Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility: Partnership Hedges Globalization

Abstract

In order to propose quality assurance for cutting-edge transnational higher education management, this chapter first analyzes data on academic developmental journals while making use of the three widely known literature databases ISI Thomson, Scopus, and Google Scholar; the latter analyzed by the Software Publish or Perish (PoP). Time series of data for documents and their citations provide indices; this chapter provides as most helpful indices the ISI impact factor, Scopus SNIP, and PoP AW index.
A dozen of the most influential developmental journals are heuristically ranked by taking into account all available indices from all three literature databases. The series of historic bibliometric data since the 1950s shows the dynamics of the global emergence of developmental journals and developmental thought. Secondly, and as a possible template for similar initiatives in global higher education management, this chapter presents the recently established “Global Studies” (GS) Master’s curriculum at Graz University, Austria. Details on this novel curriculum’s targets, modules, courses, and practicals are given. GS embraces six modules and courses from different schools at university. Emphasis is placed on dialogic interdisciplinary understanding and interparadigmatic integration of multiple disciplines and perspectives, when managing education for the purpose of responsibly hedging and managing globalization and socio-economic global change in responsible partnership.

Full text

Business Law and Ethics:
Concepts, Methodologies, Tools,
and Applications
Information Resources Management Association
USA

Published in the United States of America by
Business Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)
701 E. Chocolate Avenue
Hershey PA, USA 17033
Tel: 717-533-8845
Fax: 717-533-8661
E-mail: cust@igi-global.com
Web site: http://www.igi-global.com
Copyright © 2015 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher.
Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or
companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
For electronic access to this publication, please contact: eresources@igi-global.com.
Business law and ethics : concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications / Information Resources Management Associa-
tion, editor.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “This multi-volume book explores best practices business leaders need to navigate the complex landscape of
legal and ethical issues on a day-to-day basis”-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4666-8195-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-8196-5 (ebook : alk. paper) 1. Business ethics. 2.
Social responsibility of business. 3. Business law. I. Information Resources Management Association.
HF5387.B879 2015
174’.4--dc23
2015003115
Managing Director:
Managing Editor:
Director of Intellectual Propery & Contracts:
Acquisitions Editor:
Production Editor:
Development Editor:
Multi-Volume Book Production Specialist:
Typesetter:
Cover Design:
Lindsay Johnston
Austin DeMarco
Jan Travers
Kayla Wolfe
Christina Henning
Chris Shearer
Deanna Jo Zombro
Michael Brehm
Jason Mull

774
Copyright © 2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Chapter 40
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8195-8.ch040
Education and Literature for
Development in Responsibility:
Partnership Hedges Globalization
ABSTRACT
In order to propose quality assurance for cutting-edge transnational higher education management, this
chapter first analyzes data on academic developmental journals while making use of the three widely
known literature databases ISI Thomson, Scopus, and Google Scholar; the latter analyzed by the soft-
ware Publish or Perish (PoP). Time series of data for documents and their citations provide indices;
this chapter provides as most helpful indices the ISI impact factor, Scopus SNIP, and PoP AW index.
A dozen of the most influential developmental journals are heuristically ranked by taking into account
all available indices from all three literature databases. The series of historic bibliometric data since
the 1950s shows the dynamics of the global emergence of developmental journals and developmental
thought. Secondly, and as a possible template for similar initiatives in global higher education man-
agement, this chapter presents the recently established “Global Studies” (GS) Master’s curriculum at
Graz University, Austria. Details on this novel curriculum’s targets, modules, courses, and practicals
are given. GS embraces six modules and courses from different schools at university. Emphasis is placed
on dialogic interdisciplinary understanding and interparadigmatic integration of multiple disciplines
and perspectives, when managing education for the purpose of responsibly hedging and managing
globalization and socio-economic global change in responsible partnership.
Gilbert Ahamer
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria & Karl-Franzens University Graz, Austria
Karl A. Kumpfmüller
Graz Univrsity, Austria

775
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
INTRODUCTION
Development in Responsibility
The need for global cooperation in mutual respon-
sibility has long been accepted and has further-
more been underlined by the complex effects of
globalization. As an effort to effectively manage
the positive effects of globalization and to hedge
its negative societal consequences, the need for
trans-national collaboration among universities
enjoys growing importance. Since 2004, an edu-
cational program for managers, developers, policy
makers and administrators has been implemented
at Graz University in Austria attracting annually
some hundred new students (GS 2012). Similar
initiatives creating developmental curricula were
successful earlier in Vienna (IE 2012) and later
in Salzburg (PLUS 2012).
For practical implementation of such ethically
and globalization-oriented studies, the distribu-
tion of curricular courses at any given university
might have to
1. Demonstrate appropriate respect and esteem
in relation to other paradigms.
2. Allow students a high level of choice ac-
cording to their preferences and needs.
3. Take into account the availability of courses
from other studies that can be included as
electives.
One of the practical uses of this article might
be to serve as a template and case study for similar
transnational collaborative ventures in higher edu-
cation management, to support interdisciplinary
quality assessment and encourage the building
of cutting-edge transdisciplinary educational
programs in order to manage globalization in a
culture of partnership. Disciplines and communi-
cational profiles are both manifest in the diversity
of students’ backgrounds.
For educational programs dealing with global-
ization, development and global studies, the author
proposes as definition and motto: development is
growing jointly in responsibility.
The present article has two targets:
1. To present a view on developmental sci-
ence and “Global Studies” (GS) using a
bibliographic analysis of the main peer
reviewed journals in this field by utilizing
several literature databases: ISI by Thomson
Reuters, Scopus by Elsevier and Publish or
Perish (PoP) using Google Scholar data.
2. To show and explain the curriculum of
“Global Studies” (GS) Graz as a template
for international comparison that could serve
to enhance further trans-national collabora-
tion among universities and even lead to the
foundation of so-called “joint degrees.”
As a basis for writing and contextualizing,
this paper dwells on the involvement of the
second author as initiator and founder of the GS
curriculum at Graz University after a full career
in continued education, peace-keeping, and
institution-building; of both authors’ lectures in
practically all courses established specifically for
GS Graz; and of the first author’s decades-long
experiences in technologically-enhanced col-
laborative learning environments and dozens of
practical developmental projects.
MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER
Bibliographic Analyses of Journals
for Development and Global Studies
There are several possible ways to approach a
newly emerging field of relevance for transna-
tional higher education, such as is the field of
globalization, global studies and development:
a historic approach describing the genesis of a
new interdisciplinary curriculum (Ahamer, et
al., 2011), the description of technologically
enhanced learning strategies such as e-learning

776
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
(Ahamer, 2011), a literary study of the concept of
interdisciplinarity and quality criteria applicable
to it (Ahamer, 2014) or a bibliographic analysis
of international peer reviewed journals pertaining
to this field of global developmental studies: this
is the purpose of this article.
Any field can disclose itself best when read-
ing the most important and globally influential
literature pertaining to it. Admittedly, in earlier
times printed books played such role, but recent
decades have brought the advent of a culture of
peer reviewed publishing with rapid turnover
cycles of debate and discourse. This process has
considerably opened up academia and provided
additional transparency, argumentative debate and
accessibility for every single human. Peer review
culture is at the core of all forms of modern sci-
ence – or at least it should be the trusted keystone
of quality assurance.
Static Bibliometric Analysis of
Developmental Journals
In order to dive into the highly complex field of
publication outlets, it used to be possible in earlier
decades to utilize mostly university-based journal
rankings that attributed categories such as A+, A,
B, C, D to single journals – presumably based on
subjective criteria and surveys restricted in scope
that could not always exclude personal interest and
the publication habits of stakeholders. Moreover,
all such rankings were highly incomplete, often
contradictory, and focused on single disciplines
such as natural science or economics, with the
implicit but considerable impact of tacit presup-
positions of what quality entails at all.
Based on such limited material, in 2004 one
of this article’s authors performed a comparison
of several assessment methods for journal quality
for the entire field of economics with the aim of
personally selecting the most suitable literature on
evolutionary and developmental economics. Such
static analysis of quality categorization consisted
in comparing several universities’ categorization
tables, including rankings, from Vienna University
of Economics (WUW 2004), German union of
higher educators for economics (VHB 2004) and
ISI Journal Citation Reports (JCR 2003) – which
could be plotted as regressions (Figure 1) for a
quick first overview. It became evident that even
high-quality journals were not ranked highly if
shifted away from the focus of “economics” – an
effect that calls for more interdisciplinary efforts!
Such analysis of several thousand items of
single data, assessing the presumed relevance of
single journals in academia, was supported by
a paper-by-paper literature analysis of the eight
journals identified as “most important” accord-
ing to their idea of the components, factors and
processes of global socio-economic development
and growth – which was the main paradigm in
earlier decades (Ahamer 2008: 60-62; 2010: 23-
28). Such literature analysis was then intended to
provide the background for an own assessment
of long-term pattern analysis in techno-socio-
economic development (Ahamer 2001; Ahamer
2008: 70-74; Ahamer 2014: Figures 2-4).
Recently, the means and possibilities for Qual-
ity Assessment (QA) of academic literature and
publication outlets have greatly increased, and re-
trieval systems have grown beyond the sole former
US-based market leader “ISI Thomson Reuters”
due to the advent of the EU-based “Scopus” run
by Elsevier, and the recently globally booming
Google Scholar that can be analyzed neatly by
Anne-Wil Harzing’s (2007) small but tremen-
dously helpful software tool “Publish or Perish”
(PoP). These three retrieval systems are marked
by the colors red, blue, and green according to
their origin throughout this article.
Based on such considerably higher availability
of raw data beyond the sheer ISI “impact factor”,
surveys and rankings of journals are provided by
several authors, among which Heeks’ (2010) is
very comprehensive with respect to developmental
journals, and which serves as a starting point for
the present in-depth analysis (Figure 2). Accord-
ing to his blog entry, bibliographic data such

777
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 1. Regression plots of diverse journal quality criteria for the field of economics performed by the
author in 2004, using rankings from Vienna University of Economics (WUW 2004), German union of
higher educators for economics (VHB 2004), a Dutch assessment exercise and ISI journal citation reports
(JCR 2003). Usability and insight provided by such plots are as modest as are correlation coefficients.
Figure 2. The very helpful collection and ranking of developmental journals by Heeks (2010) includes
developmental IT journals but excludes developmental economics journals. This sequence of journal
enumeration is kept throughout most of the following figures.

778
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
as quotients of citation numbers and document
numbers (similar to what is known as impact
factors) are computed in his helpful small study
on a per-journal basis for the year 2008; in his
case “the average number of cites per paper was
then divided by the average number of years since
publication”. His “league table for development
studies journals” (Figure 2) especially includes
developmental IT journals but explicitly excludes
developmental economics journals, presumably
because of the principally higher citation rate in
(quantitative) economics that would distort a static
comparison. The suitability of such a decision is
corroborated by Cummings (2012); by the list of
heterodox economic journals (Lee et al. 2010); and
by the author’s 2004 analysis of most economic
journals (Figure 1).
For the easier orientation of readers, this article
will retain the sequence of journals defined by
Heeks’ (2010) “league table” in the legends of
most of the following figures.
Dynamic Bibliometric Analysis of
Developmental Journals by Database
Both the cross-comparison exercise of different
static journal assessment methods in Figure 1 and
ranking exercises such as Figure 2 lead to a high
number of questions regarding the suitability of
selected ranking criteria, their relevance for the
exact formulation of the user’s question, the ex-
tent to which such assessment changes with time
and – of course – whether the notion of “quality”
harmonizes with the users’ own understanding of
what “quality” should actually mean.
As with any attempt at measuring, journal rank-
ing also includes underlying quality paradigms,
power relations, and critiques of paradigms con-
sidered as insufficient to successfully understand
globalization and the complexity of dynamic
techno-socio-economic development. Hence,
rankings are always individual and collective
battlegrounds open to further debate.
In a positive sense, the motto “each indicator
may tell a useful story” reported by Wagner et al.
(2011: 25) might be adopted to reconcile often
fundamentally different approaches to quality.
When manually extracting online data from the
ISI, Scopus and PoP retrieval systems, the first
question arising is “which of the many descrip-
tors offered is most useful?” (see their definitions
in End Note 1). One author’s first but subjective
suggestion is shown in Figure 3: the traditional
ISI (2012) impact factor IF (first row) might not
yet equilibrate among the intrinsically different
citation habits within certain disciplines (natural
sciences, technology, sociology, economics, his-
tory etc.) however the recently emerged Scopus
(2012) SNIP factor does.
From the vast selection of Harzing’s (2010)
PoP (2007), the “age-weighted citation index”
(AW index) is selected because it includes what
may be an appropriate emphasis on citations in
years that are next or close to the publication
year, which seems to be peculiar to ISI Thomson
factors (see definitions of all factors in footnote
1). Figure 3 at first sight presents an impenetrable
multitude of data which at second glance do exhibit
regularities and trends. For an easier overview, the
initial default graphic icons have been replaced
by encircled figures signifying the suggested rank
(Table 1) for the first ten ranked journals.
Other selected factors from all three retrieval
systems (Figure 4) might provide advantages to
the readers by including, e.g., a longer window of
opportunity to register citations (ISI 5-year IF, at
far left), renormalization by the article number per
journal (ISI article influence AI, at left).
All three suggested “most useful descriptors”
from Figure 3 provide a rather clear span of single
time series. However, this might not be the case
for one of the suggested “second most useful
descriptors,” the Scopus SJR index (SCImago
journal rank, center in Figure 4); but the question
does remain whether such diagnosis of a field of
very similar impact (apart from a few leading
journals) is not even more realistic. In addition,

779
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 3. Indices1 from all three data bases (ISI, Scopus, PoP) with suggested “best” user value: ISI
Thomson Impact Factor IF, Scopus SNIP, PoP AW index (Google Scholar based)

780
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 4. Indices1 from all three data bases (ISI, Scopus, PoP) with suggested “second-best” user value:
Scopus SJR, ISI Thomson 5-year Impact Factor, PoP hc index score (based on the Google Scholar da-
tabase), Legend see Figure 3.
Table 1. Journals listed according to the sequence proposed in this chapter. Ranking based on all single
available factors for 2011. Data for “published since” stems from the journal’s content site and may
differ with first year found in PoP, also due to name changes.
Rank Journal Publisher Published since
1 World Development Elsevier 1973
2 Journal of Development Studies Taylor & Francis 1964
3 Development Policy Review Wiley-Blackwell 1966
4 Development and Change Wiley-Blackwell 1970
5 Journal of International Development Wiley-Blackwell 1989
6 Economic Development and Cultural Change Univ.Chicago Press 1952
7 Sustainable Development Wiley-Blackwell 1993
8 Studies in Comparative International Developmt. Springer 1965
9 Third World Quarterly Taylor & Francis 1979
10 Public Administration and Development Wiley-Blackwell 1981
11 European Journal of Development Research T&F and Palgrave 1989
12 Oxford Development Studies Taylor & Francis 1972
13 Multicultural Education & Technologies Journal Emerald 2007
14 Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (in ge & en) Mandelbaum (MK) 1986

781
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
it seems difficult to interpret whether the general
downward trend of all developmental journals’
SJR denotes a general decline in activity in the
field, or is an artifact of measurement.
The “contemporary h index” (hc index, at
right in Figure 4) shows values quite similar to
the QW index but is more widely used than the
latter. However, the most widely known sheer h
index seemingly shows distortions towards earlier
years (green dashed lines in Figure 5ff).
All indicators seem to demonstrate a general
tendency to increase until 2000 but then modest
leveling off. SJR shows a small number of lead-
ing scores and an undecided majority of moder-
ate scores of developmental journals – different
from most other indicators that show a more
differentiated field. In SJR, a general decline of
all developmental journals is also visible which
seems to require closer interpretation.
As an overall picture, it seems that the ranking
of developmental journals proposed in the present
article which is based on a manual synopsis of
rankings according to all single available factors
ISI IF, ISI 5-year IF, ISI Eigenfactor, ISI Article
Influence AI score; Scopus SJR, Scopus SNIP;
PoP h index, PoP hc index, PoP AW index for
2011, see plots in additional material provided
as addendum to this article online as Ahamer
(2012) rather follows the PoP AW index that
consequently appears as most telling and most
characteristic after the present exercise, at least
for developmental journals.
Such tentative impression is astonishing, given
the almost exclusive relevance of the ISI IF for
almost all institutional and individual rankings.
If this should prove true, the inclusion of a high
amount of grey literature (PoP) seems to make up
for the (often contested) selection process when
adapting or excluding single journals to a retrieval
system such as ISI. The present survey has been
performed only with regard to developmental jour-
nals and includes modest spanning across scientific
disciplines. However, harsh non-linearities among
scientific disciplines do exist regarding their per-
ception by different indices and are analyzed on
an individual level in Ahamer (2014) – whereas
the present article pertains to the level of journals.
Dynamic Bibliometric Analysis of
Developmental Journals by Journal
Also Figure 5 to Figure 7 uses the same time
interval as the above plots, namely a time axis
for the years since 1996, the start of ISI IF avail-
ability. The following figures are organized by
journals (not by indices as above), ordered ac-
cording to the suggested ranking of Table 1. For
their plots and graphical symbols, they use the
three aforementioned colors: red for ISI, blue for
Scopus (both indexed on the left axis), and green
for PoP based on Google Scholar (indexed on the
right axis). The graphic design of the data point
icons is described in Table 2.
These 14 single plots per journal all have
identical dimensions of axis for easy comparison
and show that often (but not necessarily always)
different indicators walk in parallel, even if
systematic differences between these indicators
vary from journal to journal. These differences
in the main not only reflect the largely differing
substrate of journals (~10,000 in ISI, ~20,000 in
Scopus, unknown but very high in PoP’s Google
Scholar base). The sheer size of retrieval systems
is a first quick explanation for the increasing levels
of indicators along ISI < Scopus < PoP. Further
reasons for differences between indicator levels
are, among others:
• Different strategies of retrieval systems to
include single journals.
• Different number of previous years used
for inclusion of citations (2-5).
• Different mathematical algorithm (espe-
cially quotients versus h indices).
• Different (if not subjective), often moder-
ately documented “correction factors” and

782
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 5. Comparison of the most important indices1 for six journals allows the inference of likely con-
version factors between the ISI, Scopus, and PoP/GoogleScholar reference systems

783
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 6. Comparison of the most important indices1 for another six journals allows the inference of
likely conversion factors between the ISI, Scopus, and PoP/GoogleScholar reference systems

784
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
algorithms for perceived “inappropriate ef-
fects”, such as citation habits in different
disciplines or the “prestige” of journals.
The set of twelve displays (Figure 5 and Figure
6) shows each journal time series stemming from
all three databases ISI (red), Scopus (blue) and PoP
based on Google Scholar (green). These figures
allow insights into the extent to which the various
indicators go in parallel. Differences between these
three databases are small for technologically ori-
ented journals such as number 7 (SD), and larger
for humanities – identical to what was found on
an individual level in Ahamer (2014: chapter 2.3).
Figure 7 repeats the same exercise for journals
with lower scores. Taking into account heuristic
conversion factors, e.g. derived from the plots of
quotients between various indicators in Figure
8 (SNIP/IF ~ 1.5; AW/IF ~ 15; AW/SNIP ~ 15)
allows the conclusion of presumable values for
IF and SNIP: journals number 13 (METJ) and
number 14 (JEP) might have SNIP and IF values
of around 0.2.
Apart from informing about assessment results
for single journals through the lens of different
assessment methods, the reader may wish to make
use of Figure 5 to Figure 7 in order to compare
different assessment methods when taking the
journals into account. Contemplating on a meta
level, such “plots per journal” should allow the
comparison of different assessment methods m
for a given journal a written as m(a), whereas the
earlier “plots per index” (Figure 2 until Figure 9)
should allow the comparison of different journals
through the lens of a given assessment method,
written as a(m).
Figure 7. Comparison of the most important indices1 for two journals with low scores allows the infer-
ence of likely conversion factors between the ISI, Scopus, and PoP/GoogleScholar reference systems
Table 2. Explanation of the legend’s graphic design
of the following 14 plots per journal, each appli-
cable to ISI, Scopus, PoP (Figure 5 to Figure 7).
Full
squares
Best practical user value, suggested for further
use. (synopsis in Figure 3)
Empty
squares
2nd best user value, more easily computable.
(synopsis in Figure 4)
Full line Most commonly used. (SJR: maybe not
significant, ISI AI: could be telling)
Dashed
line
Only auxiliary variable, no easy interpretation
here.

785
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
The apparent-yet-generalized logical structure
of such an exercise, namely the mutual influence
a(m)  m(a) is pictured in Figure 9 of Ahamer
(2014) in order to stress the self-referential nature
of any assessment exercise which on the one hand
means: which type of assessment result a comes
from which assessment method m? And on the
other hand: which type of assessment method is
most suitable to provide which assessment result?
The authors would like to hint at the self-
referential nature of any such quality assessment
exercise. Only the realistic inclusion of several
quality criteria, including practical relevance and
dialogue between assessors and assessees, may
help to escape this circle.
All indices are briefly defined in Endnote1.
For further details see these databases.
Historic Bibliometric Analysis
of Developmental Journals
The most widely known systems of literature
analysis, ISI and Scopus, start their quantitative
analyses in the years 1996 and 1999, respectively.
However, PoP data do not have such principal
limitations. Therefore, the following plot provides
a longer time axis, namely as far back as the cover-
age of the earliest founded journal under analysis.
Such “historic” analysis uses the AW index (PoP)
because of its high significance for overall journal
ranking and the unrestricted availability of Google
Scholar data when processed by the PoP software.
Data series in Figure 9 are smoothed to exclude
oscillations (shown as a four-year moving average,
which showed the clearest timelines).
Figure 8. Quotients between the suggested “best user value” indicators (IF; SNIP; AW; leftwards) and
between these and “second best user value” indicators (5-year IF, AI; SJR; hc) from three retrieval
systems ISI (red), Scopus (blue), and PoP/Google Scholar (green). Plots give a graphic impression of
the degree of correlation among bibliographic metrics1. Axes have equal spanning in all single plots to
facilitate comparisons by readers; vertical axes are logarithmic.

786
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Figure 9. History of PoP AW index1 score (4 year moving average) based on Google Scholar

787
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Such graphic analysis provides a larger
framework to assess the dynamics seemingly
inherent in the rise and (hopefully not) fall of
journals and even entire disciplines, be these as
interdisciplinary-oriented as is “global develop-
ment.” Most developmental journals were founded
in or around the legendary year 1968s (especially
during the startup decade of 1963-1973) and have
witnessed a steep rise thereafter. The only excep-
tion within the present selection is “Economic De-
velopment and Cultural Change” which possibly
dwells on an earlier paradigm of developmental
and economic sciences. The considerable rise of
almost all journals in the field is only interrupted
by several, possibly systemic, bumps during the
years 1979-92 and around 1989 as well as 1999.
The apparent decline during the last five years
of the curves might be generally due to the lower
probability of articles receiving citations in such
shortened period. This diagnosis for the latter
years is tentatively in line with results for the ISI
IF and Scopus SNIP in Figure 3.
The above chapter 1 has attempted to find a
first entrance key to the highly interdisciplinary
and multiparadigmatic field of development and
global studies. The above bibliometric plots can
only offer suggestions on where to start personal
explorations that each individual will have to
undertake on his/her own.
The Case of the Developmental
Master’s Curriculum
“Global Studies”
A more time-consuming but in-depth approach
is either one’s own academic studies or design-
ing university curricula for cohorts of students.
Chapter 2 proposes to take this path in a consistent
manner and presents a curriculum for develop-
mental “Global Studies.”
As an integrative approach, “Global Stud-
ies” (GS) not only involves interdisciplinarity or
transdisciplinarity (Table 3), even if such percep-
tion through different interdisciplinary lenses is
a valuable step forward. The interparadigmatic
curriculum of GS includes perceptions of reality
that are different because of the different situated-
ness of the actors in different systems of meaning
– often linked to different citizenship or culture.
As an example, one could understand an atomic
power plant in Armenia from the standpoint of
energy, radiation protection, political or business
in an interdisciplinary manner; but using the same
standpoints for Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian or
Iranian stakeholders would require an interpara-
digmatic view (Table 3).
In the view of this paper, “intercultural” means
the ability to deal with conflicting systems of mean-
ing that most often derive from different positions
within the dynamic network of life. Hence, most
suitably, globalization has to be understood from
an interparadigmatic mode of science; in-depth
mono-disciplinary understanding or in-depth
understanding from only one standpoint is clearly
not enough. The practical design of a curriculum
has to take such manifoldness into account and
has to actively train students coming from only
one of the standpoints m0, having only one of the
lenses n0 to be capable of perceiving the “n × m”
multitude of modes on their own incentive. Cur-
ricula not implementing such manifold modes are
clearly not sufficient to understand globalization
sufficiently for professional practice.
General Part: What Led to GS?
The second author has brought the idea of installing
a peace-oriented, discourse-oriented and high-
quality curriculum on international development
and globalization to Graz University in collabora-
tion with developmentally active NGOs. His initia-
tive was officially endorsed by the vice-rector in
an official act of commissioning (Polaschek, 2006)
and a bundle of electives (GS 2007) implemented
(statistical analysis in Ahamer, et al., 2001, pp. 29,
33) and administered by a peer-oriented “Steering
Committee” (SC GS, 2012).

788
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Graz has the second-largest Austrian university,
with over 30,000 students enjoying a tradition of
interdisciplinary studies after having installed a
new faculty of mixed pedagogic, geographic and
environmental profiles (URBI 2007), a unique
curriculum of environmental systems science
(USW 2012), an interdisciplinary Wegener Cen-
ter on Climate and Global Change (WegC 2005)
as well as an introductory module spanning all
the university’s faculties (Fakultäten in German,
hence “interfakultär”, Basismodul 2007). The first
author contributes to all these endeavors, mostly
using Web based learning platforms for student
dialogue and the construction of joint meaning
through online discourse (Ahamer, et al., 2011,
pp. 26-31).
The Master’s curriculum GS (2010) started
in autumn 2010 with ~60 students taking GS as
a major and a total of ~200 students with other
majors, included students from other curricula
that selected the basic GS course as elective (see
statistics from the GS basic course analyzed in
Ahamer (2011). To date, GS student representa-
tives have authored a reviewed paper on a survey
of the educational quality of GS (Bader & Zotter
2012); a dozen GS students have contributed a
paper to a special issue of one of the develop-
mental journals listed in Table 1 dealing with
two controversial hydro-energy projects in the
South after structured review processes in class
and online (Duraković et al. 2012); hundreds of
GS students have prepared raw material for a
textbook after intensive peer review, and a total
of three special issues of a peer-reviewed journal
have been produced (METJ 2012) dealing with
“Global Studies”. Nationally, regular contributions
are made to another city’s GS curriculum in Sal-
zburg (PLUS 2012), in addition to representation
on the board of the umbrella organization (MK
2012) and the organization of a national workshop
in Graz. Two peer reviewed book series have been
edited by the Austrian Circle of Developmental
Policies (MK 2010; Dialogue Group 2012) and a
peer reviewed journal (JEP 2012) that is included
in the analysis of chapter 1 (Table 1).
The English text of the curriculum GS is for the
first time presented in its entirety (including earlier
and more detailed text versions) in this article after
having been documented partially beforehand, in
order to enhance in-depth and concrete discussion
Table 3. Typologies of research modes in growing degree of integration: traditional definitions (above
row, see Ahamer, 2014: Table 1) only included different lenses from different disciplines but not yet
different standpoints, as is provided by an intercultural or interparadigmatic approach (below row, see
Ahamer, et al., 2011, pp. 17-18)
No integration Moderate integration Greater integration Greatest integration
Monodisciplinary Multidisciplinary
Interdisciplinary
Transdisciplinary
- -
Disciplinary (“1”)
“1” facet of viewed facts
Interdisciplinary (“n”)
“n” facets of viewed facts
Intercultural (“m”)
“m” perspectives by viewing
actors
Interparadigmatic (“n × m”)
“n” facets of viewed facts ×
“m” perspectives by viewing actors

789
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
on the modules and elements needed to implement
the above-mentioned guiding educational ideas.
This key concept of interparadigmatic approach
is symbolically expressed by combining several
interdisciplinary and multiperspectivist logos in
Figure 10.
The Scope and Intended
Modules of GS
Based on the wide variety of practical and scien-
tific practical paradigms represented within the
Steering Committee GS (SC GS, 2012) and based
on the inclusion of NGOs during all fifty SC GS
sessions, the constituting document for the GS
curriculum (Kumpfmüller, 2007) as well as his
draft GS curriculum (Kumpfmüller, 2009) has
suggested eight modules (Table 4), which were
later merged and narrowed down to six modules
(Table 5) in the final accredited version of the
curriculum (GS, 2010).
The scope of GS has been defined in consensus
and in an unalienable way as a humanistically
oriented critical evaluation of all effects of glo-
balization and development with a view to global
partnership and joint responsibility.
The history of the GS initiative and subsequent
implementations was narrated in earlier papers
(Ahamer, 2011; Ahamer, et al., 2011) including
sections of the curriculum text which follows in
its relevant entirety here.
The Profile and Final Structure of GS
The primary goal of the GS master’s program is to
convey and promote understanding of the global
society, its mechanisms, interdependencies, and
problems as the basis for strengthening responsible
governance to confront the resulting issues. The
participants in the GS program will, amongst other
things, be able to (Preamble, 2010):
• Develop a basic understanding of differ-
ent cultures and world views from different
perspectives and disciplines (history, phi-
losophy, economics, politics, law, culture,
Figure 10. At left: multiple perspectives on global realities are described by the logos developed in Table
3, having the six colors of the “faculties” of Graz University as background. At right: each student and
lecturer first provides but one perspective to GS but is continuously trained in dialogue to perceive also
the others’ perspectives. All actors take different standpoints according to their real-world involvement
in globalization procedures.

790
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
literature, religion etc.) and to understand
global interconnections.
• Understand the interdependence of global
phenomena and processes in an intercon-
nected world and recognize it as a histori-
cal process.
• Analyze the structural disadvantage experi-
enced by a majority of people (i.e. poverty,
hunger, illiteracy, marginalization and law-
lessness, etc.) and its various causes and be
capable of discussing alternative scenarios
and different approaches to a solution.
• Recognize the importance of sustainably
dealing with the environment, particularly
the protection of the climate and species as
a joint global challenge.
• Take account of gender issues as crucial
for local and global social development
processes.
Table 4. The eight initial modules of the GS curriculum
Module 1 Globalization, Sustainable Development, Gender – An Introduction: Including the topics of development,
globalization and global change, sustainability and globalization; gender equality; global learning, etc.
Module 2 World History: With the topics: history of cultural realms, colonial history and European imperialism and colonialism,
post- and neo-colonialism, migration, etc.
Module 3 World Economics: Free trade theories, international trade and economic institutions, global financial systems and
international debt, development economics and development cooperation, population theories and environmental
economics, etc.
Module 4 World Politics and International Law: Theories of international relations, international politics; critical peace
research; international and European law; comparative analysis of legislation, etc.
Module 5 World Cultures, World Religions and World Ethics: Introduction to cultural anthropology, language, culture and
religion in the globalization process; cultural identity and gender, global citizenship, global ethics, etc.
Module 6 Organizational Development and Social Skills: Projects in the context of global issues (e.g. via the Austrian
Development Cooperation); non-governmental organizations and networks; intervention research, etc.
Module 7 World Climate, Environment and Technology: Climate change, environmental problems, technology assessment,
communication technologies, sustainable development
Module 8 Global Learning: International cultural and economic spaces, intercultural communication, human rights, and
minorities in the globalization process.
Table 5. General structure of the final GS (2010) master’s curriculum amounting to 120 ECTS
Module name Status ECTS
Basic module A: Global Studies compulsory 29
Two modules out of B through F mandatory choice from B-F 24
Module B: Law and Politics 12
Module C: Economics 12
Module D: History 12
Module E: Environment, Climate and Technology 12
Module F: Culture, Religion, Society and Gender 12
Module G: Practical Experience compulsory 18
Module H: Master module (thesis etc.) compulsory 37
Free electives free choice 12

791
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
• Acquire basic knowledge in the fields of
international law, human rights and inter-
national organizations.
• Understand and analyze the current dy-
namics of the modern-day economy, world
trade and global financial systems.
• Recognize the role and responsibility of
globally effective players and institutions
in their impact on peace and development.
• Gain an understanding of, and greater em-
powerment for, development cooperation
and independent development processes.
• Develop concrete global situation analyses
and appropriate strategies for solutions on
the basis of selected country studies and
thematic studies.
• Receive insights into issues pertaining to
intercultural communication and world
religions.
According to the accredited text in German,
from which is cited on the following pages after
own translation, the Master Curriculum “Global
Studies” at Graz University sees its unique sell-
ing proposition
1. In a genuine interdepartmental (following
German terminology: inter-faculty) ap-
proach leading to multiperspectivistic and
integral perception.
2. In a critical approach to the phenomenon of
globalization.
3. In a compulsory extra-university practical
semester.
4. In the emphasis of quality-oriented studies
as an alternative to mass-oriented studies.
Global phenomena are understood as a product
of mutual, evolutionary genesis of:
• Cultural patterns of understanding.
• Societal institution building.
• Technological innovations.
• Including their spatial diffusion.
When selecting participating students and
lecturers in GS at Graz University, long-term
safeguarding of an excellent academic level must
be guaranteed.
Detailed Part of the Final “Global
Studies” Master’s Curriculum
The following text is translated from Annex 1
of the GS (2010) curriculum and can serve as a
template for similar initiatives worldwide.
Source of the following text of Annex 1 is the
curriculum as published by Graz University KFU
(GS 2010) based on Kumpfmüller (2009) and
earlier versions augmented by earlier contributions
by the first author (e.g. on 17.12.2009, 9.3.2011
and 7.5.2010) that have almost all been taken into
account during the accreditation process of the
final curricula by the university senate.
Basic Module: Global Studies
Content: In the basic module, the topic of global-
ization is presented through different perspectives
of the following disciplines: international law;
economics; environment, climate and technol-
ogy as well as culture and history. The aim is to
achieve a balanced and equilibrated representation
and integration of said perspectives on globaliza-
tion in order to generate an integrative, realistic
and practically sound 360° panoramic view of
globalization in the graduates’ understanding. A
“basic lecture” comprising all the above disciplines
is complemented by a special ring lecture and
by lectures on international policy, developing
countries and globalization, and the gender factor.
Learning Objectives: The basic module of
the Global Studies curriculum serves to convey
essential core competencies and basic knowledge
of global development and global contexts. Thus,
it serves as a basis for the creation of globally
responsible competence to act. The main target
is a sound understanding of different cultures and
world views.

792
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
The basic module will be an introduction into
multiperspectivistic thinking and multiparadig-
matic understanding. After completion of the
module, students are in a position to fully reflect
on preconditions and assumptions used by different
scientific and political paradigms. Students will
be able to integrate them in an action-oriented
manner, to understand, recognize and analyze
the issues of globalization in their complexity
(poverty, hunger, conflicts, scarcity of resources,
environmental degradation, climate change, etc.),
and subsequently to develop interdisciplinary op-
tions towards a solution.
Module Politics and Law
Content: General principles of political science;
political ideas and movements of the modern era;
political systems in international comparison;
fundamental questions of international relations,
in particular as are brought about by different
systems of values and different understandings
of the nature and objective of democracy.
General foundations of international law and
of the legislation of international organizations;
fundamental questions in the fields of legal per-
sons and sources of law as well as the resolution
of disputes in international law including imple-
mentation; legal frameworks of the international
order for security and peace, of the international
protection of human rights, of international
economic order and of international climate
and environmental protection. Representation,
analysis and discussion of cases of international
law, especially regarding human rights at global
and local levels, international law of development
and economy, as well as of climate and environ-
mental protection. Selected areas of the European
Union, international relations, conflict research
and North-South cooperation.
Learning Objectives: Students are able to
deal with complex political and legal aspects of
globalization. Their ability for discourse, action
and solution is strengthened and they develop the
necessary skills in autonomous and critical analy-
sis. Conditions, drivers and effects of globalization
as well as possible solutions to globalization can
be perceived, analyzed, understood, communi-
cated and resolved as questions of international
policy as well as of international law. Methods
for finding legal solutions can be applied and as-
sessed regarding their suitability, adequacy and
their subsequent consequences to situations and
stakeholders.
Methodological Competences: Students per-
ceive and assess issues in international politics as
well as contexts of international law and European
legislation. Basic competence is attained in politi-
cal science and international law. Students analyze
and critically evaluate international developments
and problematic issues in the field of international
politics. Introduction is given to the structure,
institutions, instruments and policies of the inter-
national community and the European Union, such
as EuropeAid and the European Neighborhood
and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
Module Economics
Content: This module serves to convey basic
knowledge of global economic development
and thus, a basis for the creation of globally
responsible competence to act. Globalization of
economies, international trade and theories of free
trade including competing theories; international
economic institutions, global finance system and
issues of international debt; development econom-
ics and developmental cooperation; and uneven
development.
Learning Objectives: Students understand
different economic structures, the historic back-
grounds of their evolutionary developments; they
understand systems and modes of operation of the
modern world economy, in particular of interna-
tional trade and of international flow of finances
including their legal framework.
Functional relationships within globalization,
drivers for globalization and effects of globaliza-

793
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
tion shall be assessed using the understanding
of several contemporary theoretical systems,
macroeconomic models, political and economic
paradigms. In the light of the justice of global dis-
tribution and of social sustainability, the respective
advantages and disadvantages of these paradigms
and theories are comprehensively assessed, evalu-
ated and integrated in an action-oriented manner.
Methodological Competences: Knowing the
preconditions and assumptions relevant for dif-
ferent paradigms in macroeconomics and in eco-
nomic policy (neoclassical school, Keynesianism
etc.), including their comprehensive reflection
and action-oriented integration; Identifying and
analyzing global economic contexts, in order to
take care of them and to shape them with the
aim of social sustainability; and Assessment of
the roles of economically oriented activities for
peace and development from the perspective of
ethical responsibility.
Module History
Content: This module serves to mediate the his-
torical background of current conditions in global
relations between peoples, religions, cultures, and
systems. The focus is on the conquest and subse-
quent colonization of the world by Europeans since
the 15th century. In addition, intra-continental
power relations and cultural relations outside the
European zones of influence are also analyzed.
The module inquires about the build-up and ef-
fect of systems of power, of violence, but also of
culture and the positive impact of innovations etc.
from one part of the world on other parts of the
world. Globalization is understood as a historical
process of inter-regional relations, namely as an
intercontinental transference of entire systems
(of rules) and (cultural) regimes, planned and
operated primarily by Europe. Finally, this mod-
ule intends to convey the values of such a global
culture that – as an alternative and in addition to
globalization – understands itself as a system of
equal partnership and encounter as well as one of
exchange under global rules such as human rights
and democracy.
Learning Objectives: This module shall en-
hance understanding of the cultures of the world
on the basis of historical developments, and
thereby strengthen the students’ competence for
intercultural communication and intercultural
mediation. The following competencies will serve
that aim: the acquisition of conceptual prerequi-
sites for the analysis of the context of culture and
globalization, the ability to frame special issues in
the overarching context of cultural development,
knowledge of the historical stages of this process,
the application of methods of cultural studies
and of cultural sociology, the understanding that
one consequence of the process of globalization,
namely the growing gap between the countries of
the North and the South, cannot be understood
and corrected without analysis of the culture of
these countries.
Module Environment, Climate, and
Technology
Content: Global environmental change and cli-
mate change; energy technologies and systems;
philosophy of technology; sustainability; genetic
engineering and biotechnology; environmental
pollutants; biodiversity; environmental policy;
environmental law; life style research; environ-
mental awareness and behavior; environmental
ethics; environmental economics; and environ-
mental management.
Learning Objectives: Achieve factual un-
derstanding of scientific processes to an extent
necessary for the evaluation of practicality and
capacity for potential solutions. Understand the
fields of climate change and technology assess-
ment as examples of complex interacting systems
that render necessary an interdisciplinary and
intercultural consensus building effort, based on
solid knowledge of natural sciences.
Methodological Competences: Based on the
grounds of natural sciences and technical sciences,

794
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
to understand the current discourses on environ-
ment, climate and technology and the relationship
between environmental change, climate change
and social change and other global phenomena
and processes. Knowing the role of sustainable
environmental protection, in particular of climate
protection and biodiversity protection, as a global
challenge which includes their environmentally
relevant legal, economic and political framework
conditions. Perception and analysis of environ-
mentally relevant problems in their intrinsic
complexity.
Module Culture, Society, and Gender
Content: This module aims at evidencing that
effects of globalization are anchored in the en-
tirety of culture. Essential patterns of values in
societies result from construction, discourse, and
language. The most important cultural dimen-
sions playing a central role are history, religion,
language, demographic behavior, modernization,
institutional landscapes; technology, knowledge;
gender training and gender science.
The basic assumption is that increasing global
intertwinement fundamentally changes social rela-
tions, political power relationships, and patterns
of cultural and religious meaning. Hence, this
module investigates the effects of globalization and
resulting processes, such as migration, on culture,
religion, social and gender relations. Furthermore,
this module comprises theories and concepts of
an analysis of the process of globalization that is
sensitive to gender issues. In particular, it offers
an analysis of social, political, religious and cul-
tural structures, processes, and the relationships
of power and powerlessness, including their links
with other socially differentiating structures such
as class, ethnicity, religion etc.
Learning Objectives: Be able to apply con-
ceptual and theoretical instruments in the analy-
sis of the interactions of history, ethical values,
religion, culture and globalization while taking
account of the latest methodological innovations
in social sciences and humanities as well as in
social and human geography; to understand that
the problematic consequences of the process of
globalization and the growing gap between the
rich “developed” countries of the global north
and the countries of the global south cannot be
analyzed and amended without confronting the
culture and history of these countries.
Methodological Competences: To localize spe-
cific questions of globalization in the overarching
context of cultural development; to oversee the
historical phases of the process of globalization;
to apply methods of cultural studies, and compare
cultures, according to methods of social research,
social analysis, media research, and discourse
analysis; in order to be able to communicate
interculturally.
Module Practice
Practice: The completion of a period of practice
in the non-university area (to the value of of 16
ECTS academic credits or 400 working hours) is
a mandatory component of the curriculum and
must be documented accordingly. This practice
period, outside the university environment, is
used as a trial for implementation and as a vo-
cationally oriented application of the knowledge
and skills acquired by the students. The practice
can be performed in the home country or abroad,
preferably in state-authorized or widely recog-
nized institutions, in relevant NGOs, as well as
in international organizations. An application for
the suitability of this curriculum is mandatory in
advance of its implementation; the chairperson
of the curricula commission decides on this rec-
ognition. Cooperation in projects carried out by
university institutes or other university facilities
can only be recognized if it is possible to verify
that the implementation of the mandatory practice
in a non-university institution is impossible. This
practice must be organized independently and
at the students’ own responsibility and must be
completed during the studies.

795
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Content: Non-university practical testing
and assessment of suitability and fitness, project
management, monitoring, etc.
Learning Objectives: This practice period
outside university (amounting to 400 working
hours) enables the students to test and deepen their
knowledge by means of professionally oriented
application of the skills acquired. The practice pe-
riod thus introduces the vocational application by
providing a wide repertoire of skills and methods
to be applied. The association of the university
in the context of the practice period shall ensure
high quality and integration into the concept of
the curriculum.
Teaching and Learning Activities and Methods:
Practical, protocols and progress reports, lecture,
group work, presentations, analyses, feedback
discussions, independently designed projects etc.
Placements: After completion of the basic
modules, it is recommended for students to
complete a semester at a foreign university while
making use of the university’s mobility programs.
Recognition of the courses completed during
placements abroad should already be safeguarded
beforehand.
Skills, Competencies, and Methods Valid
for the Entirety of the GS Curriculum
Social Skills: Training in the ability to work as
part of a team and in coordinating competences,
particularly dialogic skills with experts and per-
sons influenced by disciplines different from those
previously having been the focus of the students’
studies. Graduates will be in a situation where
they have to put themselves in someone else’s
place, regarding points of view and contention
from representatives of other relevant disciplinary
cultures, scientific branches and university depart-
ments based on own initiative. Thus bottlenecks
for factually suitable solutions compatible with
reality may already be eliminated in the early
stages of projects. The aim of such social com-
petences is a balanced and professional view on
implementabilities and landscapes of stakehold-
ers’ interests. Concrete and real ability training
in intercultural communication and solution find-
ing is particularly emphasized in the mandatory
practical (see module practice).
Personal Competencies: Understanding the
cultural conditionality of everyday behavior,
personal and professional values, working meth-
ods and the whole of society’s methods to create
consensus. Ability to deliver services in difficult
working environments, characterized by social
and cultural divides. Respect for the values and
ethics of other cultures.
The achieved competencies consist in the
students’ expertise as a prerequisite for the Mas-
ter’s thesis and the completion of the Master’s
examination, in the methodological competency
to deal with multiple and diverse tasks, in social
skills as a result of the completion of group work
courses, as well as in personal skills resulting from
the repeated opportunity to do presentations and
their evaluations.
Teaching and learning activities and meth-
ods: Instructing lecture, course, textual analysis,
discussion, teamwork, analyses, new media,
e-learning, Web platforms, simulations of nego-
tiations, problem-based learning, publication of
professional journal articles, review processes,
immersive learning (to enter the social spaces of
the problem locations), international cooperation,
written exam.
Appropriation of themes describing the inter-
action of economic, political and cultural factors
in the process of societal development, conscious
discussion and analysis of the disparities in social
development between the countries of the North
and the South in their cultural relatedness.
Advanced Modules from the
Original GS Curriculum
The original curriculum foresaw the deepen-
ing and reinforcement of the above modules by
more advanced extension modules, but these

796
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
were deleted during the process of streamlining
before submission to the university (Ahamer, et
al., 2011: 25), presumably in the name of scarce
resources; but for the highest academic quality
they remain important.
Advanced Module Politics and Law
Contents: More in-depth presentation of the
concepts, terminologies, institutions, theoretical
approaches and current problems in international
politics; basics of peace and conflict research; fun-
damental problems of development cooperation;
globalization and its political design; the role of
the European Union and Austria in international
politics.
Current Problems: and issues in international
and European law, particularly in the areas of
maintaining international peace and security;
protection of human rights at global and regional
levels; international economic law under the
conditions of globalization; North-South coopera-
tion; sustainable development and environmental
protection. Legal aspects of selected policies of
the European Union.
Learning Objectives: After completion of the
module, students are able to deal with the complex
aspects of globalization’s international policymak-
ing and international law constructively, and in
an informed manner. Their capacity to discourse,
take action, and solve problems in pertinent areas
is thus strengthened. For scientific and practical
work in the areas covered by the module, the neces-
sary ability for autonomous analysis is developed.
Students gain in-depth competency in dealing with
relevant documents and (legal) materials.
Advanced Module Economics
Content: Globalization of the economy; current
global economic and political developments; busi-
ness management and economic deepening in the
following areas: international business; theories of
globalization; leadership; international account-
ing; international marketing; business ethics and
management of responsibilities; global learning;
international management and accounting; inter-
national economics, e.g. equilibrium theories and
theories describing non-equilibrium processes;
growth, alternatives to growth and distribution.
Learning Objectives: After completion of
the advanced module, students have in-depth
knowledge in the areas of management, account-
ing, international economics etc. The students
are in a position to apply their knowledge of all
relevant mechanisms, syndromes, and problems
of globalization and development as the basis for
responsible decision-making skills. Students will
be able to use such knowledge in the analysis of
global issues and in the development of solution
strategies for all global economic areas.
Advanced Module Environment, Climate,
and Technology
Content: Global environmental and climate
change, environmental policy, environmental
economics, environmental law, energy systems,
genetic engineering, biotechnology, environmen-
tal pollutants, sustainability and its communica-
tion, lifestyle research, environmental awareness
and behavior.
Learning Objectives: After personal reflection
of the basic modules and of their professional
experience and scientific research focus, students
deepen their technical, methodical, and social
skills regarding selected areas of the environ-
ment, climate, and technology. Interdisciplinarity,
systems thinking and recognition of interdepen-
dencies, as well as the acquisition of specialized
expertise in selected areas, enable the students to
analyze the contexts of environmental challenges
and to design strategies for action.
Advanced Module Culture, Society, and
Gender
Content: A more detailed examination of the
cultural conditions involved in the process of
globalization requires a foundation in cultural

797
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
theories, namely cultural sociology, cultural an-
thropology and ethnology and the conveyance and
interpretation of their guiding theoretical models.
Learning Objectives: After the completion of
the module, students are in a position:
• To independently use a system of mecha-
nisms for theoretical analysis for their own
scientific work.
• To assess what role knowledge plays in ac-
cess to social, political and economic op-
tions and resources.
• To assess what role adherence to a social
group or gender plays in accessing so-
cial, political and economic options and
resources.
• To find and critically make use of digi-
tal sources of information on global is-
sues (statistics, analyses, visual and audio
sources).
• To present topics and standpoints in a sci-
entific and discussive manner.
• To safely proceed with analysis and pre-
sentation on an interdisciplinary and trans-
disciplinary level.
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
This article has firstly provided an in-depth biblio-
graphic analysis of over two dozen developmental
journals according to the three most comprehen-
sive retrieval systems for scientific literature:
ISI, Scopus and PoP analyzing Google Scholar
data. Comparison of all available indices such as
impact factors, SNIP, and h values has allowed
the proposal of a heuristic ranking of a dozen
developmental journals denoted by encircled data
throughout all figures of this article. Principal
differences among indices were discussed. The
PoP AW score (age-weighted citation rate index,
similar to the hc value) is especially able to provide
historic time series that depict genesis, including
the temporary ups and downs of the developmental
scientific domain.
Secondly, this article has presented a full
Master’s curriculum for interparadigmatic de-
velopmental “Global Studies” at an Austrian uni-
versity as a template for similar interdisciplinary
and intercultural endeavors to which the authors
heartily invite all readers.
As a conclusion, this article suggests an on-
going interdisciplinary, interparadigmatic, and
interperspectivistic dialogic process of discourse
among all involved stakeholders in developmental
global studies in order to safeguard the highest pos-
sible academic quality including all viewpoints,
all disciplinary paradigms and every resulting
concept of quality that ensues.
REFERENCES
Ahamer, G. (2001). A structured basket of models
for global change. In C. Rautenstrauch & S. Patig
(Eds.), Environmental Information Systems in In-
dustry and Public Administration, (pp. 101-136).
Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Retrieved
from http://www.idea-group.com/books/details.
asp?id=9
Ahamer, G. (2008). Im Spiegelkabinett unter-
schiedlicher Entwicklungsvorstellungen. Journal
fur Entwicklungspolitik, 24(3), 56–76.
Ahamer, G. (2010). Social and cultural geography.
Retrieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/global-
studies/deposit/GS-Basis-LV_Anteil-Gilbert-
Ahamer_291210.ppt
Ahamer, G. (2011). How technologies can local-
ize learners in a multicultural space. International
Journal of Technology and Educational Market-
ing, 1(2), 1–24. doi:10.4018/IJTEM.2011070101

798
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Ahamer, G. (2012). Literature analysis and
bibliometry for development in responsibility.
Retrieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/global-
studies/deposit/HandbookRTHEM_addendum_
GA_101012.pdf
Ahamer, G. (2014). Quality assurance in trans-
national education management – The develop-
mental global studies curriculum. In S. Mukerji
& P. Tripathi (Eds.), Handbook of Research on
Transnational Higher Education Management.
Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Ahamer, G., Kumpfmüller, K. A., & Hohenwarter,
M. (2011). Web-based exchange of views enhances
global studies. Campus-Wide Information Sys-
tems, 28(1), 16–40. Retrieved from http://www.
emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1065-
0741&volume=28&issue=1
Bader, L., & Zotter, V. (2012). Interdisciplinarity:
Wishful thinking? Experiences at the University
of Graz. Multicultural Education & Technology
Journal, 6(3), 118–136.
Basismodul. (2007). All-university basic module
spanning all faculties. Graz University. Retrieved
from http://www.uni-graz.at/evp3www/evp-
3www_studienservice/evp3www_basismodul/
evp3www_basismodul-4.htm
Cummings, S. (2012). Which are the top develop-
ment journals? Retrieved from http://sarahsre-
searchexperiment.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/
which-are-the-top-development-journals/
Dialogue Group. (2012). Welches Wissen für Ent-
wicklung? Transdisziplinäre Zugänge zu Global
Change Jahrestreffen der Entwicklungsforschen-
den. Retrieved from http://www.entwicklungs-
forschung.at/aktuelles/veranstaltungen.htm
Duraković, E., Feigl, B., Fischer, B., Fleck,
C., Galler, L.-M., & Heinrich, J. et al. (2012).
Dialogic Global Studies for multicultural
technology assessment. Multicultural Educa-
tion & Technology Journal, 6(4), 261–286.
doi:10.1108/17504971211279527
GS. (2007). Bundle of electives Global Studies.
Retrieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/vre1www/
vre1www-wfs.htm
GS. (2010). Master’s curriculum Global Stud-
ies at Karl-Franzens University Graz. Retrieved
from https://online.uni-graz.at/kfu_online/wbMit-
teilungsblaetter.display?pNr=186789
GS. (2012). Website Global Studies Graz. Re-
trieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/globalstudies/
Harzing, A. W. (2007). Publish or perish. Re-
trieved from http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm
Harzing, A. W. (2010). The publish or perish book.
Melbourne, Australia: Tarma Software Research
Pty Ltd. Retrieved from http://www.harzing.com/
popbook.htm
Heeks. (2019). Development studies journal
ranking table. Retrieved from http://ict4dblog.
wordpress.com/2010/06/17/development-studies-
journal-ranking-table/
IE. (2012). Internationale entwicklung. Retrieved
from http://www.univie.ac.at/int-entwicklung
ISI. (2012). Web of knowledge, therein (social)
science citation index (S)SCI and journal citation
reports. Retrieved from http://thomsonreuters.
com/products_services/science/
JCR. (2003). Journal citation reports. Retrieved
from http://sunWeb.isinet.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/
jloptions.cgi?PC=D
JCR. (2012). Journal citation reports. Retrieved
from http://admin-apps.Webofknowledge.com/
JCR/help/h_impfact.htm#impact_factor
JEP. (2012). Journal für entwicklungspolitik.
Retrieved from http://www.mattersburgerkreis.
at/jep/
Kumpfmüller, K. A. (2007). Which targets for
Global Studies? Fundamental deliberations for
the inauguration of the master study’s curricula
commission at Graz University. Karl-Franzens
University Graz.

799
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Kumpfmüller, K. A. (2009). Draft curriculum
Global Studies, curricula commission. Graz
University.
Lee, F. S., Cronin, B. C., McConnell, S., &
Dean, E. (2010). Research quality rankings of
heterodox economic journals in a contested
discipline. American Journal of Economics and
Sociology, 69, 1409–1452. doi:10.1111/j.1536-
7150.2010.00751.x
METJ. (2012). Multicultural education & tech-
nology journal. Retrieved from http://www.em-
eraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1750-497x
PLUS. (2012). Studienergänzung global stud-
ies at Paris Lodron University Salzburg. Re-
trieved from http://www.uni-salzburg.at/portal/
page?_pageid=145,1514578&_dad=portal&_
schema=PORTAL
Polaschek, M. (2006). Development of global
studies at Graz University. Retrieved from
http://www.uni-graz.at/communication/news/
archiv/2006/060328globalstudies.html
PoP. (2007). Publish or perish. Retrieved from
http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm
Preamble. (2010). The target of global studies:
Preamble to the GS curricula at Graz University.
Retrieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/vre1www/
vre1www-wfs/vre1www-praeambel.htm
SC GS. (2012). Steering committee Global Studies.
Retrieved from http://www.uni-graz.at/vre1www/
vre1www-wfs/vre1www-steering-committee.htm
Scopus. (2012). Literature retrieval system. Re-
trieved from http://www.scopus.com/
URBI. (2007). Faculty of environmental, regional
and educational sciences at Graz University.
Retrieved from http://urbi.uni-graz.at/en/faculty/
mission-statement/
USW. (2012). Environmental systems science at
Graz University. Retrieved from http://www.uni-
graz.at/en/usw1www.htm?=
VHB. (2004). Journal rating by the union of
German university teachers for economics. Re-
trieved from http://vhbonline.org/verein/vhb-ak-
tuell/3-2009/zeitschriftenranking-vhb-jourqual/
Wagner, C. S., Roessner, J. D., Bobb, K., Klein,
J. T., Boyack, K. W., & Keyton, J. etal. (2011).
Approaches to understanding and measuring in-
terdisciplinary scientific research (IDR): A review
of the literature. Journal of Informetrics, 5(1),
14–26. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2010.06.004
WegC. (2005). Wegener center on climate and
global change. Graz University. Retrieved from
http://www.uni-graz.at/en/igam7www/igam-
7www_praesentation/igam7www_kurzinforma-
tion.htm
WUW. (2004). Journal rating of the Vienna
University of Economics. Retrieved from http://
bach.wu.ac.at/bachapp/cgi-bin/fides/fides.
aspx?journal=true,lang=DE
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Bibliometric Analysis: Is the attempt to quan-
titatively assess the academic quality of journals
or authors by statistical methods such as citation
rates. Care must be taken to first suitably define
quality criteria and then suitably implement them
by selecting a suitable empirical basis; else misun-
derstanding on the meaning of quality can occur.
Developmental Journals: Are academic
(mostly peer reviewed) journals that deal with
global development issues such as globalization,
economic convergence, peace, uneven develop-
ment, and intercultural exchange.
Global Change: Is seen here as the long-
term change in global patterns of social, cultural,
economic and environmental systemic patterns
that in the present epoch may take the form of
globalization, but in other epochs exhibits differ-
ent change patterns.

800
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
Global Studies Curricula: Are developmental
university curricula dealing with globalization,
international equity, and respectful development.
Globalization: Is understood here as the
slow but steady change in systemic patterns of
global trade, economics, culture, society and
behavior; triggered among other things by easier
accessibility mediated through communication
technologies.
Google Scholar: Is a Web search functional-
ity offered for free by Google providing far more
journals than ISI or Scopus, including non-peer
reviewed journals.
Graz University: Is Austria’s second-oldest
(since 1585) and second-largest (over 30,000
students) university in its second largest city of
Graz (260,000 inhabitants) offering almost all
important curricula in its six faculties. The latest
innovation of this public generalist university is the
interdisciplinary, intercultural, interparadigmatic,
and interfaculty Master’s curriculum “Global
Studies”, operating since 2010.
Impact Factor: offered by the Institute for
Scientific Information (ISI), today part of Thom-
son Reuters, tries to measure academic quality by
the quotient of received citations divided by the
number of articles (both regarding the two latest
years). Variants of this factor and similar factors
based on alternative or similar concepts are pre-
sented in scientometric literature (i.e., measuring
quality and value in science) and also briefly in
this article.
Intercultural: Approaches combine different
understandings resulting from the actors’ entrench-
ment in different cultures and their adoption of
differing values.
Interdisciplinary: Approaches combine un-
derstandings, models and views from different
scientific disciplines.
Interparadigmatic: Approaches combine in-
terdisciplinary and intercultural approaches; hence
they respect both understandings stemming from
different scientific disciplines and understandings
from different cultural entrenchments.
Publish or Perish: Is a free, downloadable
program that uses Google Scholar data for in-
depth bibliographic analysis.
Scopus: Is a European scientometric database
providing mainly two indices: SNIP and SJR.
Scopus contains twice as many journals as ISI
Thomson and offers an easy-to-use Web access
for subscribers including access to full text in
subscribed journals.
ENDNOTES
1 Word-by-word citations of the definitions
from the single retrieval systems, for details
see there. Definitions ISI (JCR 2012): “The
Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the
number of citations in the JCR year by the
total number of articles published in the
two previous years. An Impact Factor of
1.0 means that, on average, the articles pub-
lished one or two years ago have been cited
one time. An Impact Factor of 2.5 means
that, on average, the articles published one
or two years ago have been cited two and a
half times.”, “The Eigenfactor Score calcula-
tion is based on the number of times articles
from the journal published in the past five
years have been cited in the JCR year, but
it also considers which journals have con-
tributed these citations so that highly cited
journals will influence the network more
than lesser cited journals. References from
one article in a journal to another article
from the same journal are removed, so that
Eigenfactor Scores are not influenced by
journal self-citation.”, “The Article Influ-
ence determines the average influence of
a journal’s articles over the first five years
after publication. It is calculated by dividing
a journal’s Eigenfactor Score by the number
of articles in the journal, normalized as a
fraction of all articles in all publications.
This measure is roughly analogous to the

801
Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
5-Year Journal Impact Factor in that it is a
ratio of a journal’s citation influence to the
size of the journal’s article contribution over
a period of five years. - The mean Article
Influence Score is 1.00. A score greater
than 1.00 indicates that each article in the
journal has above-average influence. A score
less than 1.00 indicates that each article in
the journal has below-average influence.”,
Definitions Scopus (Scopus 2012), more
details see there: SJR: “SCImago Journal
Rank is weighted by the prestige of a journal.
Subject field, quality and reputation of the
journal have a direct effect on the value of a
citation.”, SNIP: “Source Normalized Impact
per Paper measures contextual citation im-
pact by weighing citations based on the total
number of citations in a subject field. Note:
Four years are needed to calculate a SJR or
SNIP Scopus records complete citation data
from 1996, and so the first SJR and SNIP
values available are for 1999.”, Definitions
PoP (PoP 2012), more details see there: h
index: “The h-index was proposed by J.E.
Hirsch in his paper “An index to quantify
an individual’s scientific research output”,
arXiv:physics/0508025 v5 29 Sep 2005. It is
defined as follows: A scientist has index h if
h of his/her Np papers have at least h citations
each, and the other (Np-h) papers have no
more than h citations each. It aims to mea-
sure the cumulative impact of a researcher’s
output by looking at the amount of citation
his/her work has received.”, hc index: “The
Contemporary h-index adds an age-related
weighting to each cited article, giving less
weight to older articles.”, Age-Weighted
Citation Rate (AWCR) and AW Index: “The
AWCR measures the number of citations to
an entire body of work, adjusted for the age
of each individual paper. It is an age-weighted
citation rate, where the number of citations
to a given paper is divided by the age of that
paper. The AW-index is defined as the square
root of the AWCR to allow comparison with
the h-index; it approximates the h-index if
the (average) citation rate remains more or
less constant over the years.”
This work was previously published in a Handbook of Research on Transnational Higher Education edited by Siran Mukerji
and Purnendu Tripathi, pages 526-584, copyright 2014 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
802
APPENDIX
Literature Analysis and Bibliometry for Development in Responsibility
Heeks’ League Table
Table 6. The following represents a first attempt at a “league table” for development studies journals.
Source: Heeks (2010).
Rank Journal Citation Score
1 World Development 6.04
2 Journal of Development Studies 4.90
3 Oxford Development Studies 4.06
4 Development Policy Review 3.20
5 Studies in Comparative International Development 2.40
6 Sustainable Development 2.39
7 European Journal of Development Research 1.90
8 Development and Change 1.89
9 Information Technology for Development 1.58
10 Information Technologies and International Development 1.55
11 Journal of International Development 1.46
12 Development 1.33
13 Third World Quarterly 1.30
14 Public Administration and Development 1.21
15 Development in Practice 1.03
16 Progress in Development Studies 0.88
17 Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 0.81
18 African Development Review 0.79
19 Gender and Development 0.58
20 Enterprise Development and Microfinance 0.45
21 Canadian Journal of Development Studies 0.45
22 IDS Bulletin 0.40
23 Information Development 0.37
24 Forum for Development Studies 0.17
25 Journal of Third World Studies 0.11
Comparator Journals
Journal of Development Economics 10.90
Human-Computer Interaction 4.06
Environment and Planning D 3.42
Information Systems Journal 2.89
The Information Society 1.64
Mountain Research and Development 0.91
Cited from Heeks (2010) available at http://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/development-studies-journal-ranking-table/.

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
803
Data from ISI Thomson, Scopus and Publish or Perish (Pop)
Figure 11. Heeks (2010): a “league table” for development studies journals. Data source: Heeks (2010).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
804
Figure 12. ISI Thomson Impact Factor IF

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
805
Figure 13. ISI Thomson 5-year Impact Factor

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
806
Figure 14. ISI Thomson Eigenvalue score

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
807
Figure 15. ISI Thomson Article Influence score

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
808
Figure 16. Scopus SJR

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
809
Figure 17. Scopus SNIP

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
810
Figure 18. PoP h index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
811
Figure 19. PoP hc index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
812
Figure 20. PoP AW index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
813
Figure 21. History of PoP h index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
814
Figure 22. History of PoP hc index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
815
Figure 23. History of PoP AW index score (based on the Google Scholar database)

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
816
Figure 24. History of PoP AW index score (based on Google Scholar); legend see main paper

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
817
Figure 25. History of PoP AW index score (10 year moving average); legend see main paper

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
818
Figure 26. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 27. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
819
Figure 28. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 29. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
820
Figure 30. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 31. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
821
Figure 32. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 33. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
822
Figure 34. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 35. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
823
Figure 36. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 37. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
824
Figure 38. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).
Figure 39. Comparison of the nine most important indices for each journal (title above legend).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
825
Figure 40. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts). Scales: above: logarithmic, below: linear.

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
826
Figure 41. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).
Figure 42. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
827
Figure 43. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
828
Figure 44. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
829
Figure 45. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).

Education and Literature for Development in Responsibility
830
Figure 46. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).
Figure 47. Quotients of indices (names in the inserts).