Increasing Role of Services in Competitive Power and Innovativeness of Firms and Industrial Clusters

The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of different types of global services for industrial firms and clusters in terms of their economic competitiveness and innovative performance. The theoretical debates argue that globalization, deregulation and the new production organization make it necessary to use global services that are supplied easily with the help of new telecommunication technologies. The existing empirical studies provide some supporting evidence. However, they also indicate that global service firms can be attained by only smaller numbers of industrial firms and clusters. Still, in-house services besides temporal and informal mechanisms are important to meet the needs of the specialized services, even for the firms that try to become a part of the global production system. The paper focuses on three main questions: “What types of global services are becoming crucial for manufacturing firms and what type of services are still local and national? Is there a significant difference between the characteristics of firms that use the same type of services? To what extent is having access to global services important for the innovativeness of industrial firms and clusters? This paper looks for the answers to these questions based on existing case studies as well as this study of three industrial clusters in Turkey. The findings indicate that there is not a perfect match between theory and empirical evidence and there is a need for more refined theoretical discourses on industry–service relations.     

Innovation,R&D and Technology Transfer: Policies towards a Regional Innovation System. The Case of Lombardy

The evolution of Lombardy's economic structure and international position led the regional government to build up a network of public and private stakeholders in the effort of promoting the creation of new knowledge and supporting innovation at local level. In this article a technology picture of the region and the main policy actions undertaken in recent years in Lombardy to promote a nest of linkages within actors, moving along the approach of regional innovation systems are presented.     

Modellprojekt Interkulturelle Stadtentwicklung—Handlungsempfehlungen für die Praxis

Die Frage nach der Gestaltung von Zuwanderung ist in der Debatte um das Zuwanderungsgesetz vor allem auf diejenigen fokussiert worden, die noch kommen werden. Zugewanderte gestalten unsere Städte und Gemeinden jedoch bereits seit mehr als 40 Jahren aktiv mit: zum einen als Bewohner und Arbeitnehmer, zunehmend aber auch als Investoren und Gewerbetreibende. Und der Blick auf die Prognosen zur Bevölkerungsentwicklung zeigt, daß ihr Anteil an der Gesamtbevölkerung und damit auch ihr Einfluß auf die Stadt- und Wirtschaftsentwicklung weiter zunehmen. Deutlich ist: Zur Gestaltung der Zuwanderung bedarf es mehr als eines neuen Zuwanderungsgesetzes. Zugewanderte müssen die Chancen haben, sich aktiv an der Gestaltung unserer Innenstädte zu beteiligen. Lebenswerte Städte brauchen das Engagement aller Bevölkerungsgruppen. Bisher ist aber die Beteiligung von Zuwanderern bei raumrelevanten Fragestellungen trotz vielfältiger Ansätze immer noch nicht selbstverständlich. Der Bedarf der stärkeren Beteiligung von Zugewanderten besteht daher sowohl von Seiten der Migrantenvertreter als auch von Seiten der Fachverwaltungen. Dabei setzt sich die Planungsphilosophie durch, daß nicht für, sondern gemeinsam mit Zugewanderten geplant werden muß. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Stadt- und Regionalplanung Dr. Paul G. Jansen GmbH von 2001 bis 2003 mit Unterstützung des Ministeriums für Städtebau und Wohnen, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen das Modellprojekt Interkulturelle Stadtentwicklung in den drei Städten Bergkamen, Königswinter und Duisburg durchgeführt.     

Lorenz Heister and the challenge of trepanation: a neurosurgical case study from the 18th century

In the 18th century, medical practice was essentially based on communication. Cranial trepanation, however, was usually performed on an unconscious person. Here the dialogue ceased. It was the only operation which had to be attempted without the positive consent of the patient. Thus trepanation challenged the surgeon's skill not only with its intricate surgical practice, but also with its unusual social setting. The present paper illustrates possible ways out of the "trap of trepanation" by interweaving two points of view. On the one hand, a general account is given on the basis of surgical publications written by Lorenz Heister and his contemporaries. On the other, the unpublished sources of the Heister correspondence serve to reconstruct the case of Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann, a German merchant who fell victim to a traffic accident and underwent trepanation in 1753. The case study shows how the physician in charge counterbalanced the patient's inability to communicate by strengthening the remaining network of professionals, and ultimately confirming his decisions by use of the post-mortem.     

Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic Research in Reunified Germany

During the past decade research into the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic has experienced an important revival. One clear sign of this renewed interest in the periods are the annual meetings of the Arbeitsgruppe Mesolithikum (Mesolithic Working Group) which have taken place every spring since 1992. At these meetings, which take place at changing venues, topical themes of Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic interest are presented by informal lectures and it is also possible to study regional collections (artifacts, raw materials) at first hand. Numerous contributions were subsequently published together in one volume (Conard and Kind (1998) Aktuelle Forschungen zum Mesolithikum/Current Mesolithic Research, Mo Vince, Tübingen). The present paper intends to complement that collection of papers with a synthesis of developments and perspectives and to present recent research highlights in the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, together with a comprehensive bibliography, to a wider international audience.     

Heidegger and Cassirer on Science after the Cassirer and Heidegger of Davos

Summary

The paper exposes the views of Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger on the dynamics of the sciences of their day, as both developed them in the two decades after the encounter of the two philosophers in Davos in 1928. It emphasizes points of common concern, and it compares their positions to those of contemporary philosophers of science Gaston Bachelard and Edgar Wind.     

COVID-19 is expanding global consciousness and the sustainability of travel and tourism

Abstract

The sustainable development model has largely failed to address the social and environmental challenges of the 21^st century. True sustainability will only occur when it is valued as a part of the taken-for-granted daily life of individuals and cultures across the globe. This has not yet happened because humanity has not evolved a global consciousness quickly enough to match the global advances in telecommunications and transportation technologies that have created a socially and economically ever-shrinking planet. Travel and tourism contributes to the expansion of global consciousness, although only in a haphazard and unintentional manner. The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of planetary time-space compression and is forcing an expansion in human consciousness that will make humankind better able to address global problems. There will still be considerable diversity on the planet, as now, but the pandemic will stimulate growing numbers of people, businesses and governments to adopt new ways of thinking, behaving and operating that are more closely aligned with the goals of sustainable development. This could be further enhanced if travel and tourism were to adopt the expansion and awakening of global conscious as a fundamental and transformational value in the products and experiences that it offers.