The ability of the mobile phone to reach and connect people like no technology before it, coupled with its productive potential to benefit private industry, governments, and the poor, makes it an extremely powerful tool for economic development – a tool that is worth investing in. Since their introduction, cell phones have demonstrated the ability to yield for the public good through improved information exchange and access to health care and financial services. In order to realize this potential, the private and public sectors must cooperate to improve regulations to encourage healthy competition and new capital investment while facilitating education in cell phone use.

This study got its origin in the failed climate negotiations in the Copenhagen 2009 summit. By conducting a public good game, with participants from China and Sweden, my study indicates that previous studies on public good games can predict the outcome of the game to a quit large extent even though most of my statistical tests came out statistically insignificant. My study also indicates that by framing the game as climate negotiations there were no statistical significant difference on the level of contributions in comparison to the unframed versions of the game. The awareness of the issues with emissions, global warming and other environmental problems are pretty high but even so when push comes to shove gains in the short run are prioritized to gains in the long run. There are however hypothetical willingness to come to term with the environmental issues. The results of the study indicate that the outcome of the Copenhagen summit can be avoidable but would need additional experiments made on cultural differences and behavior.

<p>This report asks the question how to balance thepreservation of cultural built heritage against other publicand private interests in local planning. The aim of the studyis to contribute to knowledge about how different actors valuethe built heritage and how they interact in planning. The studydiscusses how this knowledge can be taken into account inplanning practice. As society develops further into a knowledgesociety, the valuation of local environmental qualities seemsto be more complex than during previous decades. For thatreason the maintenance of cultural built heritage is moredifficult to handle than before. The planning process has bytradition been characterised by a strong public sectorinvolvement and by strict procedural links to the regulationsystem. However, private initiatives have come to play anincreasingly important role in the planning process. Thesechanges have led to a situation where decision-making becomesinformal. The question is if planning functions in such waythat all values represented by different interests areconsidered carefully when decisions are made for preservation,renewal or change of the builtenvironment. There are reasonsto question the notion of citizen representation by localpoliticians and experts of various kinds. The theoreticalfoundation for the study is economic valuation theory, andespecially environmental economics, in combination withnegotiation theory and planning theory. These theories are usedas a starting point for an analysis of different actors’understanding of the cultural built heritage, their incentivesfor participating in planning, and, hence, for understandingthe interaction which determines preservation practice.Empirical findings are based on a case study of planning andheritage management in the municipality of Umeå. Itincludes studies of five recently completed planning processesconcerning specific real estate properties, as well as, aquestionnaire directed to a random selection of 1000inhabitants in the municipality. The study concludes that theoutcome of planning to a substantial part is depending of theinteraction and relations between the stakeholders, and, hence,structured by what has developed as the intellectual traditionand context of the city. The study shows that the builtenvironment seen as a public good in general is not fullyacknowledged and understood. Consequently, the private goodcharacteristic of the built environment is stressed inplanning, not only by private actors, but also by the publicsector. Furthermore, the study concludes that one importantissue in the management of the cultural built heritage is todraw on the actors’incentives for preservation, hence,paying more attention to the question of future direct andindirect use of the built heritage. An actor who primarilyfocuses on existence value runs the risk of being situated inthe margin of planning, with no real influence on decisionsconcerning heritage management.</p>

The privatization of K-12 education in Canada is not new. The public and private sectors feel like natural elements of the Canadian education system because they have existed side by side since confederation. However, this thesis challenges that tradition and argues that private education undermines collective responsibility for education as a shared, public good by catering to private interests and isolating students from the public realm. Not only does private education reinforce the likelihood of socio-economic stratification, but the concept of a “public good” is increasingly destabilized as social services like education are privatized. Why, then, does the privatization of K-12 education continue to be an insignificant political issue in Canada? This question is particularly pertinent at a time when neoliberalism is in full swing in the United States, and all the time more apparent in Canada. Neoliberalism’s emphasis on the precedence of economic ideals over concerns for social welfare and democratic participation has transformed the way that we understand “value”. Drawing on a broad range of scholars including Charles Taylor, Richard Pildes, Janice Gross Stein, Henry Giroux, Francois-Lyotard and Michel Foucault, this thesis argues that the values involved in the very concept of private education reinforce, and are reinforced by, neoliberal views about the place of the individual within society, and that these values are detrimental to the concern for education as shared, public good.

My research examines the extent to which features of ‘openness’ might usefully contribute to mechanisms of governance of human stem cell lines, with a view to the production of therapeutic stem cell treatments for the provision of health benefits. The impetus for the project is the UK Stem Cell Bank, a national repository for stem cell lines and the focal point of a unique set of publicly supported, non-statutory arrangements for the informal (but mandatory) oversight of human embryonic stem cell lines (hESCs) in the UK. The sharing of stem cells through this mechanism promotes public confidence in embryo and stem cell research, and supports research by making (ethically-sourced and quality-controlled) human stem cell lines widely available to researchers, but the structure and functions of the Bank also impose constraints on the imminent commercial development and manufacture of stem cell therapies for human application. My thesis examines the role of ‘openness’ in systems of governance designed to facilitate not just research but the whole trajectory of stem cell technology, from research to production and delivery of clinical treatments. What is openness and what function does it have in purposive attempts to design mechanisms that will advance stem cell technology? The bulk of my thesis maps out the conceptual foundations upon which systems of governance for the production of stem cell therapies may be grounded. It does not address the ethical and social debate surrounding embryo research and the embryonic derivation of stem cell lines, which are legally permissible in the UK. In Part I, I frame the problem of governance of ongoing use of stem cell lines as part of a larger policy endeavour related to the provision of public goods. Secondly, I propose a conception of reflexive governance that is capable of facilitation of technology in a multi-faceted heterogeneous environment. Part II explores traditional narratives of openness in science and technology, and how they might be reconceived in the context of modern scientific technology. In Part III, I apply my conception of facilitative governance to collective strategies or ‘commons’ approaches to facilitative governance. I then identify its applicability for the present UK system governing stem cell lines, and for the proposition of alternative structures and processes that might be better able to achieve the policy goal of provision of health benefits through delivery of therapeutic stem cell treatments.

Denna uppsats syftar till att analysera på vilka grunder en konfessionell skola utformar sin värdegrund och arbete mot kränkande behandling, utifrån en fallstudie av Livets Ords Kristna Skola. Dessa frågeställningar är grunden till uppsatsens syfte:  På vilka argument grundar skolan sin målsättning och likabehandlingsplan?  Hur präglas skolans värdegrundsarbete av den religiösa profilen?  Vilka texter hänvisar skolan till i sina dokument?  Är innehållet i dokumenten förenligt med den aktuella läroplanens värdegrund?  Hur framträder konsekvenserna av föräldrars rätt till att välja utbildning i dokumenten? Den metod som har använts är en systematiserande kvalitativ textanalys med målet att klargöra tankestrukturen i texterna. Detta för att belysa och förstå det viktigaste i texternas innehåll. Resultatet visar att dokumenten är präglade av kristna värderingar men även demokratiska värderingar som är förenliga med den aktuella läroplanen. Olika styrdokument ger olika intryck vad gäller konfessionella skolors legitimitet. Innehållet i de analyserade dokumenten pekar mot att föräldrarätten är dominerande och en förutsättning för konfessionella skolors existens med hjälp av rättigheter som finns skrivna i FN:s allmänna deklaration och Europakonventionen.

Questa tesi si compone di tre parti e tratta di differenti aspetti inerenti l'organizzazione geopolica delle nazioni da un punto di vista teorico. Viene prestata particolare attenzione agli effetti della distribuzione del reddito. / This dissertation is composed of three papers and discusses different aspects of the geopolitical organization of countries from a theoretical point of view. Special attention is given to the effects of income distribution

This thesis aims at developing a conceptual framework for advancing basic research on questions about coercive diplomacy and the management of intrastate conflicts by relying on hegemonic stability theory and its most fundamental concept: public good. In the light of the failure of international community in developing a unified response to the most cases of intrastate conflicts, the study investigates the role of leadership in international attempts to manage such conflicts. I argue that in the absence of a direct threat to the interests of each individual member, there will be a need for a leader that is capable to provide public goods associated with efforts to bring a solution to the conflict. Findings from several phases of Kosovo crisis which support this proposition is used to illustrate and evaluate the accuracy of this assumption. Thus, the study is not only concerned with coercive diplomacy as a form of intervention but also the process that finally culminates into that instrument as evidence of the necessity for a leader.

The privatization of K-12 education in Canada is not new. The public and private sectors feel like natural elements of the Canadian education system because they have existed side by side since confederation. However, this thesis challenges that tradition and argues that private education undermines collective responsibility for education as a shared, public good by catering to private interests and isolating students from the public realm. Not only does private education reinforce the likelihood of socio-economic stratification, but the concept of a “public good” is increasingly destabilized as social services like education are privatized. Why, then, does the privatization of K-12 education continue to be an insignificant political issue in Canada? This question is particularly pertinent at a time when neoliberalism is in full swing in the United States, and all the time more apparent in Canada. Neoliberalism’s emphasis on the precedence of economic ideals over concerns for social welfare and democratic participation has transformed the way that we understand “value”. Drawing on a broad range of scholars including Charles Taylor, Richard Pildes, Janice Gross Stein, Henry Giroux, Francois-Lyotard and Michel Foucault, this thesis argues that the values involved in the very concept of private education reinforce, and are reinforced by, neoliberal views about the place of the individual within society, and that these values are detrimental to the concern for education as shared, public good.

PETRÁCH, F. Municipal enterprises - their objectives and functioning in a modern economy. České Budějovice, 2013. 137 pgs. Faculty of Economics. University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. Thesis supervisor: doc. Ing. Ivana Faltová Leitmanová, CSc. This thesis deals with the municipal enterprises in the context of their objectives and functioning in a modern economy. The main goal of this work is the assessment of the selected aspects of the provision of public goods / services on the example of the waste collection in the context of the institutional arrangements in the Czech Republic. In the application part of the thesis the author, at first, focuses on the general development of municipal enterprises in the Czech Republic since 1993 with an emphasis on the period from 2002 to 2012. Furthermore, there was examined the sample of companies with a main activity of the category of 38110 according to CZ-NACE classification Collection of non-hazardous waste in the context of selected financial indicators depending on the legal form of business and ownership. Also, there were statistically analyzed links between indicators. From a geographic point of view, there were examined the variables characterizing the uniformity of the distribution of these enterprises in the Czech Republic.