and Latvia. The aim of the digital transformation is to create a society, economy and public administration that purposefully uses the existing and creates new opportunities of digital technologies, improving the quality of life for every individual and society as well, raising the competitiveness of the country and economy. The National Development Plan of Latvia for 2021-2027 also identifies the further development of digitalization as a pervasive element for all sectors, especially in such areas as innovation and science, education, health care, inclusive society and labor market, infrastructure, regional development, security, as well as also environment and energy. In order to do this, the “Digital Transformation Guidelines for 2021-2027” have been developed, which set out the goals, directions and tasks of the digital transformation policy. One of the basic conditions for digital transformation is a digitally skilled society. To develop the rural environment, including through digital solutions, an initiative supported by the European Commission – ‘Smart Villages’, has been in place since 2016. It is a relatively new concept in EU policy-making and includes a vision for the future of rural areas. ‘Smart’, in the sense of this concept, means the development of new forms of cooperation – between farmers and other entrepreneurs in rural areas, between municipalities, the private and public sectors, and cooperation takes place from the bottom up and from the top down. Smart village strategies can ensure that the digital needs, priorities and capabilities of the rural population are addressed at local level and can help to link these core activities to national and regional digital strategies. The aim of the research is to study the development opportunities of smart villages and their potential in the process of digital transformation of the rural environment. The study carried out an analysis of the rural and regional policies, as well as digital transformation strategic documents. The article also examines examples of the use of digital solutions in smart villages in European countries. The study concludes that the introduction of the concept of smart villages is an effective tool for digital transformation in rural areas, both processes have a common goal and tasks, the most important of which is to take actions to prevent working-age persons from leaving local areas, moving to the capital city Riga or leaving Latvia.

The paper analyzes how the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) approach sustainable development in their legal documents and social media. Unlike democracies, autocracies are driven by concerns of regime survival, but they often seek legitimacy through expressed commitments to global norms. We find that while the EBRD has a clear and detailed environmental agenda, this is not so for the EDB, which appears unconcerned about legitimizing itself on this issue. The paper advances our understanding of the likely role of these organizations in sustainable development, identifying areas for further research on global environmental challenges.

The revitalization of international regional development banks’ activities is considered in the article as a necessary condition for solving problems that have arisen in various sectors of the economy in the context of the coronavirus crisis. The aim of the study is to analyze the activities of international regional development banks in the current situation and develop forecasts regarding the directions of their activities, as well as some recommendations. The methodological basis of the work was a systematic approach, the fundamental provisions of economic theory and the theory of international economic relations, methods of comparative analysis, and expert assessments. Statistical data of international economic and financial organizations, as well as publications of foreign and domestic authors were used as sources of information. The stages in providing financial resources for the fight against the coronavirus crisis are highlighted. The article considers and summarizes the approaches of several international development banks to participation in anti-crisis measures. So, first of all, these financial institutions carried out measures such as rapid response and cost support programs in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Going forward, based on the initial anti-crisis measures, new assistance programs are needed to ensure economic growth and sustainable development. To expand their activities, international regional banks have increased the issue of their bonds. One of the areas of activity of international regional development banks is interaction with global financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank divisions. It also analyzed the areas of activity of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) in the fight against coronavirus, as well as difficulties and problems, including the need for additional capitalization. Thepractical significance of the study is expressed in the possibility of using the experience of such international regional development banks as the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and others in the context of a pandemic to improve the activities of the EDB.

This article analyses the infrastructure projects in Central Asia, which are being financed by two major international organisations, two multilateral banks: the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The article aims to evaluate the activity of these two institutions in the region and to compare their priorities and the probable efficiency of their projects for the development of Central Asian countries. The choice of the region for the study is conditioned by the fact that Central Asian states are Russia’s close neighbours, and the whole region is characterised by its critical strategic value for Russia’s foreign policy. The methodology of the study is based on the use of discourse analysis of the organisations’ documents, accessible for public: agreements, plans, reports, project-related documentation. In addition, the authors have monitored and analysed the relevant news archives of Russian and foreign mass media. The article consequently analyses the typology of both organisations through the lens of the international integration studies, the institutional structure of the EDB and the AIIB, the specific features of their functioning as international relations actors, and the actual infrastructure projects financed by these institutions in Central Asia. The study demonstrates that the policies and the priorities of the two international banks differ considerably. While the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank prefers to finance the construction of roads and energy infrastructure, the Eurasian Development Bank remarkably credits production more and finances projects aimed at the industrial cooperation of Eurasian countries. Obviously, in the view of the long-term development, all areas of infrastructure expansion are worth financing; however, one can note that projects, approved by the EDB, can be characterised as more significant both at the present stage and in the long-term perspective. In addition, they contribute to the development of regional economic cooperation and Eurasian integration. If we look at the environmental and social safety of the infrastructure projects, the activities of the AIIB, regardless of its declarations on sustainable development, bear certain risks due to the existing cases of violation of environmental rules by the bank’s founder and major operator – the People’s Republic of China – in its infrastructure projects abroad. This circumstance highlights the critical importance of elaboration of national and multilateral mechanisms of control and inspection of major international infrastructure projects, as well as the necessity to fulfill the obligation of demanding their approval by the citizens of the recipient countries.

The European Commission is focusing its efforts on boosting the circular economy, and industrial symbiosis is one of the main strategies to be used. Businesses, consumers and administrations must learn to efficiently use resources and identify new forms of cooperation. The aim of this contribution is to present SymbioSyS, a tool based on ICT-web systems to promote the sustainable use of resources through IS strategies and to facilitate networking among companies and businesses. The SymbioSyS tool supports the following objectives: (1) The building of a large database that stores both tacit knowledge of experiences and practices and explicit information about activities (2). The detection of potential synergies for substitution and mutuality and providing a feasibility study. An ontological framework has been developed to set hierarchical classifications to process the information and identify synergies (3). The visualization and mapping of IS by georeferencing to analyse variables such as distances, transportation routes and optimal locations for new facilities. This has been implemented as a client–server model that allows multiple users to simultaneously connect and store large amounts of information; users access the application from a web-service. The tool has been tested within an industrial park community consisting of 25 small and medium sized enterprises from different industrial sectors (e.g., automotive, building sector), allowing the visualization of both types of synergies, the exchange of resources and joint waste management opportunities. The functions and performance of the tool are demonstrated through the case study.

This article explores the history of artificial insemination (AI) in order to suggest the value of writing histories of human intervention in animal reproduction in Latin America/Caribbean. Writing histories of how people have tried to direct animal reproduction is important for understanding changes in biological diversity and also for exploring intimate relations between people and animals beyond killing. Stories of human attempts to inseminate animals have circulated for centuries, but institutional programs emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and expanded greatly in the mid-twentieth century. After an early focus on horses, practitioners of AI shifted to livestock including dairy cows and sheep. In Latin America, as elsewhere, livestock owners and government agencies viewed AI as a means to boost yields of food and fibers via the efficient transfer of desirable genetic traits across generations of livestock. The extraction and storage of semen enabled ranchers to inseminate female livestock with sperm from “pedigree” bulls or rams that they did not own or that were even deceased. The diffusion of AI relied on inexpensive technologies and new forms of cooperation and communication between people and animals. In the late twentieth century, conservation biologists turned to AI as a means to reproduce captive populations of endangered or threatened species. The history of AI therefore allows us to cross the dividing line between “domesticated” and “wild” animals.

Households as change agents in a Dutch smart energy transition: On power, privacy and participation

This article discusses US universities and national libraries more than 30 years' experience in work as centers for the initiation and education of citizens, as well as leading research centers for women and gender studies in American society. Attention is focused on the relevance of informing the population as a whole about the principles of gender equality, quality information and research on this issue. The main attention is paid to the experience of library institutions systematic work in search for new forms of cooperation between students and teachers, scientists involved in research in the field of female and gender studies. It is noted that thanks to the active cooperation between library workers and library resources users in the field of women and women and gender studies, libraries have become effective participants in the education system and scientific work in general. The principles of building library information databases for the study of women and the gender issue, as well as the effective navigation systems created by librarians in extensive library collections, are examined. This task is very urgent, because often the information researchers require is scattered across all library collections. Great progress has been noted in the field of library and information support for education and science, in particular, the creation of web portals and library sites, the formation of a full-fledged industry information resource, electronic catalogs, full-text databases, electronic gender libraries, as well as cooperation between different libraries. Considering the role of American libraries in organizing women's and gender studies, we can conclude that they not only play the role of leading information and document centers, training centers, but they themselves become significant research institutions. Collections of some libraries are parts of national and world heritage.

The purpose of the article is to study the key features of modern business processes and outsourcing. The subject-matter of the study is the methodological and conceptual foundations of the development process of modern business and outsourcing activities. Methodology. The research is based on a set of well-known general scientific and special methods of research in economics. In particular, the method of scientific abstraction, the method of systematic analysis, economic and mathematical modeling were used in the article. Conclusion. Many types of modern work can be outsourced. Thus, this will eventually lead to a confrontation between protected freelancers and freelancers whose employment is not regulated at the legislative level. The world is changing much faster, the labor market is undeniably affected when most jobs are simplified by technology; one of the consequences is a departure from the usual regulated labor relations and structures. The work environment and the environment are changing radically today. New forms of cooperation can take legal relations beyond legal regulation in those countries that fail to adapt their legislation in time to new rapidly evolving business strategies, which often lack the concept of territorial boundaries and mostly demand talent for effective solutions. With the help of constructed multifactor regression models, which are adequate to the available statistical and calculated data and have high degrees of significance of the estimated parameters, it is possible to predict changes in the simulated economic phenomenon as a result of changes in one or more factors. It should be noted that such models today are not sustainable in the long run, as in the Ukrainian and global economies, the external environment and its conditions change quite often. Therefore, in the future it is advisable to calculate new parameters of regression models based on the presented methods and make predictions according to the obtained data. In authors’ opinion, the main reason for the increase in the share of outsourcing in Europe in the coming years is the strengthening of competition in the world market and the growth of the euro. It is believed that traditionally vertically integrated business processes will be broken into fragments and partially outsourced. This will allow European companies to increase their revenues and production volumes.

Due to the growing lack of success of the traditional instruments and strategies of local economic promotion since the beginning of the eighties the local authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany have been starting new initiatives to give stimuli to local business and to promote structural change. This new era began with the foundation of the first public sponsored venture capital fund in Berlin in 1982, the opening of the first German innovation and technology center in 1983 (in Berlin too) and the start-up of new forms of cooperation between public and private sectors in some cities of the FRG. Against the background of the experiences of a number of West-German cities the following article describes the local factors of innovation which initiate a self-generating economic process at local level or which are barriers to the formaltion of new innovative firms.

The countries of South, Southeast and East Asia are looking for new forms of cooperation with each other: politically, culturally, economically and in terms of energy policy. They have undergone enormous change, especially in the last 30 years, and are now in the process of replacing North America and Western Europe as global leadership regions. Along the way, they are repositioning themselves and have so far refused to be included in a renewed division of the world into power blocs. In contrast, they are striving to place cooperation on a new, multilateral basis. This volume illustrates this development by focusing on Vietnam, but while also examining other countries in the fascinating region from India to Indonesia and Japan.

In this paper, we propose a research agenda for psychologists in general, and scholars of culture and negotiations in particular, to address the key challenges of dealing with an increasingly globalized world from a psychological perspective. Building on an understanding of globalization in terms of cultural and subjective matters, we propose three research domains in which psychology scholars can contribute to a further understanding of our global society: (a) the effects of global contact on cognition and behavior; (b) hybridization and human agency; and (c) new forms of cooperation. In each domain, we start with a particular key tenet within the globalization or cosmopolitan literature and then develop research questions that connect human experience and human behavior with globalization. We conclude with research implications.

The article looks at the implications of Brexit for Britain and its place in the world. It considers how effective Britain can be in utilising its diplomacy, its trade links, and the application of soft power to secure its interests post-Brexit. The article concludes with an assessment of the possible role of the Commonwealth in assisting Britain going forward. However, in order for positive outcomes to be achieved both in regard to the Commonwealth and Brexit more generally, Britain must persuade its international partners of the merits of the new forms of cooperation being suggested, but also for the people of Britain to shape proactively the future direction of the country.

The demands on the construction industry can be met either by fulfilling them by applying existing knowledge and solutions or by creating something new. Trying to meet demands with existing knowledge and solutions is only possible to a certain point, beyond which it is necessary to create something new.This thesis aims to create a theoretical framework for new forms of co-operation that encourage innovative procedures. The theoretical framework is based on innovation theories.Findings suggest that motivation to innovate is important. It is mainly the client who can provide the incentives for innovation, while it is mainly a malfunctioning process that breaks them down. The process is very much the result of the forms of co-operation used. In the comparison between the construction process and the innovation process eight aspects are found, which are directly influenced by how the co-operation forms are function, namely, allowing the actors to be involved during an extended period of every project, communication, contractual incentives to encourage innovation, early involvement of the different parties, learning, relationship and co-operation with other parties, risk and reward, and support for the idea of longer relationships between the actors.