Search Results (7)

The transition towards nature-based cities has increasingly become a central focus in political–environmental agendas and urban design practices, aiming to enhance climate adaptation, urban biodiversity, spatial equilibrium, and social well-being as part of the ongoing socio-ecological urban transition process. Climate adaptation in cities is a complex problem and one of the main collective challenges for society, but the relationships between city managers and citizens as to urban green care still face many challenges. Parks design guided by technical-expert and globalised criteria; inflexibility from bureaucratic inertia; and citizens’ demands to participate in the urban green transition, sometimes without the necessary knowledge or time, are some of the challenges that require further research. In this study, we examine four long-lasting approaches to green-space management in four cities in the Netherlands, ranging from municipality-driven to community-driven management forms, and encompassing diverse spatial configurations of greenery within the urban fabric. Utilising the theoretical lens of the Social–Ecological Systems Framework, we employ a multiple-case-study approach and ethnographic fieldwork analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of the norms, collective-choice rules, and social conventions embodied in each urban green management arrangement. The purpose of this research is applied, that is, to provide urban managers and decision-makers with a deeper understanding of drivers to promote effective collaborative management approaches, focusing on specific organisational rules that may contribute to more sustained planning and maintenance pathways for urban green spaces, regardless of changes in political leadership or significant external funding sources. The results of the investigated cases show that long-lasting collaborative management of forests and parks has established a set of collective-choice rules for resource transfer between municipalities and citizens, including non-monetary resources (such as pruning-training courses or guided tours that attract tourists and researchers). Additionally, these arrangements have been favoured by the existence of legal norms that enable co-ownership of the land, and monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms that offer a slightly different interpretation from the evidence identified so far in the scientific literature on collective resource management and organisational studies. Full article

Time series analysis is a method of key importance for systems of various hierarchies’ economic security studies. This article’s main goal is to develop an economic security rapid indicators system, introducing threshold values and utilizing indices with a one-month sampling period, and its approbation during Russia’s economic security operational monitoring. In order to develop such a system, the authors accumulated economic security world experience including reliability, visibility and tree structure principles. The authors’ monitoring system includes four spheres: real economy, social, monetary and foreign economic, each of which contains three indicators. In order to organize economic security monitoring, it is proposed to use the index method, which converts indicators into a dimensionless form with integral values in subsequent calculations. Based on integral indices values, the economic security generalized index is synthesized, which can be used to analyze a system’s development trends. We present economic security normalized indicators and integral indices dynamics for the years 2020–2022, which show two crises dynamics. The first is due the COVID-19 pandemic, while the second is associated with economic sanctions against Russia, implemented in 2022. The proposed economic security operational monitoring indicators system can be used effectively in the government’s practical tasks in order to ensure the required level of economic security. This is especially true for rapid diagnosis of crisis phenomena in countries and individual regions. Full article

The COVID-19 crisis and the war between Russia and Ukraine affects the world economy badly. The western countries’ economic sanctions on Russia and the Russian government’s reverse sanctions on western countries create pressure on the world economy. This study was conducted to investigate how the economic performance is responding to COVID-19 and the geopolitical crisis of the era. In doing so, both theoretical and numerical data reviews have been performed. The objective of the study is to investigate the short-term risks and long-term strategic challenges of the crisis. The study used a bibliometric approach with the help of RStudio software. The Web of Science database was used for extracting the resources in line with the grey literature from the Google Search engine. A total of 895 documents were utilized in this bibliometric analysis. At the same time, secondary panel data extracted from the international monetary fund (IMF) for a period of 4 years (2019–2022) were utilized for reviewing numerical implications. The purposive sampling technique is used for data selection and main economic variables. The findings of the study imply that countries over the world registered less economic growth, high inflation rate, and high government debt in 2022 compared to the fiscal period of 2019–2021. The emerging economies and developing countries of Europe were badly affected by the crisis as the level of inflation rate hit 27 percent and the economic growth of the region registered a negative 2.9 percent. The study also found rising interest rates, exchange rate volatility, risk of stagflation, and rising energy prices are the short-term risks to economies. The issue of sustainable development goals and green aspects, risk of hyperinflation, and risk of economic recession are the long-term strategic challenges or risks to economies. Bailout and debt relief were found to be necessary for those countries badly affected by the crisis. Policymakers should facilitate financial policies and should switch from general assistance to targeted support of viable enterprises. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis of monetization as a priority of the new monetary growth of the economies using the example of the Russian economy, identifying new trends in global practices of monetary factor management, as well as the search for ways to stimulate economic growth using the best international experience. Our paper tackles the novel research question of whether changing the priorities of monetary policy from targeting (and curbing) inflation to stimulating economic growth might yield more favorable economic results and what best world practices should be appropriately introduced in Russia to improve the effectiveness of monetary policy. The key results of the paper are focused on a comparative analysis of the economies’ development under the influence of monetary factors in comparison with the most progressive economies, the study of the best practices for increasing the monetization of national economies, and the identification of recommendations for determining the most optimal way to increase economic growth through the monetization of the economy. Monetarist views on the decisive role of fiat money in the development of the real sector of the economy, capital markets, payment and settlement systems, the standard of living of the population, and other important aspects of macro- and microeconomics have become the mainstream of government regulation. It seemed that by finding the right indicators of the relationship between interest rates, GDP, and inflation, all problems of economic growth could be solved. By increasing the amount of money faster than the achieved economic growth, it was believed that it was possible to stimulate GDP growth through monetary investments and credit, i.e., more money was issued than the value produced represented by the goods and services. Accordingly, new money that had no value had to create new value. We argue that monetization can be seen as the main factor in providing such incentives. Our results can be useful for central bankers, policymakers, and stakeholders in the banking and financial sector. The conclusions and recommendations of the authors are based on studies conducted using such research methods as content analysis, logical analysis, and statistical analysis. Full article

During the late 20th century, imprisonment rates in the United States saw unprecedented growth, leading correctional systems across the country to face widespread overcrowding and underfunding. Subsequently, policy makers sought out alternatives to incarceration for certain categories of offenses. Community supervision, such as probation, emerged as a popular solution to both reduce prison and jail populations as well as to generate revenue to fund the rapidly expanding legal system. With the rise in community supervision came increases in the number of people on probation for lower-level and non-violent offenses. The expansion of legal financial obligations (LFO) placed additional burdens on these persons, who disproportionately sit in lower socio-economic status brackets. Using data from the 1995 Survey of Adults on Probation (SAP), the current study adds to the literature on probation and LFOs in an important way. The SAP data contain information on the amount, frequency, and type of LFO. Thus, this paper examines the distinct types of LFOs to determine the differential burden that each type of LFO has on people on probation. This paper finds that of all types of fees, those associated with victim restitution are most likely to lead to missed payments, while those that generate revenues do not contribute significantly to missed payments. This paper discusses the implications of this for procedural justice and fairness. Full article

A vast number of studies are devoted to the short-term forecasting of agricultural production and market. However, those results are more helpful for market traders than producers and agricultural policy regulators because any structural change in that field requires a while to be implemented. The mid and long-term predictions (from one year and more) of production and market demand seem more helpful. However, this problem requires considering long-term dependencies between various features. The most natural way of analyzing all those features together is with deep neural networks. The paper presents neural network models for mid-term forecasting of crop production and export, which considers heterogeneous features such as trade flows, production levels, macroeconomic indicators, fuel pricing, and vegetation indexes. They also utilize text-mining to assess changes in the news flow related to the state agricultural policy, sanctions, and the context in the local and international food markets. We collected and combined data from various local and international providers such as UN FAOSTAT, UN Comtrade, social media, the International Monetary Fund for 15 of the world’s top wheat exporters. The experiments show that the proposed models with additive regularization can accurately predict grain export and production levels. We also confirmed that vegetation indexes and fuel prices are crucial for export prediction. Still, the fuel prices seem to be more important for predicting production than the NDVI indexes from past observations. Full article

Traffic stops and tickets often have far-reaching consequences for poor and marginalized communities, yet resulting fines and fees increasingly fund local court systems. This paper critically explores who bears the brunt of traffic fines and fees in Nevada, historically one of the fastest growing and increasingly diverse states in the nation, and one of thirteen US states to prosecute minor traffic violations as criminal misdemeanors rather than civil infractions. Drawing on legislative histories, we find that state legislators in Nevada increased fines and fees to raise revenues. Using descriptive statistics to analyze the 2012–2020 open arrest warrants extracted from the Las Vegas Municipal Court, we find that 58.6% of all open warrants are from failure to pay tickets owing to administrative-related offenses—vehicle registration and maintenance, no license or plates, or no insurance. Those issued warrants for failure to pay are disproportionately for people who are Black and from the poorest areas in the region. Ultimately, the Nevada system of monetary traffic sanctions criminalizes poverty and reinforces racial disparities. Full article