Early Adopters of Solar Panels in Developing Countries: Evidence from Tanzania

Who pioneers the adoption of solar home systems as a source of power in developing countries? While many scholars of electrification praise off‐grid options, evidence on their adoption from nationally representative surveys is lacking. We test existing and new hypotheses using the 2007 Tanzanian National Household Budget Survey. Since the survey is nationally representative and has more than 10,000 respondent households, it is ideal for our purposes. We find modest support for the notion that wealthier households adopt more readily than poorer ones. Surprisingly, electrified households adopt solar home systems more readily than other households, suggesting that solar home systems provide backup power. We further find that larger households adopt more readily than smaller ones and that a rural location or high education levels do not predict solar power use. These findings suggest that new policies are needed to promote solar home systems in poor and rural areas, where their development effectiveness is maximal.     

Culture,state and economic development in Singapore

Within 35 years after independence, Singapore is transformed into a developed city-state. To a substantial extent, this transformation may be explained in terms of the role of the Singapore state, which in part may be attributed to the regulation of certain cultural values — those reconstructed by the Singapore government under the influence of both Western and Oriental cultures. This empirical case poses a challenge to the validity of Weber's interpretation of the cultural causes of capitalistic economic development, especially his critique of Oriental cultures including Confucianism. It equally questions the adequacy of the contesting argument that highlights only the positive role of Confucianism in accounting for Asian economic change. This article proposes an alternative cultural model to transcend their limitations in explaining the economic transformation in Singapore. The inherent problems of the values of the Singapore government are also analyzed.     

Education,epistemic virtues,and the power of toleration

ABSTRACT

Toleration is usually regarded as a pivotal democratic virtue that should be cultivated in the educational systems of liberal democracies. The concept of toleration, however, is marked by deep ambivalence. Power-theoretical criticisms of toleration as a political and educational ideal have emphasized that discourses of toleration are entangled with societal power struggles, and tend to naturalize social hierarchies and reify individual and collective identities. Given this criticism, toleration refers not just to justificatory problems concerning the limits of political or pedagogical authority, or to the peaceful negotiation of conflicts that pervade pluralistic societies. On the contrary, toleration itself seems to create and perpetuate precisely those political conflicts that it is meant to contain. This contribution develops a defence of toleration as a coherent and sound aim of public education and as a democratic virtue against the power-theoretical critique.     

The evaluation of climate policy: theory and emerging practice in Europe

Climate policy is a relatively young and dynamic area of public policy making. However, its development has attracted far more attention than the results it delivers in practice, which of course are the concern of policy evaluators. This article attempts to provide the first systematic cataloging of the emerging patterns of policy evaluation undertaken in different parts of the European Union. Theories of policy evaluation suggest that these evaluation practices should acknowledge the inherent complexity of climate policy making, be reflexive by questioning official policy goals, and be participatory. A meta-analysis of 259 climate policy evaluations suggests that current practice engages with some but not all of these issues. This article concludes by analyzing the implications of this finding for those in the academic and practitioner community who are keen to understand the extent to which climate policy evaluation is delivering on its promises.     

Empower,not impose!—Preventing academic procrastination

ABSTRACT

In the frame of the goal setting process between supervisor and student while writing a thesis, it is hypothesized that mutually set goals (participation) and writing down the results of the meeting (recording) can prevent procrastination and increase engagement of the student. With a questionnaire relating to the latest written thesis (n?=?97, academic sample), the effects of goal setting characteristics (recording, participation) and task characteristics (ambiguity, control) on engagement and procrastination were examined. Results of a multiple mediation model indicate that recording indirectly influences engagement and procrastination through its effect on ambiguity. Moreover, participation indirectly influences engagement through its effect on control. It is concluded that goal setting characteristics and task characteristics can affect student’s procrastination. Thus, the present research provides criteria for how supervisors can prevent students from procrastinating.     

Reconstruction of a real car-pedestrian-accident. Part I: Generating an individual digital topographic image of the victim

The aim of forensic biomechanics is the reconstruction of traumatic events based on the pathological findings in the victim's morphology, the accident traces and the car damages. The use of forensic documentation tools (e.g. Streifenlichttopometrie) enables 3-dimensional and proportional accurate documentation of the victim's body, of its injuries and of the car damages with submillimeter precision. The generated topographic image serves as input for a multi-body system model of the victim. It allows further to determine exactly the contact points between car and victim for a computer simulated dynamical reconstruction of the impact situation. In the case of an accident involving a car and a pedestrian the generation and application of computer aided 3-dimensional reconstruction models are shown.     

Protest Voting in Austria, Denmark, and Norway

The article, in part, aims to provide a framework for analysis of the concept of ‘protest voting’. It addresses two empirical questions by use of this framework. First, which parties benefit from protest voting? Second, what are the main objects of political protest which these voters direct their grievances at? Do they protest against the political system, the political elites, or merely certain policies? The empirical analysis, which is based on data from Austria, Denmark, and Norway, suggests that parties that are in opposition, and that have no immediate chance of gaining a government position, are the ones that benefit from protest voting. Political elites are the most common objects of political protest in these countries.