The proliferation of toxic electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) have become problematic, especially for small countries or cities with extremely high population densities. Environmental ...pollution and resource discarding have been widely recognized in case of temporary stock, simple dismantling, landfill or transboundary transportation of this waste. To address these e-waste problem subjected to environmental conservation and resource recycling, we designed an integrated mobile recycling plant, operating with combined processes of dismantling, crushing, and multi-level separation. Two large standardized and movable containers were equipped for whole-unit dismantling as well as waste monitors and printed wiring board recycling. A sophisticated demonstration indicates that valuable resources, including metals, plastic and glass, could be fully separated for further recycling. Meanwhile, we evaluated the environmental performance from the perspectives of gaseous emissions, waste water, and noise pollution, and found that these emissions could completely meet the requirements of environmental protection and human health. In addition, ecological efficiency assessment revealed that integrated mobile recycling plant could solve e-waste problem for small countries or cities.
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•E-waste problem is solved with environmental improvement and resource recycling.•Environmental performance and ecological efficiency are identified in detail.•Integrated mobile recycling plant is effective to solve e-waste problem.
Small States in EU Policy-Making analyses how small states try to impact European Union policy-making through a range of strategies. With the last rounds of enlargement and Brexit, the number and ...weight of small states in the European Union have steadily increased. At the same time, small states face distinct challenges in different institutions, which may impact their strategies. Nonetheless, the existing literature primarily focuses on the Council of the European Union and the European Council and offers few insights into how small states navigate the other institutions. The contributions to this volume examine how small states can wield influence in different institutions, arguing that they do indeed pursue different strategies depending on institutional context. The policy case studies on the EU’s foreign and security policies confirm these findings: small states can have influence in EU policy-making and can create situations where their needs are met. They are most likely to succeed when they build foreign policy coalitions, when they anticipate major economic developments and when they manage to acquire a high level of expertise in a policy area. However, the case studies also show that there is a risk of small states becoming policy-takers in cases where they cannot provide leadership in terms of ideas and expertise and/or fail to build political weight through coalitions. This book will be of interest to academics and practitioners of European politics and the EU in particular, as well as policy-makers and practitioners working on small states. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the cultural policy and diplomacy of the microstates, namely: the Principality of Monaco, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Principality of Andorra and ...the Republic of San Marino. In the introduction, the author briefly describes the concepts of cultural policy and cultural diplomacy and highlights the problem of insufficiently studied microstates. In the first part of the work, the main institutions that implement the cultural policy of the above states are considered. Further, based on reports provided by countries within the framework of the Compendium, the participation of countries in such international organizations as UNESCO and the Council of Europe is studied. In conclusion, conclusions are drawn that microstates attach particular importance to the development and promotion of their own culture at the international level. For their status, they actively and successfully participate in the activities of specialized international organizations, in the protection and promotion of national languages, in the development of cultural cooperation at the regional level.
In recent years, a Fourth Industrial Revolution emerged in public discourse as a narrative of exceptional societal disruption. At the core of this conceptual construct, led by the World Economic ...Forum, rests a sociotechnical imaginary of future essentialism, based on the revolutionary potential of digital, biological and physical innovations. This article addresses the lack of studies assessing the dynamics between the institutionalisation and the public performance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept through news media. We present the results of a quantitative content analysis of how the topic has been covered (frames, sources, tone) by the Portuguese national circulation press (2013–2020). This exploratory case study informs a proposal for an epistemic and methodological articulation between the theoretical frameworks of sociotechnical imaginaries and of media framing.
The aim of this article is to analyze the concept of small states in the discipline of International Relations to show differences and contradictions in the definition and to discuss the literature ...on foreign policy and alliance behavior of small states. The article emphasizes that there has not been a single approach to the definition of small states and there is diversity in the studies dealing with foreign policy and alliance behavior of these states. While the article enables us to question to what extent this diversity makes the category of small states meaningful, on the other hand, it tries to show that this situation reflects the developments and theoretical discussions in the discipline. Differences in defining small states and diversity of foreign policy and alliance behavior lead scholars, who benefit from contending theories of International Relations, to deal with the category of small states from different perspectives. Keywords: Small States, Foreign Policy, Alliance, International Relations. Bu makalenin amaci, Uluslararasi Iliskiler disiplini icinde ele alinan kucuk devlet kavramini incelemek, tanimlamadaki celiskileri ve farkliliklari ortaya koymak ve kucuk devletlerin dis politika ve ittifak davranislari uzerine olusan literaturu tartismaktir. Makalede, kucukdevletlerin tanimi hususunda uzerinde anlasilan tekbiryaklasimin olmadigi, bu devletlerin dis politika davranislari ve ittifak arayislarini ele alan calismalarda da yaklasim cesitliligi oldugu vurgulanacaktir. Makale, bu cesitliligin kucuk devletler kategorisinin ne derece anlamli oldugunu sorgulamamiza neden oldugunu irdelerken, diger taraftan bu durumun disiplindeki genel gelismeleri ve kuramsal tartismalari yansittigini gostermeye calisacaktir. Gerek tanimdaki farkliliklarin gerekse dis politika ve ittifak davranislarindaki cesitliligin, kucuk devletler kategorisinin Uluslararasi Iliskiler disiplininin catisan kuramlarindan yararlanan arastirmacilar taralindan farkli perspektiflerden ele alinmasina yol actiginin alti cizilecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kucuk Devletler, Dis Politika, Ittifak, Uluslararasi Iliskiler.
This study was aimed at providing evidence of the effects of collaboration among unequal partners on their research priorities. Co-authorship patterns were investigated among South African authors ...publishing with authors of other countries in the region, with and without other non-African co-authors. It was identified that the non-African collaborators have a high impact on the quantity of co-authored publications and on the research disciplines in which co-authored research is undertaken. The findings raise a number of policy questions. Significance: • The findings make profound that African countries should prioritise and engage their limited resources in areas of national priorities.
• A comprehensive introduction to small states, with a mixture of detailed examples (Quebec and Japan) and a broader range of case studies; • Addresses core questions of what a “state” is, what it is ...for and the role of small states in the international system; • Refocusses the study of small states away from the usual case studies, refocussing on the North American and East Asian contexts. ; With emphasis on East Asian and North American examples – notably Japan and Quebec – Date, Laniel and their contributors take a new approach to the understanding of small nations and their role in the international system. Small nations, by their very nature, raise significant questions about what a nation is. Some small nations are sovereign states with relatively small populations and limited territory, others are nations within larger sovereign states, with distinctive cultures, governance structures or other features that differentiate them from their “parent” state. By focussing on non-European nations in particular, the contributors to this volume challenge our conceptions of what a small nation is and how it operates within the international system. They focus in particular on the nation-within-a-nation-state of Quebec and on Japan, supplemented by further examples from East Asia. By interrogating what these examples have to show us about the typology and character of small nations, they offer a critique of superpower and draw out the potential of small nation studies. A valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations and theories of the nation and nation state.
In this study, we examined whether small countries, when joining the European Union and transferring a part of their sovereignty to the EU institutions, become economically stronger or weaker. We ...have conducted our assessment based on the index of relative concentration of power (IRC), which was developed for the purpose of this analysis, modifying the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Our analysis has shown that in the analyzed period between 2000 and 2015, the relative economic power of small member states of the EU grew stronger, while, at the same time, the relative economic power of large countries weakened. We started from the assumption that small countries, prior to their entry into the European Union, have lower competitiveness due to the relatively higher fixed costs in the public and private sector. Large single market of the European Union produces relatively stronger effect of economies of scale for small countries compared to large countries, which is why their relative economic power grows faster than the relative power of large countries. Keywords: small countries, large countries, the European Union, business environment, development, index of the relative concentration of power (IRC).
The theory behind special economic zones (SEZs) focuses on their role in overcoming broader policy failings in a country. This paper hypothesizes that the ability of smaller countries to reform more ...quickly provides a theoretical 'missing link' as to how SEZs can assist reform, developing the idea of SEZs as a 'small country in a large country'. Using a new database, the paper tests this proposition by examining if SEZs have actually been able to spur on institutional improvement in large countries. Results show that SEZs do influence the institutional development of a country, contingent upon prevailing institutional trends.
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