Search Results (32)

This paper discusses the use of IoT sensor networks and spatial data mining methods to support the design process in the revitalization of the university campus of the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) in the spirit of universal design. The aim of the research was to develop a methodology for the use of IoT and edge computing for the acquisition of spatial knowledge based on spatial big data, as well as for the development of an open (geo)information society that shares the responsibility for the process of shaping the spaces of smart cities. The purpose of the article is to verify the hypothesis on whether it is possible to obtain spatial–temporal quantitative data that are useful in the process of designing the space of a university campus using low-cost Internet of Things sensors, i.e., already existing networks of CCTV cameras supported by simple installed beam-crossing sensors. The methodological approach proposed in the article combines two main areas—the use of IT technologies (IoT, big data, spatial data mining) and data-driven design based on analysis of urban space actors’ behavior for participatory revitalization of a university campus. The research method applied involves placing a network of locally communicating heterogeneous IoT sensors in the space of a campus. These sensors collect data on the behavior of urban space actors: people and vehicles. The data collected and the knowledge gained from its analysis are used to discuss the shape of the campus space. The testbed of the developed methodology was the central campus of the WUT (Warsaw University of Technology), which made it possible to analyze the time-varying use of the selected campus spaces and to identify the premises for the revitalization project in accordance with contemporary trends in the design of the space of HEIs (higher education institutions), as well as the needs of the academic community and the residents of the capital. The results are used not only to optimize the process of redesigning the WUT campus, but also to support the process of discussion and activation of the community in the development of deliberative democracy and participatory shaping of space in general. Full article

We show that a model of “the spirit of capitalism”, or the concern for social status, can generate a high degree of international risk sharing as measured by asset prices, even when consumption and portfolio holdings exhibit “home bias”. We also show how portfolio externalities can arise in the model and highlight the caution that one needs in interpreting asset-price-based measures of international risk sharing: in the presence of portfolio externalities, even when the measured degree of risk sharing is perfect, it is still possible for government policies to induce investors to hold better-diversified portfolios and attain higher welfare. Full article

Nietzsche’s declaration of “God is dead” signifies not only the collapse of classical metaphysical systems in philosophy but also shifts in the psychological structure of individuals and society after the secularization of Christianity. A philosophical reading is crucial to understanding its whole process and real-world ramifications. We first delineate the fundamental meanings and historical context of the term “God” or “Absolute” and expound upon the mechanisms of spiritual functioning under it, highlighting the significance of God, or the Absolute, as the highest object of spiritual operation. Next, we analyze the death of God, i.e., the retreat of the Absolute, in the realms of reason and faith, exploring its causes and repercussions, particularly the disruption of the operation of the spirit. Then, building upon this analysis, we conclude that the metaphysical life supported by Kant and Hegel faces failure in the present age, because the Absolute has ceased to be the foundation. The roots of spiritual operation are no longer secure; the return to the Absolute points to emptiness, and exit without return creates disruptive division between subject and substance, essence and phenomenon, reason and reality. Meanwhile, the departure of God and the development of capitalism are intertwined, calling for a resurgence in the form of secularization, heralding a renewed human judgment of God. Full article

This multidisciplinary paper contributes to political economy, social cybernetics, and philosophy by examining distinctions in market capitalist ideologies through a metacybernetic approach. It explores reflexive processes, akin to Adam Smith’s invisible and visible hands, and their impact on market ideologies. The study highlights the evolutifon of these ideologies in balancing egoism and altruism, revealing insights into sociocultural shifts. Some ideologies are more prone to pathologies like market hegemony, which disrupts market viability and social welfare. Diagnosing these ideologies is essential to address issues of market hegemony like platform capitalism, technofeudalism, and surveillance capitalism. After a comparative analysis of capitalist ideologies, the paper focuses on neoliberal and stakeholder capitalism, due to their dominance, contrasting philosophies, policy influence, and roles in global challenges. A metacybernetic perspective is adopted, modelling the market as a complex adaptive system with agency, using Mindset Agency Theory (MAT). MAT distinguishes agency into subagencies of affect and cognition. Recognising the role of spirit, a spirit subagency is configured into MAT to enable explicit consideration of attributes like ethics and the greater good within the market, relationally improving transparency and promoting sustainable and inclusive economic practices. MAT is applied to the evolution of capitalist ideologies, examining their viability and sustainability under changing conditions. With its now triadic interactive subagency structure, MAT identifies eight distinct types of mindset, each characterised by 21 parameters that combine to deliver unique variations, in neoliberal and stakeholder capitalism, of the market ideologies. Full article

As ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) is consistent with the spirit of sustainable development, it is useful to elevate ESG performance to realize the sustainable development of enterprise and society. Using the data of Chinese A-share listed firms in the period of 2011 to 2019, this paper takes the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone policy as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences method to assess the effect of digital economy development on ESG performance. This paper reveals the following: (1) the digital economy can facilitate ESG performance; (2) digitalization of the economy helps enterprises to propel digital transformation, which in turn lifts ESG performance; (3) digital economy development has a deeper impact on private enterprises, especially for those in China’s capital cities; and (4) digital economy development moderates the inhibiting effect of ESG performance on corporate financial constraints. The findings of this paper indicate that digitalization of the economy can help to achieve sustainable development. Full article

Entrepreneurship has always been regarded as an important economic activity that promotes sustainable economic development, enlivens markets and social transactions, and cultivates entrepreneurial spirit. As a unique concept in China’s economic development, new infrastructure has been widely disseminated and practiced and has also contributed to urban development and sustainable economic growth. However, there is little research by scholars on whether there is a causal relationship between the two, that is, whether new infrastructure will affect the level of regional entrepreneurship in sustainable economic development. This article used panel data from 267 cities in China between 2011 and 2017 to examine the impact of new infrastructure on regional entrepreneurial activities. Research has found that the construction of new infrastructure, especially information infrastructure, significantly promotes regional entrepreneurship. This study explored mechanisms such as human capital agglomeration and alleviating financing constraints. This study also found that the impact of new infrastructure on entrepreneurship varies based on the urban administrative level and region, with a more significant impact on central cities and central and western regions. This study will help researchers discover and understand the role of new infrastructure in regional entrepreneurship while promoting sustainable economic development. Full article

The art of the Achaemenid Empire flourished in Ancient Persia from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE, and featured stone-carved monumental structures adorned with recurring zoological and floral patterns. Such representations clearly had a symbolic meaning intimately connected to religious expression and the will of deities. Considering the lack of any comprehensive analysis of botanical features, we investigate the recurring plant patterns and the variety of plants depicted. An analysis of the documentation referring mainly to monuments in the two main capitals of Darius I, Persepolis and Susa, showed the presence of certain repetitive elements, such as the so-called rosettes (composed variously of Asteraceae capitula and Nymphaea flowers), palms (Phoenix dactylifera, the tree of life), pines, flowers or bunches and metamorphic elements. Some plants are described in this paper for the first time in the context of Persian iconography, such as Mandragora officinalis in offering scenes as a symbol of fertility and protection against evil spirits, Pinus brutia var. eldarica as a symbol of immortality and elevation to the gods, and the capitula of Matricaria/Leucanthemum as solar symbols. Further interesting elements include cf. Myrtus communis in some crowns and probably cf. Ephedra sp. in offering scenes. Achaemenid art was deeply influenced by the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia with its great attention to nature as well as by the nearby civilizations of the Mesopotamian area and Egypt. Most elements were also associated with psychotropic or medicinal attributes, which contributed to their position as symbols of power. Full article

The Mother Goddess Worship’s (MGW) private shrine—Điện thờ Mẫu tư gia—has been a prominent worshipping place of a Vietnamese folk religion; however, it is rarely documented in scholarship in both Vietnamese and English. This paper is based mainly on in-depth interviews and numerous follow-up conversations with sixteen MGW spirit mediums in Hanoi capital city, additionally verified and supported by the authors’ field notes. The findings reveal that worshipping Buddha(s) at MGW private shrines is a remarkable phenomenon and becoming common; however, they vary at different levels because of different reasons in which non-religious causes are significantly considered. The absence of worshipping Buddha(s), if there is any, is explained by the problems of lacking space or being in serious spiritual conflicts that cannot be avoided. In those cases, a Buddha(s) altar is often immediately added when the space is improved, and Buddha(s) statues/pictures are still displayed. Furthermore, the continuous blending of MGW—a Vietnamese folk religion—with Buddhism—a world religion—is proved to be not only a way that religious people choose to nurture their faith and seek preferable religious practices but additionally to be flexible to adapt their religion in the modern era. Finally, regarding religious freedom and tolerance, we argue that private shrines are able to be active freely without any control by the government such as they used to be prohibited in the past. In some circumstances, government officers also benefit from services offered by local mediums, even though they might not be MGW followers. Furthermore, mediums’ neighbors are friendly to or even enjoy shrines’ activities. Such facts show the improvement in religious freedom in Vietnam in recent decades, as well as once again proving the tolerance of the Vietnamese people towards different religions and beliefs. Full article

Strategic entrepreneurship refers to the ability of an MSME to investigate potential entrepreneurial ventures while exploiting its current competitive advantages. Academics and practitioners have offered models to deconstruct strategic entrepreneurship; however, there are few distinctive strategic entrepreneurship models appropriate for certain business circumstances. Culinary businesses in Cibinong District, Bogor Regency face several challenges, including low-quality human resources, inadequate capital and technology, and poor entrepreneurial spirit. This study aims to learn how the performance of women-owned fish processing MSMEs under COVID-19 conditions connects to several strategic entrepreneurship components, such as environmental factors, individual resources, resource orchestration, and competitive advantage. Research data taken from 30 women-owned fish processing businesses were processed using SMART-PLS 3.0, followed by a quantitative descriptive method analysis. The outcome was that the components of the environment, specific resources, and orchestration of those resources could generate performance and value for the customer, leading to competitive advantages. This research provides a current understanding of attitudes to businesswomen’s activities throughout the pandemic period, particularly in relation to entrepreneurship chances and MSME performance. Strategic entrepreneurship is necessary to improve performance in dynamic environments. Full article

“We all are makers” as a slogan of maker movement seemed to be a utopian imagination. Although spirits such as openness and sharing in the slogan successfully directed the attention of the government, the capital, and the general public to individual innovation, they might be unilaterally presented. Drawing upon Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of heterotopias, this article explores the features of makerspaces in Shenzhen, China, arguing that the heterogeneous culture generated by makerspaces played an essential role in stimulating innovation and expanding the impact of maker movement. This article presents four types of heterogeneous culture, the cultures of tolerance, liminality, compensation, and confrontation, which enriched the research on makerspaces and enhanced the status of makerspaces in innovation studies. Through the critical lens, this article shows the social and cultural meanings of makerspaces to makers, makerspace operators, and governments, calling for their rethinking in sustainable development of makerspaces. Full article

Due to water scarcity and harsh climate, Saudi Arabia and its neighboring countries rely heavily on fresh food imports from distant lands and have higher per capita expenditures on vegetable imports compared with USA and China. Aquaponics can supply fresh food throughout the year and may complement conventional agriculture in Saudi Arabia to help the objectives and policies defined by the government for food and water security. In this spirit, an Aquaponics farm is being constructed in the desert-coast climate to study the feasibility. A detailed SWOT analysis is performed for a commercial farm which reveals that the advantages of Aquaponics in the Saudi market outweigh the weaknesses. Preliminary experiences show that such ventures require high capital costs and synergistic collaboration of engineering, agriculture, business, and geology. Full article

With the rapid increase of market competition pressure, enterprises’ collaborative innovation plays a more prominent role in competitive advantage. This paper aims to explore how the enterprise–science community can achieve sustainable collaborative value co-creation. Taking the Maoduoli Group as a sample, using the single case study method and grounded theory, a structural model of the enterprise–science community collaborative value co-creation mechanism is constructed. The proposed model is based on the value logic of “advocating value—creating value—delivering value—acquiring value”, which explains how the enterprise–scientific community collaborative value co-creation model is formed, how it is implemented, how it is delivered to customers, and the overall process of jointly harvesting value at last. The findings are as follows: First, government support, market demand, and entrepreneurial spirit are the internal and external factors for the enterprise–science community to develop collaborative value co-creation; secondly, the synergy mechanism of the enterprise–science community is to realize mutual activities such as joint research and development, a joint publication of papers, sharing of research results, joint research and development activities, and joint teaching practice through means of capital investment, concept support, and technical support. Third, the synergy mechanism of the enterprise–science community can realize the value of the economic and scientific research and the ecological and social benefits (narrow sense), and continuously feed back to further promote a deeper level of collaborative value co-creation of the enterprise–science community. This paper introduces the dimension of the scientific community, forms a special construct, and focuses on the collaborative value co-creation model of the enterprise–scientific community, which fills the gap in this research direction, and also provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the collaborative value co-creation model of the enterprise–scientific community. Full article

Improving the entrepreneurial performance of farmers is conducive to increasing their income, reducing poverty, and securing livelihoods. In the quest for sustainable livelihoods, non-cognitive skills are becoming increasingly significant. Based on data from the 2018 Chinese Family Panel Study, this paper uses the ‘Big Five’ personality traits and a cross-sectional regression model to construct an indicator system to analyze farmers’ non-cognitive skills empirically and determine how these skills affect entrepreneurial performance. The results are as follows: (1) non-cognitive skills that significantly affect farmers’ entrepreneurial performance are, in order of influence, openness, extroversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. After considering endogeneity and substitution-explained variables, the above conclusions are still robust. (2) Heterogeneity analysis finds that farmers over 40 and those who start their businesses in cities have higher returns on non-cognitive entrepreneurship. (3) The paper confirms that non-cognitive skills improve farmers’ entrepreneurial performance through human and social capital effects. Therefore, entrepreneurs should consciously improve their non-cognitive skills by cultivating an enterprising and innovative spirit and social skills. The government’s entrepreneurship training for farmers should also focus on setting up courses in non-cognitive skills development to enhance farmers’ entrepreneurial literacy and skills. Full article

Two issues occur related to cooperatives’ entity resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first comes from external stakeholders increasing the role of government in empowering cooperatives. Second is the strengthening of solidarity cooperatives members demonstrate in helping each other. To address these issues, the purpose of this study will be to explore the role of government in supporting cooperative resilience and to observe the internal values of cooperatives. Examining these two concerns will reveal how cooperatives engage external and internal stakeholders to handle unforeseen circumstances. Data were collected from two cognate countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. To gather data, 9 informants were interviewed, and 14 YouTube channels and 6 government websites were observed. The data were transcribed and analyzed. These data lead to the following two themes: the significant government support and the tight connected feeling of members to help each other, called gotong royong. These themes will be useful for understanding the optimal way to increase the engagement of external and internal cooperative stakeholders, as the key to cooperative resilience. It was found that government has a major role in the development of cooperatives, in both countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. Gotong royong, as the spirit of the cooperative movement, especially in Indonesia, saved the cooperative industry during the pandemic. This study supports the stakeholder theory and social capital theory and contributes to the literature on the practices of cooperatives in two countries. Full article

Most research on the water spirits of the Yangzi has focused on popular worship and paid little attention to the Confucian discourse and its major role in establishing imperial legitimacy. Yet it is a crucial aspect to understand traditional politics in China. The water spirits of the Yangzi River and its tributaries and lakes were venerated, offered imperial sacrifices, and incorporated into codes of state ritual in traditional China. The canonized sacrifices to the water spirits of the Yangzi River basin symbolized the religious–political legitimacy of the imperial regimes. When an imperial court offered sacrifice to the water spirits of the Yangzi River basin incorporated by previous dynasties, this action demonstrated that the current court directly connected to past regimes and inherited the authority of sacrifice passed down from the ancient and the orthodox tradition of Confucian ritual classics. Since the majority of dynasty capitals in traditional China were located in the north with fewer rivers, worshipping water spirits of the Yangzi River basin would imply recognition and blessing from southern divinities. The practice of granting noble titles and temple plaques to those water spirits would further demonstrate the imperial courts’ control over the divine power. By communicating with and managing the water spirits of the Yangzi River, the imperial courts would also symbolize their political and military administration over the south and they are united, rather than divided, regimes. Full article