Distributed economy Distributed economies (DE) is a term that was coined by Allan Johansson et al. in 2005.[1] Definition[edit] There is no official definition for DE, but it could be described as a regional approach to promote innovation by small and medium sized enterprises, as well as sustainable development. The concept is illustrated in the figure below, that shows centralised, decentralised and distributed economies respectively. Different types of economies Features[edit] The relations in DE are much more complex than those in a centralised economy. Not all industries are fit for DE; for example, many chemical processes only become economically feasible & efficient on a large scale. External links[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Johansson A, Kisch P, Mirata M., 2005, Distributed economies - A new engine for innovation.
Dunning–Kruger effect Cognitive bias about one's own skill The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by Justin Kruger and David Dunning in 1999. Some researchers also include the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills. Numerous similar studies have been done. There is disagreement about the causes of the Dunning–Kruger effect. There is also disagreement about where the effect applies and about how strong it is, as well as about its practical consequences. The Dunning–Kruger effect is defined as the tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of this ability. Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. David Dunning Some researchers include a metacognitive component in their definition. Measurement, analysis, and investigated tasks [edit] Practical significance
Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge Wicked Problems If you work in an organisation that deals with social, commercial or financial planning - or any type of public policy planning - then you've got wicked problems. You may not call them by this name, but you know what they are. They are those complex, ever changing societal and organisational planning problems that you haven't been able to treat with much success, because they won't keep still. Keywords: Wicked problems, general morphological analysis, policy analysis, Horst Rittel Introduction In 1973, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, both urban planners at the University of Berkley in California, wrote an article for Policy Sciences with the astounding title "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning". At first glance, it is not self-evident what is actually meant by this term. Also, wicked problems are not actually "problems" in the sense of having well defined and stable problem statements. First, let us look at what characterises a tame problem. Ten Criteria for Wicked Problems 1. 2.
The Problem of Economic Calculation - Ludwig von Mises Since recent events helped socialist parties to obtain power in Russia, Hungary, Germany and Austria, and have thus made the execution of a socialist nationalization program a topical issue, Marxist writers have themselves begun to deal more closely with the problems of the regulation of the socialist commonwealth. But even now they still cautiously avoid the crucial question, leaving it to be tackled by the despised "Utopians." They themselves prefer to confine their attention to what is to be done in the immediate future; they are forever drawing up programs of the path to Socialism and not of Socialism itself. To Otto Bauer the nationalization of the banks appears the final and decisive step in the carrying through of the socialist nationalization program. the supreme economic authority, the chief administrative organ of the whole economy. All other writers who have grappled with the problems of the organization of the socialist commonwealth are guilty of similar confusions. Notes
Wicked problem "Wicked problem" is a phrase originally used in social planning to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The term "wicked" is used to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil.[1] Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. C. West Churchman introduced the concept of wicked problems in a "Guest Editorial" of Management Science (Vol. 14, No. 4, December 1967) by referring to "a recent seminar" by Professor Horst Rittel, and discussing the moral responsibility of operations research "to inform the manager in what respect our 'solutions' have failed to tame his wicked problems". Characteristics[edit] Rittel and Webber's 1973 formulation of wicked problems in social policy planning specified ten characteristics:[2][3] The defining characteristics are:[4] Examples[edit]
Ecological Economics : A typology for the classification, description and valuation of ecosystem functions, goods and services SPECIAL ISSUE: The Dynamics and Value of Ecosystem Services: Integrating Economic and Ecological Perspectives a International Center for Integrative Studies (ICIS), Maastricht University and Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 616, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlandsb Center for Environmental Studies, Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Maryland, USA Available online 9 May 2002 Choose an option to locate/access this article: Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Check access Show more Show less Get rights and content Abstract An increasing amount of information is being collected on the ecological and socio-economic value of goods and services provided by natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Keywords Classification of ecosystem functions; Typology of goods and services; Ecological and socio-economic valuation Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.
New England Complex Systems Institute Khan Academy Reflexive Pedagogy Over the past few months, we at ProfHacker have written articles about class/course assessment and how important it is to get students’ input in class evaluations. Certainly, course evaluations contain important information for the instructor and the university, but they rarely measure what the students actually learned in that course. We can use traditional methods of evaluation to gauge what students have learned, and that helps us (giving tests, assigning grades). Self-reflexivity can help students and educators identify the “what” and the “why” of student learning. Reflexivity, on the other hand, is to engage in the moment, to understand the thoughts and feelings of an experience while experiencing that experience. This dual understanding becomes key if we want students to retain what they have learned. What question do you have? Higgins also has self-reflexive questions that can be used at the end of a semester: How do you engage in self-reflexive behavior in your classes?
Unfluence The Unfluence site constructs maps of the funding relations between groups of candidates and donors. The data comes from candidates' required disclosures, collected and made available to the public by the National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP). The basic idea is to help people understand the context of political giving, and the relative positions of various candidates in terms of who is paying for their campaign. A query is generated from the initial search settings and sent to NIMSP's API which looks in their databases and returns a list of matching candidates as an xml file. For each candidate it retrieves a list of the top contributors, and discards any with contributions below the value threshold set in the beginning. This donor-recipient information is formatted into a network and passed to GraphViz that computes positions for the nodes and draws it (with help from ImageMagik). Unfluence won the first prize in the Sunlight Foundation Mashup competition.
Reflexivity (social theory) Reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect. A reflexive relationship is bidirectional with both the cause and the effect affecting one another in a situation that does not render both functions causes and effects. In sociology, reflexivity therefore comes to mean an act of self-reference where examination or action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. In Economics reflexivity refers to the self-reinforcing effect of market sentiment, whereby rising prices attract buyers whose actions drive prices higher still until the process becomes unsustainable and the same process operates in reverse leading to a catastrophic collapse in prices. It is an instance of a feedback loop. Reflexivity is, therefore, a methodological issue in the social sciences analogous to the observer effect. Sociologist Robert K. Michel Foucault's The Order of Things can be said to touch on the issue of Reflexivity.