Innovation The European Journal of Social Science Research

This paper aims to assess the economic development and development policies in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in 1990-2005, from the collapse of the USSR to the enlargement of the European Union. A great number of authors have generally seen the transition as a very positive process. They have concluded that the reform policies focusing on macroeconomic and price stability have been the key to success for CEE economies. A reliable economic environment is, of course, instrumental for longer-term economic success, as exemplified by the prolonged crisis in most of the former Soviet Union. Our analysis of the economic development and competitive advantages in the region, however, leads to the conclusion that the specific approach to transition that the Central and Eastern European countries followed came at a rather high cost. Comparative neglect and weakness of a set of policies crucial for longer-term development, such as science, technology and innovation policies, has led to deterioration in the last decade rather than the strengthening of the competitive advantages of Central and Eastern European economies. Furthermore, we argue that, in most cases, CEE countries have unfortunately overlooked or misjudged a number of development challenges, and have thus implemented policies that have generated growth at the cost of rapidly increasing risks. This is how the financial fragility of several Central and Eastern European countries has recently increased drastically, and the region seems to have virtually arrived at the brink of economic collapse. Since the CEE countries joined the European Union, the CEE governments have gradually moved towards acquiring a more active role in economic development. These policies need, however, to be strengthened considerably and reinforced by macroeconomic policies that curb current excessive dependence on foreign-financed growth.

This paper examines the extent to which the main objectives of the European Common Transport Policy (CTP) are complementary. A total of six scenarios are constructed, reflecting three different policy objectives and two futures of Europe. The three policy objectives considered are economic efficiency, regional development and environmental protection. The two assumptions about the future of the EU (called external frameworks) are 'Cooperation ' - which assumes greater harmonisation of European policies and actions, expansion of the EU and a high social acceptance of policy measures - and 'Polarisation ', which presents more or less opposite developments. The outcomes of each scenario are examined using a selection of indicators to represent the main impacts. It is concluded that there is to some extent complementarity between environmental and efficiency objectives, while there is little complementarity with regional development objectives.

In complex policy decision situations where policy objectives can only be reached through appropriate activities of individual actors with own decision authority and individual objectives, the classical approaches for measuring the effects of regulatory initiatives through cost-benefit or related types of analysis do not provide the appropriate information for decision support. This paper discusses a framework for a multi-level analysis approach that could provide decision support in multi-level policy decision situations.

A pressing need in the area of food safety is a tool for making overall, macro judgments about which risks should be given priority for management. Governments often seek to base this prioritization on public health impacts only to find that other considerations also influence the prioritization process. A multi-factorial approach formally recognizes that public health, market-level impacts, consumer risk preferences and acceptance, and the social sensitivity of particular risks all play a role in prioritization. It also provides decision makers with a variety of information outputs that allow risk prioritization to be considered along different dimensions. Macro-level prioritization of risks based on multiple factors is an important expanded use of cost-benefit analysis to manage risk.

Recent discussions about the evolvement of nanotechnologies criticize that the notion ‘risk’ is too abstract and an all-inclusive category. Moreover, the concept of risk is not precise enough to describe the potential issues related to the development of nanotechnologies. Instead, experts of technological development speak more about risk communication. Within the field of nanotechnologies, they even redefined this expression in February 2005 and related it to the question of the societal acceptance of nanotechnologies. Risk communication is about to gain stakeholder acceptance of policy decisions, whereas public and stakeholders are encouraged to participate actively in the communication process through public consultations, hearings, etc. Thus on the one hand, the category of risk has been pragmatically nuanced in order to better highlight the vulnerability of the communication on nanotechnologies. On the other hand, this vulnerable communication is not the result of a deficit of information. It is based on the idea of participation, where the vulnerability relies on the social groups specialized in the design, the application, and the diffusion of nanotechnologies within society. How is this participation possible, and what does it mean? We develop this question in the framework of a comparative survey on experts that are involved in the deployment of nanotechnologies in Grenoble (France) and Hamburg (Germany).

Start-ups of new firms are important for economic growth. However, start-up rates differ significantly between countries and within regions of the same country. A large empirical literature studies the reasons for this and attempts to identify the regional determinants of start-ups. In contrast, there is a much smaller theoretical literature that attempts the formal modelling of the start-up process within a region. In this paper, we attempt to contribute to this small literature by introducing a general theoretical model of the entrepreneurial start-up process. The model links start-ups to economic growth and can be applied to understand growth in a regional context. We derive five propositions that fit the stylized facts from the empirical literature: (i) growth in the regional economy is driven by an expansion in the number of start-up firms that supply intermediate goods and services; (ii) improvements in human capital will enhance the rate of start-ups; (iii) improvements in the relative rates of return to entrepreneurs and business conditions will raise start-up rates; (iv) an increase in regional financial concentration will reduce the start-up rate in a region and; (v) increased agglomeration/urbanization in a region has an a priori ambiguous effect on start-up rates.

The paper focuses on the Trans Alpine Freight Transport systems in the light of the future integration of single national transport systems into the European transport network. The environmental, social and institutional peculiarities of this 'region' have favoured - in the past - the development of strong nationally-oriented policies, which are largely in contrast with the goals promoted by the European Union. The present analysis aims to highlight opportunities and limits inherent in the implementation of various new network projects, with a particular view on the planned changes of the Alpine transport system. In this framework, a concise description of the existing and 'planned' situation will be offered. In addition, some new forecasting analyses for road transport will be offered on the basis of environmentally-based transport scenarios. In particular, given the high dimension of our data-base on European transport flows, two different approaches will be compared, viz. the logit model and the neural network model. Logit models are well-known in the literature; however, applications of logit analysis to large samples are more rare. Neural networks are nowadays receiving a considerable attention as a new approach that is able to capture major patterns of spatial flows, on the basis of fuzzy and incomplete information. The tentative results of both approaches in this context may then be used as a benchmark for judging the results of other transport flow models and offer also a more 'flexible' range of results to policy actors. Furthermore, our study will present the assessment of trans-European freight flows based on interesting future scenarios related to further congestion and the introduction of eco-taxes on transport in Europe.

This paper provides an introduction to the research potential of household panel studies in general and the British Household Panel, in particular. It will discuss the relative strengths of longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis. Panel studies, however, are only one type of longitudinal design and the advantages and disadvantages of panels are discussed, in comparison to repeated cross sections and retrospective designs. Panel studies have a number of analytical advantages. First they make it possible to distinguish transitory and persistent phenomena, and to disaggregate net change. Second, panel data can help disentangle ambiguities in casual relations by providing temporal ordering. Third they allow researchers to take into account the timing (in terms of age, or life-course stage) and the duration of conditions and experiences, both of which are crucial for understanding social continuity and change. Household panels have the additional feature of collecting personal data from each adult member. This enables analysts to explore the strong independencies of family choices and constraints; to investigate the impact of various life events on household members; and to examine the contextual processes that determine individual transitions, life trajectories and inter-generational change.

In this paper we perform an empirical analysis of status consistency in a postcommunist society. We supply three arguments as to why the various dimensions of social status can be expected to have crystallized following the fall of communism. First, post-communist societies have experienced a significant increase in income and wealth inequality. Second, there have been significant changes in the class structure and, third, processes that generate inequality and social structure have been changing as well. The analysis demonstrates the increase in status consistency in the Czech Republic in the period 1991-97. Further, we explore the degree of status inconsistency in different subpopulations and the political consequences of status inconsistency.

Recent empirical research has argued that there is a movement towards a Europeanized public sphere in the European Union. Based on a representative sample from the British, French, Slovenian, Turkish, and US-American press, this article explores via a novel content analytic method that codes frames semi-automatically through keywords, in how far the discourses about the proposed accession of Turkey to the EU approximate a European public sphere. The findings show that discourses do not fulfill basic standards of democratic deliberation: Not only are there vast differences in the intensity of the debates, but the distribution of the main frames that structure the discourse - a "clash of civilizations" between "Islamic Turkey" and "Christian Europe" on the one hand versus a liberal-multiculturalist project that unifies different civilizations under one political roof on the other - are differently distributed across the countries surveyed. The actual manifestations frames vary by country. All frames employed also consider collectivities rather than individuals the major parties of the discourse, a conception that runs against the tenets of rational-democratic deliberations.

This article argues that the “thicker” moral inquiry modeled by the US President's Council on Bioethics is a significant and valuable innovation in knowledge politics. It first distinguishes two kinds of knowledge politics - active deciding vs. thinking and talking. The focus here is on the latter. The article then introduces some relevant historical background. Next, it indicates how prior bioethics committees in the US practised a “thin” version of knowledge politics that both reflected and consolidated typical ways of thinking and talking about biomedical technology. The article then argues that, because of the non-neutrality of technology, a thin knowledge politics is neither sufficient nor necessary for liberal democratic governments concerned to understand and manage emerging technologies. The last section uses a Council report to illustrate the benefits of a thicker knowledge politics.

Scientific migration is a highly debated issue in Italy. Evidence of its actuality can be found in newspaper articles, television programmes as well as academic essays. There is a clear-cut use of the expression `brain drain' rather than of the more modern terms `brain circulation' or `brain exchange', generally adopted to describe scientific flows in other European economies. To assess the causes of the Italian exodus of talent, this article uses a comparative approach to research key issues characterizing Italian scientific migration. More specifically, it aligns media descriptions of the phenomenon with the voices echoed by respondents interviewed in a study on mobility and excellence in science careers (the MOBEX project). This makes possible the systematic extraction of key issues of Italian scientific migration. A comparison between media accounts and migrant scientists' narratives gives a clear picture of the nature of such outflow. Similarities and differences between these two social agents further enrich the analysis.

Jim Collins's empirical study Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don't (Harper Business, New York, 2001) has made a worldwide impact on management and leadership practice and research. His concept of “culture of discipline” is central to his ideas for achieving enduring, sustainable organizations, whether in the business or nonprofit sectors. In this essay the culture of discipline is re-theorized in the context of Mary Douglas's grid-group analysis to provide a home within a broader theory which will locate the culture of discipline in relation to alternative cultures. The framework is illustrated with applications in a study of small, high-technology firms in peripheral areas of the UK, leading to the recognition of an organizational form missing from most of the management literature and furthering the exploration of a model of humble and collaborative leadership as an alternative to the model of charismatic or heroic leadership growing out of American management culture.

In this paper, we present some findings from research conducted in Finland on the emergence and nature of the Finnish government's Action Plans to Reduce Economic Crime and the Grey Economy. We set out the origins of the Finnish economic crime control programme, a programme that, if not unique, is peculiar in its concerted effort to attack this particular form of crime. We then address at length the prospects of such a programme - which has had some initial successes - being sustained. We consider this question through three forms of material: first, through seeking to draw some 'lessons' from other countries' experiences of efforts to control economic crime, and indeed some general international trends in this regard; second, via a conceptual consideration of the processes whereby economic crime control efforts are likely to slip down crime control agendas; and, third, through a brief analysis of the extent to which the conditions which gave rise to the Finnish initiative in the 1980s have since passed. In a discursive concluding section, we present some data on the changing levels of support for, and interest in, the programme within Finland.

The claim, that Science and Technology Policies (S&TP) are entering a new phase (or mode) is not restricted to the field of Science Studies, it can also be found in political discourses. A prime example is the EU Framework Programme 5 and the comments around it. Similar shifts can be found in many European states, under headings like 'user orientation', 'problem orientation' or 'sustainability'. These new concepts are often linked to problems of priority setting, to problems of how to increase the effectiveness of research funding, and to questions of acceptability and acceptance of developments in science and technology. The open question is whether this development can be understood as the emergence of a new phase in S&TP that can be characterized as a democratization of science and technology. Framework Programme 5 is used to answer this question.

The Nature, Society and History theme is discussed in terms of the conceptual framework of 'biohistory'. Reference is made to its relevance to human health and well-being, societal metabolism and ecological sustainability. The power of human culture as an ecological force is emphasized. The Nature, Society and History paradigm is discussed in the context of the social changes that will be necessary for the achievement of ecological sustainability. It is suggested that it has an essential contribution to make not only in the academic world, but also in the general community.

This article will summarise the results of The Netherlands pilot study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and carried out by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). This pilot study differed from existing sustainable transport scenario studies for four reasons: (i) very sharp emission reductions are assumed, (ii) not only 'forecasting' but also 'backcasting' scenarios are constructed, (iii) instrument packages and implementation time paths are described which - if carried out - would result in the necessary technological and behavioural changes to realize environmentally sustainable transport, and (iv) the social and economic impact of sustainable transport is assessed.

Eco-innovation is actually a fashionable topic, and several researchers are working on understanding the defining characteristics of firms that consider the environment as a priority when innovating. To date most of these studies have been carried out on manufacturing industries. This article investigates the similarities and differences among service and manufacturing firms. An empirical analysis of a sample of 5509 Spanish companies shows that the variables affecting the eco-innovative orientation of firms are quite similar. Results reveal that manufacturing firms have higher orientation toward the environment than service firms. Furthermore, highly polarized positions in environmental aspects can be found. Despite the limitations of the study, conclusions may help public policy to encourage environmental proactivity in service industry and innovation.

This article uses the debates of the Working Group ‘Social Europe’ of the European Convention for the Future of the European Union that drafted the Constitutional Treaty to explore the views on the European social model among representatives of the European political class. The debates within the European Convention on basic social values, social objectives, the Union’s competences, the open method of coordination, the coordination of social and economic policies as well as the role of social partners provide insight into the emerging visions of European solidarity at the crossroads between welfare regime ideologies and Europeanization. It is argued that, despite an overall consensus regarding a greater future role of the European Union in social policy, the contours of the European social model and the scope of the Union’s competences remain contested. However, the observed cleavages are to be found mainly on the left-right political scale, and this suggests that we might gradually be observing a re-politicization of the social policy discourse at European level. Nevertheless, the holding on to arguments of subsidiarity and especially sovereignty represents a barrier to envisioning European solidarity and developing a stronger European social agenda.

In the last few decades, a perspective on how to resolve wicked social problems has become increasingly prominent: the cultural theory pioneered by anthropologist Dame Mary Douglas. So far, the empirical evidence garnered in support of this approach has mostly been of a qualitative nature. Cultural theory has fared less well in survey-based, statistical tests. However, several features make it hard to test the theory with questionnaires. We overcome this research dilemma by showing how cultural theory can be tested with observational and experimental tests developed in cross-cultural psychology. We argue that this is possible due to the remarkable overlap between concepts and theories in cross-cultural psychology and Douglas' approach. We present five research designs that add up to a rigorous test of cultural theory. Finally, we sketch some contributions that cultural theory could make to the further development of cross-cultural psychology, as well as to efforts to resolve wicked problems, if it were thus confirmed.

Using the work of Manuel Castells as a starting point, this article explores the ambivalent relationship between globalization and European integration and the variety of ways in which the mainstream political science of the EU has attempted to deal with this issue. The analysis here suggests that various 'mainstreaming' disciplinary norms induce types of work that fail to address fully the somewhat paradoxical and counter-intuitive range of possible relationships between globalization and European integration. The article explores critically four possible analytical ways out of this paradox—abandonment of the concept of globalization, the development of definition precision in globalization studies, the reorientation of work to focus on globalization as discourse, and inter- and post-disciplinarity. The argument suggests that orthodox discussions of the relationship require a notion of social geography that sits at odds with much of the literature on globalization and while greater dialogue between disciplines is to be welcomed, a series of profound epistemological questions need to be confronted if studies of the interplay between global and social process are to be liberated from their disciplinary chains.

This paper analyses people's unwillingness to accept, for the sake of the environment, higher prices and taxes or cuts in the standard of living, respectively, as well as the frequency of cutbacks on driving a car, all as depending on individual status characteristics, socio‐political attitudes, the behavioural disposition to act in a value‐ (vs purpose‐) rational manner, the perceived activity arena and risk perception. Furthermore, the list of explanatory variables include aggregate‐level features of the social structure, in fact the mean income level and income inequality of the home region. The multilevel analysis presented is based on nation‐wide samples carried out in the 1993 International Social Survey Programme for Great Britain, the Metherlands, Spain, Norway, the United States, Australia, Japan, Israel and Germany. The paper discusses the need to include both individual‐level and aggregate‐level features of the social structure, in order to avoid what might be termed a reversed ecological fallacy. It discusses the relevance ofsocio‐political attitudes and the behavioural disposition to act in a value‐rational manner for explaining why people are more or less unwilling to pay for the environment. The empirical analysis is guided by the structural theory on social inequality, cultural theory of risk perception and the classic distinction between value‐ and purpose‐rational behaviour.

The post-socialist countries are, by the standards of the EU, poor countries. The major developmental task facing these countries is, therefore, that of catching up with their more prosperous neighbours. The scope for catch-up is defined in terms of the levels of social capability exhibited by these societies and their capacity to establish technological congruence with the leading firms from the advanced industrial economies. S&T systems in the broadest sense are shown to be key factors in relation to both social capability and technological congruence. Detailed analysis of the transition countries indicates that the catch-up process is hampered across the board by specific gaps in social capability and elements of technological incongruence. These can in turn be traced to specific structural trends, in particular in relation to foreign investment, and to specific weaknesses of institutional development, cutting across the public/private dividing line, notably in relation to R&D systems and banking systems. Consideration of all these factors suggests that there can be no assumption that the transition countries will automatically catch up with western Europe, and that some disfavoured transition countries may, indeed, continue to fall behind.

The discussion of European cosmopolitanism and civil society has failed to take questions of culture seriously enough. While remaining sympathetic to liberal forms of cosmopolitanism, this article considers the view that such proposals fail to make space for the 'Other'. In the context of histories of nationalist violence, masculinism and consumerism this article discusses the charge that ideas of European civilization need to be reconsidered. In the final part of the article, I discuss the view that cultural feminism and certain versions of multiculturalism have much to contribute towards the European project. However, at this point, I seek to distance myself from essentialist arguments in respect of identity. A generative European cosmopolitanism would do well to take questions of cultural domination seriously without reducing the complexity of modern identities.

The need to adapt to economic globalization and “wicked” problems such as climate change and poverty presents enormous challenges to modern developed societies. These challenges call for new solutions, not only in the form of technological or business innovations, but also through society-wide reform and renewal. In this paper, we outline a societal innovation framework to better understand the stage on which these societal challenges are being played out. Our approach builds on the classical view that considers innovation, an (radical or incremental) improvement that is both novel in its context and deployed by people. These societal innovations change the interface of the state and civil society for stakeholder benefit.

The present analysis of the Euro looks for the marks that function systems make on what we commonly take for the European money. Clearly distinguishing between coins and currency, the Euro coins and banknotes are not taken for economic tokens per se but for storage devices that contain both economic and noneconomic information. A systemic analysis of the function system references on these storage devices shows that the economy has left fewer marks on the Euro than politics, art, and the mass media systems have. We, hence, argue that “the Euro” “is” not just money with a political second mission but rather can be understood as an indicator of the relative relevance that specific function systems do or do not have for the European societies and the European society.

The contention and politicization of knowledge is nothing new but an inherent part of the scientific endeavour. What is new today is that this practice has been institutionalized and transformed into generally accepted practices for monitoring or regulating the production and/or dissemination of novel knowledge. These practices, which include Bioethics Councils or Committees, citizen dialogues or juries, ethical checklists, ex ante risk assessments or ELSA-type accompanying research, have grown exponentially over the last years and have slowly replaced traditional bottom-up forms of mobilization, even within social movements or civil society organizations. Converging technologies presents both old and new challenges for knowledge politics - in view of its uncertain development and inherent risks but also in view of its philosophical agenda and ethical implications. The article reflects on the future effect of discourse and knowledge politics on convergence technologies by considering developments in Austria.

The “new converging technologies” refers to the prospect of advancing the human condition by the integrated study and application of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and the cognitive sciences - or “NBIC”. In recent years, it has loomed large, albeit with somewhat different emphases, in national science policy agendas throughout the world. This article considers the political and intellectual sources - both historical and contemporary - of the converging technologies agenda. Underlying it is a fluid conception of humanity that is captured by the ethically challenging notion of “enhancing evolution”.

This study identifies the substantial relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation activities of firms. Using the French Vigeo sustainability rating and the Thomson Reuters, we divided 619 firms into groups by their industry sectors, regions, and firm characteristics such as size and age. We premise that innovative investment is needed to prepare tomorrow's profits not only by considering investments in technology and in R&D, but also by dealing with sustainability to human, social, environmental, technical, and economic investments. Consequently, when the firm manipulates its short- and long-run business strategies, the consideration of the correlation between types of investment and CSR initiatives will lead to more cooperating effect on the outcome of investments. The findings provide a comprehensive understanding on the effect of sustainable management strategies on the innovation and sustainability of firms.

A conventional way of societal problem‐solving consists of, firstly, translating the problem into disciplinary, scientific—and often more specifically—economic terms; secondly formulating a disciplinary solution; and thirdly recommending this solution as a neutral instrument for public policy. The supposed political relevance of (economic) theory is narrowly connected with its status as a positive science. Ecological problems, however, challenge the supposed objectivity of economics. Different economists react to this challenge in different ways. In this article, a general overview of three main positions within the community of economic scientists is given. Each time the link between the presupposed status of economics and its perceived legitimate political role is shown. More science or more democracy (or a democratic revision of science): that remains the principal question.

This text discusses the approach adopted in a European research project concerning the relationships between science and industry. The analysis uses the notion of actors as vectors for the creation and diffusion of competences and knowledge throughout the innovation process. From this perspective, the article presents some results on the strategic behaviour of firms at the micro-level in five countries. An analytical framework in terms of “conventions” addresses the interplay between micro and macro levels. Finally, we present some significant insights into national public policies in the field of science-industry collaboration.

Privacy is an important fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. However, privacy is being challenged in the networked society. The use of new technologies undermines this right because it facilitates the collection, storage, processing and combination of personal data by security agencies and businesses. This research note presents the background and agenda of the recently-commenced research project PRESCIENT, which aims at reconceptualizing the concept of privacy and eveloping means for the assessment of privacy impacts.

The separation of science-based risk assessment from policy-based risk management is meant to safeguard scientific autonomy whilst improving evidence-based policy-making. This risk regulation model is used in several policy domains and, especially, those targeting public health like food safety. Research reported in this article shows this approach to be deficient despite its strong organizational basis and conceptual simplicity. The problem is twofold: first, risk regulation as currently practiced is associated with a biased take on ‘science’ at both stages of risk assessment and risk management; second, it displays an over-reliance on legislative measures with little follow-through mechanisms. The article illustrates how these problems are played out and discusses their implications using two examples from the area of chemical contamination, namely aflatoxins and dioxins in food.

This paper examines the relationship between risk, innovation and the regulation of health technologies, drawing on a case study of EU governance of blood and plasma products. It is argued that the political context brings complexity to EU regulatory processes, which impacts upon the management of the relationship between risk and innovation. This may be particularly apparent in politically sensitive areas of EU governance where public trust may be at issue, such as those involving health technologies. If the right balance is to be struck between risk and innovation in regulatory governance in this field, then particular attention should be paid to how the political context impacts upon policy framing, the maintenance of regulatory connection in line with core policy objectives and the promotion of regulatory legitimacy.

This article argues that there are two distinct logics that underlie existing studies on European identification. These are grounded in models of collective identity formation that stress either messages inscribed in discursive processes or practices situated in socio-spatial relations – respectively, the “culturalist” and the “structuralist” models. The first of these models considers identification as a direct outcome of the exposure to content-specific symbols, narratives, and messages; the second, as an emerging property of socio-spatial interactions that are content-free of identity references. The first is logocentric, while the second is democentric and topocentric. This article focuses particularly on the second and less-developed research tradition which explores the effects of cross-national practices. The limits and potential of this model are discussed, setting an agenda for empirical research aiming to better elucidate the causal dynamics of European identity formation and adjudicate between these competing explanations.

This paper discusses the general principles underlying the proper participation of the public in decisions which affect a community. The paper begins with a brief consideration of the philosophical and political rationale for including the public in these decisions. These are then considered in terms of what is needed in a public participation process in order to ensure that it is fair, helpful and cost effective for all people involved. The paper then describes two examples where experiments in public participation were set up to test these principles. Finally, the application of these outcomes in other circumstances is considered. Thus the paper will discuss the processes of public participation and deliberation, the potential for decision-making processes in general and the problems associated with these approaches.

The modern world is characterized by problems that involve systems with social and physical subsystems. They are entangled systems of systems of systems with multilevel dynamics. There is no methodology able to combine the partial micro-, meso- and macrotheories that focus on subsystems into a coherent representation of the dynamics of the whole. Policy requires prediction, but the traditional definitions of prediction are not appropriate for multilevel socio-complex systems. Heterogeneous multilevel systems have subsystems that may behave with great regularity over long periods of time, and then suddenly change their behavior due to weak coupling with other subsystems. Thus systems that are usually highly predictable may be subject to rare but extreme events, and this is highly relevant to policy-makers. New ways of thinking are needed that transcend the confines of the traditional humanities, social and physical sciences. Of necessity, this science will be embedded in the design, implementation and management of systems, and therefore the new science will be entwined with policy. Much policy is interventionist experiment. By themselves scientists cannot conduct experiments on socio-complex systems because they have neither the mandate nor the money to design and instrument experiments on the large scale. Policy-makers - elected politicians and their officers - design the future, making it as they believe it ought to be. New kinds of scientific predictions can inform policy but can only be instrumented and tested if there is goodwill between policy-makers and scientists, where scientists are junior partners. Scientists offer policy-makers theories and predictions of social systems based on logical-deductive methods. Policy is generally made on the basis of rhetoric, with the best possible arguments being deployed to support favored conclusions. To convince policy-makers that a particular scientific theory should be used, scientists move from the logicaldeductive to the rhetorical. Thus the full theory of a science of complex systems has to provide a logical-deductive metatheory of the rhetorical and logicaldeductive systems that make decisions and implement them. Traditional natural and physical science has avoided rhetoric, which is much better understood in the humanities and social sciences. Thus it is concluded that the science of complex systems must embrace the humanities and social sciences not just because their domains of study are relevant but also because their methods are necessary to understand how science and policy work together in complex social systems.

The problems of today's system of higher education are evaluated by exploring the failure of colleges and universities to truly educate to cope with our changing world and by explaining why the prospects for doctoral graduates in the arts and humanities are dismal. After analyzing four kinds of minds, the author shows in detail what is wrong with the ways the classics are read; discusses book reviewing, translating, and editing; looks at the place of religion in higher education; and looks at curricula. The primary focus is on "humanity" in education. (MSE)

The role of public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation has been increasingly emphasised the last few years. The general argument is that by applying intelligent demand, public agencies can stimulate private sector innovation that will eventually sustain competitive advantage in a global economy. The emphasis on public procurement used as an innovation policy instrument challenges currently institutional practices and skills. The article is based on the assumption that the innovation research community could inform this policy discourse, in particular by drawing on institutional theory, but in order to fully utilise this potential further revision of the research perspectives seen needs to be done. The article therefore discusses an institutional approach based on three modes; ‘Multilevel institutional analysis’, 'Endogenous and exogenous institutions', and ‘Institutions as rationalities’, arguing that such an approach would help to increase innovation research quality and policy relevance.

A well-known principle of welfare economics states that an efficient resources allocation can be achieved in a competitive economy when market prices are in line with social marginal costs. When applied to the transport sector, this implies that the price of the various transport modes should be made equal to the sum of marginal production and external costs, like congestion, accidents, pollution, and road maintenance. It is sometimes argued that the internalisation of external costs would bring about a change in demand patterns with a shift towards public transport and cleaner modes. But, public transport is already favoured by a discriminatory fiscal treatment. Whereas public services are normally (heavily) subsidised, private transport is taxed in several ways and, in some countries, quite substantially so. The application of the ioptimal pricingi principle, therefore, critically depends on how the subsidisation of public services is interpreted. This paper addresses the issue of optimal pricing of urban transport, using different hypotheses about the treatment of public services. After reviewing some traditional arguments in favour of public transport subsidisation, a new approach, based on uncertainty and option values, is discussed. The implications of this approach are investigated by means of an applied model, where optimal prices for urban transport services in the city of Bologna are computed under alternative assumptions.

Bell's well-known assumption that the nation-state is becoming too small for the big problems of life and too big for the small problems of life, has become commonplace in the contemporary debate on the nation-state in a global age. Against the background of the upcoming EU East-enlargement, the article investigates some of the environmental policy implications behind this catchphrase. Drawing on Beck's thesis of an 'unbinding of politics' it is argued that a globalizing civil society continues to be embedded across various cultural and regulatory spaces. Attempts to (re)vitalize bottom-up policy input therefore require special attention to the dynamics of regional culture and local society, where the political and the sub-political actually intersect. This, however, is not an argument for a crude bottom-up model of governance, but rather a refined understanding of multi-level governance. The argument is supported by case study material form the German–Polish border region.

The evolution and diversity of institutions across the United States, the EU and Japan, and the timing of the medical device framework splitting off from the drug regulatory framework, are striking. Regulatory agencies face a new landscape: the combination of industry-paid user fees and appropriations, and a general pro-business climate coupled with dramatic advances in medical technology, shortage in skilled experts trained in the latest state-of-the-art science, and necessary legal and administrative changes. This paper seeks explanations for the complex structure of medical device regulation by focusing on the meaning of the “life cycle” concept, opportunities for patient voices, and the scope of, and potential for conflicts of interest of, industry, physicians, scientific advisors and regulatory authorities. The paper concludes that the initial international differences between medical device frameworks tend to be mitigated by voluntary global harmonization, but that actual, effective integration into the national regulatory framework significantly depends on each nation's and the EU's embedded norms, rules and procedures, and politics.

This article provides an analysis of the regulation of innovative pharmaceuticals in the EU and the United States, particularly fast-track or accelerated review and marketing approval mechanisms therein since 1995. Specifically, consideration is given to whether that regulation is best characterized by “disease politics”, “pluralist” pressure politics, “corporatist” partnership with industry, “clientele pluralism” leading to industrial capture of the regulatory state, or “arms-length” separation of interests and values. It is argued that the predominant driving forces that explain the nature and implementation of these mechanisms are the pharmaceutical industry, the legislature and the Executive in the United States, and the industry and the Commission in the EU, rather than patient pressure. Furthermore, evidence regarding the regulation of case-study drugs suggests that the generation of these regulatory reforms by industry and deregulatory political agendas does not coincide with patients' interests. The EU and US drug regulatory systems seem to be converging in these respects.

The Global Justice Movements emerged in the context of the contradictions and crisis of neoliberal–imperial globalization and the critique of it. They therefore express and provide a basis for the politicization of the negative consequences of post-Fordism and its crisis. This article examines the structural changes of the last 30 years from a Gramscian perspective of neoliberal globalization as a “passive revolution” and as the deepening of a “imperial mode of living” at a global scale. It is argued that examining structural changes helps us to understand why protest and social movements re-emerged around the year 2000. The article discusses some central features of the Global Justice Movements by focusing on the international Attac movement and the recent Occupy movement.

A comparison of the city development of Munich (Germany) and Birmingham (England) shows the adverse consequences of excluding egalitarian-minded organizations and perspectives from public decision making. Since the Second World War, Munich has become an economically thriving and beautiful city in which people from all walks of life can feel at home. During the same period of time, Birmingham has struggled economically, socially and aesthetically. Their diverging paths, from quite similar starting positions, can be explained with the help of the argument that in Munich a much more pluralistic policy regime has reigned, whereas in Birmingham egalitarian views have been ignored until very recently. Yet, another attempt at urban revitalization--this time in the multi-ethnic, impoverished Schilderswijk in The Hague, the Netherlands--illustrates that policy making can also become too egalitarian. An in-depth study of a municipal attempt to revitalize this neighbourhood reveals that this effort floundered, as it was overly infused with egalitarian concerns and values.

Human tissues and cells, and tissue engineered (TE) therapies, have been the object of attempts at regulatory regime-building in Europe since the late 1990s. As a sector-in-the-making, or technological zone, TE has been beset by multiple uncertainties. The 2007 Regulation on Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, expands the legal scope of EU pharmaceutical jurisdiction to cover tissue engineering as “unconventional medicine”. This paper outlines the regulatory pathway taken by TE, explaining how the eventual pharmaceutical designation hides contentious, continuing stakeholder debates about the substantive definition of TE, its modes of production, tissue bank–hospital–industry relationships, the position of the medical device sector, and the appropriate type and institutional form of regulatory controls. In spite of the aim of providing “legal certainty”, the new regime has strategically built-in scope for future “technical” developments, and recent institutional innovations made by the key EU regulatory body respond to the continuing stakeholder tensions. The conclusion is that the EU Regulation provides some “regulatory ordering” of the TE zone while providing an open-ended flexibility, and inter-sectoral industry tensions continue given the shape of the recent EU legislation.