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UNESCO Communication and Information Weekly Newsletter

• 08.10.15 UNESCO Bangkok launches a regional dialogue on freedom of information in the Mekong countries UNESCO Bangkok is launching a regional dialogue on Freedom of Information (FOI) in the Mekong countries, with the first meeting to be held in Bangkok from 12 to 14 October 2015, in partnership with the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

• 07.10.15 Strengthening Uzbek libraries through media and information literacy From 6 to 15 October 2015, the UNESCO Tashkent Office and the National Library of Uzbekistan are organizing a training of trainers for the specialists of libraries and information centres on media and information literacy with a view to strengthening the information and library sphere in Uzbekistan.

• 07.10.15 UNESCO discusses with stakeholders how Internet Universality principles are relevant to East Africa The second Forum on Internet Freedom in East Africa that took place in Kampala, Uganda, on 28 to 29 September 2015, provided a platform for UNESCO to introduce the latest UNESCO flagship research on Internet Freedom. Making reference to the new study, Principles for Governing the Internet: A Comparative Analysis of 52 Internet-specific declarations and frameworks, UNESCO speakers spoke in support of multistakeholder consultative processes related to Internet freedoms in Africa.

• 06.10.15 International Conference on Impunity for Crimes against Journalists in Costa Rica (9-10 October) UNESCO and the Inter-American Human Rights System will host a conference to examine issues and solutions relating to the impunity enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of those responsible for crimes against journalists, be they professional media workers, bloggers or social media journalists.

• 05.10.15 Russian journalists hold "Dialogue for Trust" in Dagomys, Sochi An international round table convened by the Russian Union of Journalists in association with the UNESCO National Commission of the Russian Federation was the occasion to debate current issues in the media.

• 05.10.15 UNESCO Bangkok strengthens its support for free and independent media in Thailand UNESCO's Media Development Indicators (MDI) are now available in Thai, offering an effective tool to promote and implement international standards and good practices in Thailand's media sector.

• 02.10.15 UNESCO facilitates support for community media UNESCO's Section for Media Development and Society organized on 14 and 15 September at its Headquarters, an international seminar on community media sustainability. The two-day event brought together more than 80 people representing more than 33 countries, who pooled their experience to produce a set of recommendations aimed at strengthening community radio as a sector.

• 30.09.15 UNESCO comments the WSIS+10 Review working document UNESCO has released comments on a working document laying the ground for the United Nation's General Assembly WSIS+10 Review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes. The Organization welcomes in its comments the emphasis on a "people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented" Information Aociety. The commentary also lists areas for possible improvement and proposes amendments, including a vision of building inclusive Knowledge Societies.

• 28.09.15 Nigerian Secondary School Students develop Mobile Applications, seek more training opportunities The Abuja segment of the YouthMobile training for students of government secondary schools in Abuja, Nigeria came to an end on Monday 24th August, 2015, during a colorful closing ceremony where the students gathered to demonstrate various wonderful mobile applications which they developed after undergoing a four-week long training on development of mobile applications. 68 students participated in the training and were grouped into 14 teams to identify challenges or problem areas of the society that could be resolved with the aid of the mobile apps they were to develop. It is the first of its kind to be organized by UNESCO in Nigeria and was based on the beginner and intermediate levels of the App Inventor curriculum from the well acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA).

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During #Altmetrics15 workshop & #2AMConf Conference, Amsterdam, 7-9 October 2015

For details, log on to Twitter & use hashtag as above.

NEISP Jayashree Roy Memorial Essay Competition 2015; Topic: Environment, State and Society in North East India

North East India Studies Programme, JNU

Jayashree Roy Memorial Essay Competition, 2015

Topic: Environment, State and Society in North East India

North East India Studies Programme, JNU, invites submission of essays for the Jayashree Roy Memorial Essay Competition, 2015. The topic is Environment, State and Society in North East India. Submissions are invited from students of JNU.

North East India is located in one of the distinct bio-diverse and fragile ecological zones of the world. Historically, the role of ecology has been important factor in socio-economic, political and cultural life of the people of the region. In the last century, the relation between society and environment witnessed major changes, such as in the form of infrastructural and urban expansions. In the recent times, environment has also emerged as a significant issue in public policy such as regarding land or multi-purpose hydro power projects. People's responses to such policies have been diverse. NEISP invites submissions of essays from students of JNU on the above topic, engaging with some of the above issues.

Essays adjudged first and second would be awarded certificates and cash prizes.

Word Length: 4000 words

Last Date of Submission: November 2, 2015

Essays may be submitted to:
North East India Studies Programme
Room 416, 4th Floor
School of Social Sciences – Building I
JNU, New Delhi - 67
Or email: neispjnu@gmail.com

New SouthCentre Paper: Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Agreements and Economic Development: Myths and Realities

Announcing a New Research Paper from the South Centre   Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Agreements and Economic Development: Myths and Realities   South Centre Research Paper No. 63 October 2015 45 pages English ISSN 1819-6926 The South Centre recently published Research Paper No. 63: Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Agreements and Economic Development: Myths and Realities, authored by Yılmaz Akyüz. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the most ambiguous and the least understood concepts in international economics.  Common debate on FDI is confounded by several myths regarding its nature and impact on capital accumulation, technological progress, industrialization and growth.  It is often portrayed as a long term, stable, cross-border flow of capital that adds to productive capacity, helps meet balance-of-payments shortfalls, transfers technology and management skills, and links domestic firms with wider global markets. However, none of these are intrinsic qualities of FDI.  First, FDI is more about transfer and exercise of control than movement of capital.   It does not always involve flows of financial capital (movements of funds through foreign exchange markets) or real capital (imports of machinery and equipment for the installation of productive capacity).  Second, only the so-called greenfield investment makes a direct contribution to productive capacity and involves cross-border movement of capital goods, but it is not easy to identify from reported statistics what proportion of FDI consists of such investment as opposed to transfer of ownership of existing assets.  Third, what is commonly reported as FDI contains speculative and volatile components.  Fourth, the longer-term impact of FDI on the balance of payments is often negative even in countries highly successful in attracting export-oriented FDI.  Finally, positive technological spillovers from FDI are not automatic but call for targeted policies of the kind that most investment agreements prohibit. To access the research paper directly, go to this webpage: http://www.southcentre.int/research-paper-63-october-2015/. To access the South Centre website, where you can also find other research papers, publications and news items, go to this webpage: http://www.southcentre.int .     South Centre Chemin du Champ d'Anier 17 PO Box 228 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland Telephone: (41 22) 791 8050 Fax: (41 22) 798 8531 Email: south@southcentre.int Copyright © 2015 South Centre, All rights reserved.

Article "Examining the Emergence of Large-scale Structures in Collaboration Networks: Methods in Sociological Analysis" by J Ghosh & Avinash Kshitij of CSSP

Examining the Emergence of Large-scale Structures in Collaboration Networks: Methods in Sociological Analysis
by Jaideep Ghosh and Avinash Kshitij
Sociological Methods & Research, 2015, online first,  doi: 10.1177/0049124115606153.

Abstract
This article introduces a number of methods that can be useful for examining the emergence of large-scale structures in collaboration networks. The study contributes to sociological research by investigating how clusters of research collaborators evolve and sometimes percolate in a collaboration network. Typically, we find that in our networks, one cluster among the leading ones eventually wins the growth race by percolating through the network, spanning it and rapidly filling up a significant volume of it. We show how this process is governed by the dynamics of cluster growth in the network. When operating in a percolating regime, this class of networks possesses many useful functional properties, which have important sociological implications. We first develop the methodological tools to perform a study of the intrinsic clustering process. Then, to understand the actual large-scale structure formation process in the network, we apply the theoretical methods to simulate a number of realistic scenarios, including one based on actual data on the collaboration behavior of a sample of researchers. From the perspective of social science research, our methods can be adapted to suit the application domains of many other types of real social processes.

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AJSTID CfPs/ EoI for Special issue on Exploring Methodologies for STI Research

Call for Expression of Interest

Special issue on Exploring Methodologies for STI Research

in African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID)

Guest Editors: Mika Raunio, Sheikh Fayaz, Abiodun Egbetokun and Rhiannon Pugh

During the Globelics Academy Alumni Meeting in Tampere, Finland 4-5th of June 2015, the need for a special issue introducing variety of less traditional methodologies in innovation studies was recognized. This concept note summarize the guidelines for the potential special issue that will appear in the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID). The Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Mammo Muchie was open to support the idea, and co-operate with the editors of the issue. The further development of special issue into a book is also being considered, as it could be useful for students, especially, although not only, in less developed countries.

The most traditional approaches to understanding innovation and its relations to economic and societal development, or simply economic growth, are survey based analyses using international databases like the European Community Innovation Surveys (CIS), or international patent data (e.g., PATSTAT, ORBIT). Case studies form the other wide stream of research methodologies.

In this special issue, we want to discuss more qualitative approaches (e.g., ethnographic studies) or more recent quantitative methodologies (e.g., computational data analysis and mining of digital data sources, "big data"). Also, conceptually different approaches (e.g., in political economy) may require different scope for analysis, and different methodological approaches. The special issue aims to recognize new (in innovation studies) and promising methodologies and discuss their role especially (but not exclusively) in emerging economies and developing country contexts; what specific benefits these methodologies may provide in these contexts, and what are the obvious handicaps or barriers to their widespread take-up.

The need for wider scope of analysis is not only to increase and to enrich our understanding of the phenomenon, but also to account for changing focus of innovation studies in terms of content (inclusive innovation, pro-poor policies, ecosystems) and new geographical divisions with different socio-economic realities (namely in developing countries), as well as availability of data. The special issue, and potential book, could be used in teaching among those who are interested in innovation studies especially in the context of the global South.

We are looking for approximately 10 high-quality articles on this topic. All articles will go through a double-blind review process. At this stage, we invite interested author(s) to send an expression of interest (EoI) via email to guesteditorsajstid@gmail.com. Please include Expression of Interest in the subject line of the email and provide a one-paragraph summary of the paper that you intend to write.
The deadline for the EoI is October 31, 2015. We will invite extended abstracts based on the EoIs within one month of this date.

Indicative Timeline:
Call for expression of interest: September 2015
Call for extended abstracts (max two pages): November 2015
Notification to authors of extended abstracts: December 2015
Full papers due: April 2016
Notification to authors of full papers: August 2016
Final papers due: November 2016
Send all submissions and queries to: guesteditorsajstid@gmail.com