Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the emergence of new post-executive enterprises where the human and social factor are the most valued capital, and discusses whether these “new” type of enterprises are either a challenge or a continuity of the flexible productive system in the Spanish context.

Paper long abstract:

The paper exposes a comparative ethnographic study of newly created Spanish enterprises of so-called "human-base". These enterprises share some distinctive traits: they operate within the "knowledge economy" (design, creative work, services, etc.); most have been founded by challenging, young entrepreneurs with artistic or humanistic international formation; team work tends to be highly flexible, dynamic and multicultural; corporative configurations are horizontal, self-managing and sometimes anarchical; physical space reflects company's idiosyncrasy; human scale is prioritized over company's growth; economic benefits are not the main goal; there's a moral commitment towards the projects and a search for meaningful, non-alienating work, explicit learning and creativity; innovation does not focus only on technology or science, but on people and on social networks, etc. These enterprises are experimenting a great success. Most of them are relatively new (they have appeared during the last five years as a reaction against formal, old-fashioned, rigid corporate structures) and sell "intangibles" (ideas, services design, concepts, methodologies, etc.) and their apparently disorganized, iconoclastic and youth character seems to be the key to success. How new and original are these "human-based" enterprises? How might we explain their sudden and fashionable emergence? What is the anthropological rationale of the successful concept behind them? Is the reinvention of novelty an epiphenomenon of the flexible production? Those are some of the topics my paper would like to pose.

Paper short abstract:

The report examines methodical aspects of competitiveness of territory researching ( in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia). Particular attention is drawn to SWOT-analysis as a tool for studying the environment of business . (With financial support of RFH, project № 12-01-00018)

Paper long abstract:

The concept of competitiveness of the territory is becoming more popular nowadays in Russia. Today any program performance of the Russian federal, regional (The Republic of Tatarstan) and municipal (Kazan city) leaders does not do without purposes on increase of this theme. Separate tools of the analysis of competitiveness are developed within the limits of traditional marketing. In given clause we shall briefly characterize specificity of SWOT-analysis.

It is very important to choose a narrow substantive scope of the SWOT-analysis, to further correct compilation of a list of indicators and the definition of competitors in order to further comparisons. Specificity of the SWOT-analysis at studying competitiveness of the city and region in touristic scope is most brightly shown at a stage of definition of the list of parameters. In particular, we divide factors of the internal environment into groups: natural factors; factors of a standard of living; factors of management; factors of an infrastructure; factors of appeal; factors of an infrastructure of marketing of territory.

Thus, the developed tools of the analysis of competitiveness of territories (local, regional and, perhaps, national level), representing the tourism infrastructure at their corresponding adaptation, find the deserved place during strategic management of territory.

The report is prepared with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities, project № 12-01-00018 "Ethno-cultural models of consumer practices: the case of the Republic of Tatarstan".

Paper short abstract:

The technological transfer from the East to the Midwest in China will be a huge process of industrialization and urbanization in the Midwest.

Paper long abstract:

The industrial and technological transfer from the East to the Midwest will be a huge process of industrialization and urbanization in the Midwest, and is also an urgent subject of practical significance, which is not a simple "business move". For enterprises in the East, it is still insufficient to make relocation decisions by checking the raw materials cost, labor cost and land rent. ect. Although the Midwestern region has the advantages of the factor cost, such as labor, land, resources, etc, there are constraints of supporting capacity, logistics systems, and soft environment. Once the low factor cost is offset by the logistics and transaction costs, the Midwestern region will lost its comparative advantages to undertake the industrial transfer. For the Midwest, it is a new subject and challenge to attract industrial transfer and undertake industrial transfer. At present, the Midwestern regions are actively exploring new approaches to attract and undertake the industrial transfer. The paper mainly explored the influencing factors of the industrial transfer between the Eastern region and the Midwestern region from two perspectives: 1) the impact on the industrial transfer from the Eastern region to the Midwestern region 2) and the impact on the Midwestern region to undertake the industrial transfer from the Eastern region.

Paper short abstract:

It is the aim of our approach to draw attention to the study of everyday domestic practice of cooking and eating in order to contribute to the development of proposals applicable to decision making in various areas relevant to planning and policy implementation.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary society is characterized by its interest in food. This interest defines several areas: cultural change, nutrition and food technology. In turn, these areas refer to the field of health and the field of economy.

While, at present, knowledge about food derived from basic research and technology development is vast, this is not the case for the inquiry about everyday domestic practice of cooking and eating.

However, knowledge of these issues is key because the meaning and effect of food is not built in the basic components level, but in the process of their transformation and consumption.

Knowing the ways of selection and procurement of food resources, who prepare them, how they are manufactured, and how they are distributed and shared, provide key information about the sociocultural dynamics. The system of conventions that dictates what is edible or inedible, convenient or detrimental, appropriate or inappropriate, toxic, what satiety means, and so on, is a cultural fact.

This requires a change of approach to the subject from anthropology in order to contribute to considerations of biomedical sectors. Particularly interesting is the realistic assessment of energy availability of food in relation to the actual intake of food in everyday consumption.

It is the aim of our approach the study of cooking and eating so that the knowledge to be acquired is translatable into a common code that allows the development of proposals applicable to decision making in various areas relevant to planning and policy implementation.