Academic literature on the topic 'Socio-Economic Characteristics (SEC)'

This paper uses a quantitative analysis to examine the interdependence and impact of resource rents on socio-economic development from 2002 to 2017. Nigeria and Norway have been chosen as reference countries due to their abundance of natural resources by similar economic performance, while the ranking in the Human Development Index differs dramatically. As the Human Development Index provides insight into a country’s cultural and socio-economic characteristics and development in addition to economic indicators, it allows a comparison of the two countries. The hypothesis presented and discussed in this paper was researched before. A qualitative research approach was used in the author’s master’s thesis “The Human Development Index (HDI) as a Reflection of Resource Abundance (using Nigeria and Norway as a case study)” in 2018. The management of scarce resources is an important aspect in the development of modern countries and those on the threshold of becoming industrialised nations. The effects of a mistaken resource management are not only of a purely economic nature but also of a social and socio-economic nature. In order to present a partial aspect of these dependencies and influences this paper uses a quantitative analysis to examine the interdependence and impact of resource rents on socio-economic development from 2002 to 2017. Nigeria and Norway have been chosen as reference countries due to their abundance of natural resources by similar economic performance, while the ranking in the Human Development Index differs significantly. As the Human Development Index provides insight into a country’s cultural and socio-economic characteristics and development in addition to economic indicators, it allows a comparison of the two countries. This paper found out in a holistic perspective that (not or poorly managed) resource wealth in itself has a negative impact on socio-economic development and significantly reduces the productivity of the citizens of a state. This is expressed in particular for the years 2002 till 2017 in a negative correlation of GDP per capita and HDI value with the share respectively the size of resources in the GDP of a country. Keywords: Human Development Index, sustainability, resource abundance, socio-economic welfare.

This article explores the relationship between the job characteristics underlying the Goldthorpe model of social class (work monitoring difficulty and human asset specificity) and those underlying theories of technological change (routine and analytical tasks) highlighted as key drivers for growing inequality. Analysis of the 2012 British Skills and Employment Survey demonstrates monitoring difficulty and asset specificity predict National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) membership and employment relations in ways expected by the Goldthorpe model, but the role of asset specificity is partially confounded by analytical tasks. It concludes that while the Goldthorpe model continues to provide a useful descriptive tool of inequality-producing processes and employment relations in the labour market, examining underlying job characteristics directly is a promising avenue for future research in understanding over time dynamics in the evolution of occupational inequalities.

To inform current debates over whether occupational class is causally linked to health inequities, the authors used data from the 2000 U.S. National Health Interview Survey to compare occupational disparities in access to health services, socioeconomic resources, and health status, using (1) the United Kingdom's new National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC), premised on type of labor contract (salaried vs. hourly wage) and class position (employer, self-employed, supervisory and non-supervisory employee), and (2) the conventional U.S. occupational categories, premised on status and skill. Analyses included all working-age adults (age 25 to 64) for whom data on occupation and race/ethnicity were available (N = 22,500). Risk of inadequate access to health services, poverty, and low education were two times greater for persons in NS-SEC class 5 versus class 1, compared with blue-collar versus white-collar, and for both measures persons with the worst health status were in jobs that afforded the least access to health care. Controlling for earned income and workplace health insurance markedly reduced health service disparities, especially for the NS-SEC measure, thereby implying structural characteristics of jobs are causally relevant for resources and benefits necessary to address health inequities in the United States.

Haze pollution has become an urgent environmental problem due to its impact on the environment as well as human health. PM2.5 is one of the core pollutants which cause haze pollution in China. Existing studies have rarely taken a comprehensive view of natural environmental conditions and socio-economic factors to figure out the cause and diffusion mechanism of PM2.5 pollution. This paper selected both natural environmental conditions (precipitation (PRE), wind speed (WIN), and terrain relief (TR)) and socio-economic factors (human activity intensity of land surface (HAILS), the secondary industry's proportion (SEC), and the total particulate matter emissions of motor vehicles (VE)) to analyze the effects on the spatial variation of PM2.5 concentrations. Based on the spatial panel data of 289 cities in China in 2015, we used spatial statistical methods to visually describe the spatial distribution characteristics of PM2.5 pollution; secondly, the spatial agglomeration state of PM2.5 pollution was characterized by Moran’s I; finally, several regression models were used to quantitatively analyze the correlation between PM2.5 pollution and the selected explanatory variables. Results from this paper confirm that in 2015, most cities in China suffered from severe PM2.5 pollution, and only 17.6% of the sample cities were up to standard. The spatial agglomeration characteristics of PM2.5 pollution in China were particularly significant in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. Results from the global regression models suggest that WIN exerts the most significant effects on decreasing PM2.5 concentration (p < 0.01), while VE is the most critical driver of increasing PM2.5 concentration (p < 0.01). Results from the local regression model show reliable evidence that the relation between PM2.5 concentrations and the explanatory variables varied differently over space. VE is the most critical factor that influences PM2.5 concentrations, which means controlling motor vehicle pollutant emissions is an effective measure to reduce PM2.5 pollution in Chinese cities.

The headache any researcher faces while using Twitter data for social scientific analysis is that we do not know who tweets. In this article, we report on results from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) 2015 on Twitter use. We focus on associations between using Twitter and three demographic characteristics—age, sex, and class (defined here as National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification [NS-SEC]). In addition to this, we compare findings from BSA 2015, treated as ground truth (known characteristics), with previous attempts to map the demographic nature of UK Twitter users using computational methods resulting in demographic proxies. Where appropriate, the datasets are compared with UK Census 2011 data to illustrate that Twitter users are not representative of the wider population. We find that there are a disproportionate number of male Twitter users, in relation to both the Census 2011 and previous proxy estimates; that Twitter users are predominantly young, but there are more older users than previously estimated; and that there are strong class effects associated with Twitter use.

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the main challenges and opportunities in the context of the use of innovative technologies in the management of talent in small and medium-sized craft enterprises. The systematization of literary sources and approaches has shown that the complexities of talent management processes in the personnel management system are related to the consequences of socio-economic, demographic, and climatic changes in society, the activation of globalization processes, and the rapid development of information technologies. The article analyzes the impact of digitization on the talent management process, as well as identifies the main factors that impede the transition of small and medium-sized enterprises to the use of HR software solutions. The study used methods of bibliometric analysis and predictive analytics and selected the activity of small and medium-sized craft enterprises in Germany. Literature research has shown that in most small and medium-sized craft enterprises, the decision to use innovative technology approaches to the process of talent management in small and medium-sized enterprises is the sole responsibility of the company owner. The results of data analysis using software products play an important role in reducing the risk of making wrong decisions, especially in the talent management process. In the course of the research, it is established that the use of information technologies of data processing allows us to determine the level of qualification of employees, their psychophysiological parameters, as well as to monitor the dynamics of changes of certain professional characteristics. The main threats and challenges arising from the use of information systems with elements of artificial intelligence of data processing, when managing talents, are highlighted in the work. The results presented in this article may be useful for small and medium-sized business leaders to promote the practice of using innovative technology approaches in the enterprise talent management process. Keywords: skilled labor; digitization; human resources management; small and medium enterprises, talent management.

The monograph is devoted to topical issues of developing the concept of integration of management and marketing policy for the development of green investment in enterprises. Numerous modern and traditional methods were used in the research, namely: Google Trends tools, Ward agglomeration hierarchical clustering, principal components method, correlation analysis; modified least-squares methods FMOLS and DOLS; content analysis and Fishburne’s method; model PLS-PM. The conclusions and hypotheses were confirmed by empirical conclusions using Stata 12 / SE and EViews10. The monograph assesses the level of integrity of the marketing policy of an environmentally responsible enterprise, using content analysis. In addition, the author confirmed the hypothesis that the use of greenwashing reduces the company’s green brand and leads to significant financial and reputational losses. The author has developed a system of principles for green investment management and supplemented it with such specific principles as collaboration (reflecting the characteristics of green investment stakeholder management); dissemination (chain reaction of the appearance of overt/covert socio-ecological-economic effects); convergence (complementarity of green investments, the convergence of goals and methods of green investment). The monograph substantiates the specific features of the complex of green investment marketing and the typology of green investment marketing strategies of green investment marketing. The author proposes the concept of 8P marketing of green investments, which takes into account the convergence of basic elements of green and traditional marketing, modern transformations in commodity, credit, and stock markets in accordance with the concept of sustainable development, promising trends in eco-oriented consumer and investment needs. It is proved that the growth of trading on the stock exchange in the country is accompanied by the development of the green investment market and increasing the attractiveness of the company among stakeholders. This monograph can be useful for company management, government, students, faculty, researchers, and graduate students. Keywords: corporate green investment practices, green investment, sustainable development.

Understanding the determinants of household water treatment (HWT) behavior in developing countries is important to increase the rate of its regular use so that households can have safe water at home. This is especially so when the quality of the water source is not reliable. We present a hierarchical Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model supported by statistical analysis to explore the influence of household’s socio-economic characteristics (SECs) on the HWT behavior via household’s psychological factors. The model uses eight SECs, such as mother’s and father’s education, wealth, and religion, and five RANAS psychological factors, i.e., risk, attitude, norms, ability, and self-regulation to analyse HWT behavior in a suburban area in Palu, Indonesia. Structured household interviews were conducted among 202 households. We found that mother’s education is the most important SEC that influences the regular use of HWT. An educated mother has more positive attitude towards HWT and is more confident in her ability to perform HWT. Moreover, self-regulation, especially the attempt to deal with any barrier that hinders HWT practice, is the most important psychological factor that can change irregular HWT users to regular HWT users. Hence, this paper recommends to HWT-program implementers to identify potential barriers and discuss potential solutions with the target group in order to increase the probability of the target group being a regular HWT user.

BackgroundOverweight and obesity in childhood are socially patterned, with higher prevalence in more disadvantaged populations, but it is unclear to what extent early life factors attenuate the social inequalities found in childhood overweight/obesity.MethodsWe estimated relative risks (RRs) for being overweight (combining with obesity) at age 11 in 11 764 children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) according to socio-economic circumstances (SEC). Early life risk factors were explored to assess if they attenuated associations between SECs and overweight.Results28.84% of children were overweight at 11 years. Children of mothers with no academic qualifications were more likely to be overweight (RR 1.72, 95% CI 1.48 to 2.01) compared to children of mothers with degrees and higher degrees. Controlling for prenatal, perinatal, and early life characteristics (particularly maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and maternal smoking during pregnancy) reduced the RR for overweight to 1.44, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.69 in the group with the lowest academic qualifications compared to the highest.ConclusionsWe observed a clear social gradient in overweight 11-year-old children using a representative UK sample. Moreover, we identified specific early life risk factors, including maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal pre-pregnancy overweight, that partially account for the social inequalities found in childhood overweight. Policies to support mothers to maintain a healthy weight, breastfeed and abstain from smoking during pregnancy are important to improve maternal and child health outcomes, and our study provides some evidence that they may also help to address the continuing rise in inequalities in childhood overweight.

Abstract Background IBD is a chronic condition that affects young and older people. Co-existing diseases are common. Patient-centred care includes education and support to empower patients and is a recognised dimension of high-quality care. Patient empowerment with knowledge, skills and confidence (‘patient activation’) is associated with better outcomes in many chronic diseases. We aimed to measure patient activation in recently diagnosed IBD patients and to identify factors associated with levels of activation. Methods A NDC was set up at St Mark’s Hospital to offer patients education, information resources and signposts to verified information sources. Patient activation was measured using the Patient Activation Measure (PAM®) tool (Insignia Health) before and after the first consultation. PAM® is a validated questionnaire with 13 questions to generate an activation score ranging from 1 to 4. Non-activation was defined as PAM levels 1 and 2. Demographic (age in years (SD)), disease specific characteristics and anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale, GAD-2) and depression [Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2)] data were collated at the first visit. The National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) was used to classify socio-economic status (SES). Categorical variables were analysed with chi-square test and numerical variables with Student’s t-test. Results Twenty-nine patients (51.7% male) attended NDC (ulcerative colitis = 15, Crohn’s disease = 10, unclassified IBD = 4). 28 completed PAM questionnaires. Mean age was 43.2 ( ± 16.4). 5/28 had a family history of IBD, 6/28 were smokers, 11/28 had another chronic condition, and 16/28 were of non-White ethnic background. Sixty-nine% had active disease. SES and psychological scores were available for 14/28 and 16/28 patients, respectively. Fifty per cent (14/28) of patients were non-activated before NDC; 57.1% (8/14) showed an improvement in activation after NDC. Mean age for activated and non-activated patients was 40.6 ( ± 19.0) and 46.6 ( ± 13.9), respectively (p = 0.35). There was no association between gender, family history, smoking, co-morbidity, ethnic background and SES with activation. None of the four patients (4/16) who scored for anxiety or depression were activated compared with 50% (6/12) of non-anxious/depressed patients (p = 0.07). No patients (0/7) in intermediate or higher SES were activated compared with 43% (3/7) of lower SES (p = 0.05). Conclusion Most non-activated patients had improved activation after attending NDC. Anxiety and depression may contribute to non-activation. Early assessment of patient activation may guide healthcare providers to offer individualised support. Further studies to evaluate the sustainability of patient activation and its effect on clinical outcomes are ongoing.

The study was conducted to describe how socio-economic characteristics (SEC) of women affect their utilization of maternal healthcare services in Abuja Municipal Areas Council (AMAC) in Abuja Nigeria. A non-experimental, facility-based cross-sectional survey was done. Data was collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaire in 5 district hospitals in AMAC. Sample size of 384 was calculated a priori based on the assumption that 50% of the target population utilized maternal healthcare services during their last pregnancy. Equal allocation of samples per facility was done. The ANC register was used as the sampling frame and proportionate allocation of samples per clinic days was undertaken in each facility. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, cross tabulations and measures of inequality. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationship between socioeconomic characteristics (predictors) and maternal healthcare service utilization. Other than birth order that showed consistent effect, the results of this study indicated that the predictive effect (predisposing and enabling factors) of the SEC of women included in this study (age, education, birth order, location of residence, income group and coverage by health insurance) on maternal healthcare service utilization were not consistent when considered independently (bivariate analysis) as opposed to when considered together through logistic regression. In addition, the study revealed that there was inequality in the utilization of maternal healthcare services (ante-natal care - ANC, delivery care and post natal care - PNC, and contraceptive services) among women with different SEC, and the payment system for maternal healthcare services was regressive. Addressing these predictors in the natural co-existing state (as indicated by the logistic regression) is essential for equitable access and utilization of healthcare during pregnancy, delivery and the postnatal period, and for contraceptive services in AMAC, Abuja Nigeria. Targeted policy measures and programme actions guided by these findings are recommended to optimise returns on investment towards achieving national and global goals on maternal health in Nigeria
Health Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

The study was conducted to describe how socio-economic characteristics (SEC) of women affect their utilization of maternal healthcare services in Abuja Municipal Areas Council (AMAC) in Abuja Nigeria. A non-experimental, facility-based cross-sectional survey was done. Data was collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaire in 5 district hospitals in AMAC. Sample size of 384 was calculated a priori based on the assumption that 50% of the target population utilized maternal healthcare services during their last pregnancy. Equal allocation of samples per facility was done. The ANC register was used as the sampling frame and proportionate allocation of samples per clinic days was undertaken in each facility. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, cross tabulations and measures of inequality. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationship between socioeconomic characteristics (predictors) and maternal healthcare service utilization. Other than birth order that showed consistent effect, the results of this study indicated that the predictive effect (predisposing and enabling factors) of the SEC of women included in this study (age, education, birth order, location of residence, income group and coverage by health insurance) on maternal healthcare service utilization were not consistent when considered independently (bivariate analysis) as opposed to when considered together through logistic regression. In addition, the study revealed that there was inequality in the utilization of maternal healthcare services (ante-natal care - ANC, delivery care and post natal care - PNC, and contraceptive services) among women with different SEC, and the payment system for maternal healthcare services was regressive. Addressing these predictors in the natural co-existing state (as indicated by the logistic regression) is essential for equitable access and utilization of healthcare during pregnancy, delivery and the postnatal period, and for contraceptive services in AMAC, Abuja Nigeria. Targeted policy measures and programme actions guided by these findings are recommended to optimise returns on investment towards achieving national and global goals on maternal health in Nigeria
Health Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

By the end of the 1960s, a new discipline named computer science had come into being. A new scientific paradigm--the 'computational paradigm'--was in place, suggesting that computer science had reached a certain level of maturity. Yet as a science it was still precociously young. New forces, some technological, some socio-economic, some cognitive impinged upon it, the outcome of which was that new kinds of computational problems arose over the next two decades. Indeed, by the beginning of the 1990's the structure of the computational paradigm looked markedly different in many important respects from how it was at the end of the 1960s. Author Subrata Dasgupta named the two decades from 1970 to 1990 as the second age of computer science to distinguish it from the preceding genesis of the science and the age of the Internet/World Wide Web that followed. This book describes the evolution of computer science in this second age in the form of seven overlapping, intermingling, parallel histories that unfold concurrently in the course of the two decades. Certain themes characteristic of this second age thread through this narrative: the desire for a genuine science of computing; the realization that computing is as much a human experience as it is a technological one; the search for a unified theory of intelligence spanning machines and mind; the desire to liberate the computational mind from the shackles of sequentiality; and, most ambitiously, a quest to subvert the very core of the computational paradigm itself. We see how the computer scientists of the second age address these desires and challenges, in what manner they succeed or fail and how, along the way, the shape of computational paradigm was altered. And to complete this history, the author asks and seeks to answer the question of how computer science shows evidence of progress over the course of its second age.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractFor their livelihood activities, rural farming communities depend more on extractive capital. Their capacity to cultivate sufficiently for their family maintenance is greatly impeded by the absence of either temperature or rainfall quantity pattern or uniformity. The divergent effects of recent extreme weather events around the world, including within relatively small geographical areas, exemplify the unequal impacts of climate change on populations. Akwa Ibom State has been found vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as flooding, severe storms, and rising sea levels, leading to homelessness, poverty, conflicts, and war for millions of people. All of these have resulted in social disturbances and dislocations among rural populations, especially in coastal communities, making them more vulnerable to climate variability. In the field of social vulnerability in the state, not much has been achieved. This chapter analyzes the vulnerability of the rural population to climate variability; the socio-economic characteristics of the rural population; the index of social vulnerability of rural dwellers to climate variability; social vulnerability factors; and the rural population’s social vulnerability mitigation initiatives in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Social science approaches to human vulnerability draw critical attention to the root causes and factors why people are forced to respond to risks from climate change. A complex social approach to vulnerability is most likely to enhance mitigation and adaptation preparation efforts, given that vulnerability is a multidimensional mechanism rather than an invariable state.

AbstractFor their livelihood activities, rural farming communities depend more on extractive capital. Their capacity to cultivate sufficiently for their family maintenance is greatly impeded by the absence of either temperature or rainfall quantity pattern or uniformity. The divergent effects of recent extreme weather events around the world, including within relatively small geographical areas, exemplify the unequal impacts of climate change on populations. Akwa Ibom State has been found vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as flooding, severe storms, and rising sea levels, leading to homelessness, poverty, conflicts, and war for millions of people. All of these have resulted in social disturbances and dislocations among rural populations, especially in coastal communities, making them more vulnerable to climate variability. In the field of social vulnerability in the state, not much has been achieved. This chapter analyzes the vulnerability of the rural population to climate variability; the socio-economic characteristics of the rural population; the index of social vulnerability of rural dwellers to climate variability; social vulnerability factors; and the rural population’s social vulnerability mitigation initiatives in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Social science approaches to human vulnerability draw critical attention to the root causes and factors why people are forced to respond to risks from climate change. A complex social approach to vulnerability is most likely to enhance mitigation and adaptation preparation efforts, given that vulnerability is a multidimensional mechanism rather than an invariable state.

In accordance with its agenda, the EU wants to include actively every European citizen in society taking into consideration some challenges like poverty, gender inequalities, social exclusion or long-term unemployment. The economic crisis has influenced the indicators of social exclusion such as monetary poverty and living conditions, education and the access to labour market. The index “risk of poverty or social exclusion” is influenced by certain characteristics of the population (education level of parents, country of birth, degree of urbanization, activity, household type, age, tenure status, citizenship, sex etc.) being able to identify the most disadvantaged subgroups of it. This paper analyzes the evolution of this index in the European Union, taken in consideration its determinants.

This chapter analyses the significance that tourists, on the one hand, and the business environment, on the other hand, lend to the concept of sustainable development in tourism. Starting from this point, the chapter highlights the characteristics of the sustainable development of tourism in the coastal areas of Black Sea. Sustainable development has been conceptualized by a set of four variables: economic, socio-human, ecological, and institutional-technological. The main results of the research show that both tourists and members of the business environment attach the greatest importance to the institutional-technological variable, focusing primarily on collaboration and communication between decision-makers and executives. Regarding the stakeholders, both tourists and the business community indicate local governance and central government as the main factors responsible for sustainable development. Following the research, a possible list of actions was proposed.

This chapter looks at the various possible reasons and solutions for why and how educational disadvantage occurs. It examines how factors described in the previous chapter, such as segregation, influence whether children go to school with others like them. The clustering of students with similar characteristics in particular schools is partly determined by factors outside education — indeed, often outside immediate government control. The economic cycle, the nature of regional populations, residential segregation within regions, local population density, quality of public transport (especially in rural areas), and patterns of recent immigration are all determinants of either the level or trend in socio-economic status (SES) segregation between schools. Other determinants, however, are quite clearly within education and within government control.

Using a set of macro-level socio-economic indicators, we first explore whether two Middle Eastern countries (Lebanon and Iran) provide the foundation for organizations to develop their intellectual capital (IC). Then, we investigate the role of micro-level organizational characteristics that might support or hinder the development of IC management processes within organizations. The insight gained through our comparison will shed light on some important organizational attributes that foster the management of IC for wealth creation. The analysis has important implications for multinational corporations (MNCs) that have operations in the Middle East, are contemplating business involvement in the Middle East, or that have employees with Middle Eastern origin.

The ejidatario is the primary agent of land change in the region today, recognizing that this decision-maker is influenced by various policies and programs, both federal and NGO in origin (Ch. 7). Although colonization of the region, especially during the past forty years, has produced a diverse mix of ethnicities, cultural attributes, and economic characteristics, it is still appropriate to speak of a typical ejido household. The characterization of these households detailed here is based in large part on a SYPR project survey conducted in 1997 and 1998, designed to represent the entire study region. Subsequent surveys have been directed to specific issues, such as chili (Ch. 10) and the role of institutions; information from these studies is specified when used here. Most production within the ejido sector of the study region is organized around the semi-subsistence farm (or dual) household (Ch. 11). This unit of production is both a family and an enterprise (Ellis 1993), with the implication that decisions concerning what, how, and how much to produce are made in response to both market signals and the biological and cultural imperatives of the family unit. This chapter explores the socio-economic and farm characteristics of the sampled ejidatario households and presents relevant descriptive statistics. The data demonstrate that the ejido household has been exceptionally dynamic since the late 1960s, moving from a primarily maize-production orientation to a more diversified household economy. A standardized questionnaire with formal and open-ended components was used to elicit socio-economic and land-use data from ejidatario heads of household. In order to ensure a representative sample, data collection proceeded according to a stratified, two-stage cluster sample, with ejidos as the first stage unit and ejidatarios as the second stage unit (Deaton 1997; Warwick and Luinger 1975). The strata were delineated such that ejidos from across the region were represented in the sample, thereby capturing variability in both environmental conditions and in the influence of proximity to roads and markets. This strategy resulted in the random selection of eleven ejidos followed by the random selection of 199 ejidatario households (see Vance 2000 for details), which produced 188 completed surveys.

Sikkim in north-eastern India is a small border state strategically located between China, Nepal, and Bhutan. Two decades of state-led investment in infrastructural development and private investment in hydropower and pharmaceutical industries has transformed Sikkim from a remote border state to a de facto Special Economic Zone (SEZ) where incursions by private capital are masked under state-led development policies. The chapter focuses on Setipool slum, east Sikkim, located near two pharmaceutical factories, to demonstrate how ambiguous land rights and the establishment of pharmaceutical factories have led to spatially contained land booms which replicate nexuses of illegality, claim-making, and exclusions that are characteristic of corporate land grabs. The paper illustrates (i) the liminal origins of development zones, (ii) the networks and, sometimes, unforeseen socio-spatial impacts within and outside development zones, and (iii) the different forms of intimate exclusions that challenge prior assumptions around local responses to corporate incursions.

This is the first of three chapters that present the population projections by age, sex, and level of educational attainment for all countries in the world with a time horizon of 2060, and extensions to 2100. Before discussing the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC) projections, however, it is worth stepping back to consider how social structures change over time. While understanding the evolution of social structures is important under the conventional demographic approach that breaks down populations by age and sex, a more in-depth understanding of the changes in human capital requires that the interplay between different levels of schooling over time (the flow variable), and the changing educational attainment composition of the adult population (the stock variable) be taken into account. Societies can be stratified along several dimensions. In conventional social science the divisions studied refer to social class, race, or ethnicity. Demographers routinely break down populations by age and sex. Another important demographic dimension is that of birth cohorts or generations, that is, persons born and socialized during the same historical period. Particularly during periods of rapid social change, young cohorts tend to differ from older ones in important respects, and the demographic process of generational replacement is a powerful driver of socio-economic change. This process is analytically described by the theory of ‘Demographic Metabolism’, recently introduced as a generalized predictive demographic theory of socio-economic change by the first author (Lutz, 2013), building on earlier work by Mannheim (1952) and Ryder (1965). Ryder, who introduced the notion of Demographic Metabolism in a qualitative way, saw it as the main force of social change. While this theory applies to many stable human characteristics that are acquired at young age and remain invariant over a lifetime, it is particularly appropriate for studying and modelling the dynamics of the change in the distributions of highest educational attainment by age and sex over time. This perspective on human capital formation is the main focus of this book. This first of the three results chapters will highlight the results with respect to future population numbers by level of education in different parts of the world.

By taking into consideration the significance of the socio-economic contexts, this research investigates teachers' perceptions of the role of graphing calculators, as mediating tools, to help facilitate mathematics instruction of students from two different SES backgrounds. The main source of data are in-depth semi-structured interviews with four teachers, two from each SES school. In general, the participants' perceptions of the role of the graphing calculator were dependent on the context within which it was used. Also, the participants played a crucial role in determining the nature of graphing calculator use with the low-SES school's participants appearing not to involve their students in lessons that capitalized on the powerful characteristics of graphing calculators. To tease out the role of the situation context, a four-component framework was conceptualized consisting of teacher, student, subject matter, and graphing calculator use. The components of the framework were taken to be continuously in interaction with one another implying that a change or perturbation in one of the components affected all the other components. The continuous interactions of the components of this framework suggest that equity issues in connection to the nature of graphing calculator use should be an ongoing process that is continuously locating strategies that will afford all students appropriate access and use of graphing calculators.

В статье рассматриваются я социально-экономическая ситуация, сложившаяся в арктических регионах Дальневосточного федерального округа. Отмечена важность этой территории для стратегического развития России. Дана комплексная социально-экономическая характеристика арктических регионов. Отдельно выделены прибрежные и континентальные районы арктической части Республики Саха (Якутия), а также муниципальные образования Чукотского автономного округа. Выделены группы муниципальных районов по совокупности социально-экономических показателей. Отмечены особенности социально-экономического развития поселений. The article examines the current socio-economic situation in the Arctic regions of the Far Eastern Federal District. The importance of this territory for the strategic development of Russia is noted. The complex socio-economic characteristics of the Arctic regions are given. The coastal and continental regions of the Arctic part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as the municipalities of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, are singled out separately. The groups of municipal districts are identified according to a set of socio-economic indicators. The features of the socio-economic development of settlements are noted.

Organic farming best meets the benchmarks set in the development of the Common Agricultural Policy after 2020, regarding the achievement of important goals related to economic efficiency, social responsibility and environmental protection. Therefore, the protection and restoration of biodiversity and natural ecosystems and the provision of sustainable food and production practices are key to our national economy. This requires the use of sustainable production models for effective management of the components of agricultural ecosystems, environmental protection and climate change. The focus of the study is on the regional specifics of an innovative agricultural model and its development potential for strengthening the socio-economic indicators in a specific region. The subject of the analysis is the characteristics of the organic production in the North Central Planning Region depending on the certified activities and the number of biological operators.

Typological process, theorised by the Italian Typological School as a continuous transformation process of types, has been frequently discussed in the field of urban morphology. It was widely acknowledged in the field that the identification of typological process can be problematic for three reasons. First, the judgement on the degree to which the transformation of types is determined continuous is largely subject to individual researchers’ opinions. Second, there is no agreement on the exact typological characteristics that are considered in the transformation process. Third, there is limited empirical studies on typological process at articulated scales. This paper attempts to shed some light on the definition of typological process in a rigorous manner through an empirical study of the transformation of Turkish houses. The research compares eight selected housing developments from five morphological periods of distinctive socio-economic, political and cultural conditions in Ankara since the late 19th century. First, a typological frame involving a set of spatial characteristics defining the types is established at the building, street and neighbourhood scales. Then, these spatial characteristics are compared in a chronological order. According to the number of typological characteristics showing continuous, partial continuous or mutational changes, typological process at the three scales are identified. This paper demonstrates a methodological advancement on the definition of typological process in relation to the aforementioned problems. It reduces the ambiguity in the definition of house types in Turkey and can be applicable to other contexts.

The paper investigates circumstances determined modern agriculture and agribusiness challenges and shows methods ensuring sustainability of value-added agriculture and rural areas taking into account, inter alia, climate change, healthy food, organizational and technological progress. The aim of the article is to show that combining the agribusiness circumstances and methods allows to ensure sustainable development, value-added agriculture and rural areas. To verify adjustment farming processes according set up goals the questionnaire survey on farm equipment and information systems was carried out in 2017 in Kujawy &amp;amp; Pomorze region. The questionnaire was sent to all participants in the supply chain of that particular company. The challenge facing modern agriculture is the ability to efficiently implement farm innovations, acquire new knowledge and effective use of the farming progress achievements. Negative effects of intensive farming for environment cause to seek for solutions let face economic and environmental challenges for contemporary agriculture and rural areas development. Serious threatens in a climate change can cause imbalance in food supply and demand. Observed higher frequency and severity of adverse weather events require genotypic adaptation. Hence, some studies on genetic progress in those crops adaptation were presented. Also some approaches how to assess and collect data for yield gap analysis, and to summarize the yield gap explaining factors were identified. The presented results showed that although management and edaphic factors are more often considered to explain the yield gap, both farm characteristics and socio-economic factors often explain the yield gap.

Coastal geomorphology is a complex phenomenon which is governed by nearshore wave and tidal climate. Change in climate indices (like sea surface temperature, sea level, intensified cyclone activity, among others) and climate modes (like El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)) affect the wave climate and modify many coastal processes thereby altering the geomorphology of shorelines. In countries like India where tropical and sub-tropical cyclones are common, the coastal geomorphology is under constant threat. Coasts are also vulnerable to anthropogenic factors like offshore structures, harbours, wave farms and other constructional activities along the shoreline. It is thus necessary to understand the evolution of coastlines under the changing climate scenario. The rapidly growing socio-economic development in south-west coast of India has generated the need to investigate the longshore sediment transport (LST) regime in this region under the influence of variable climate factors like the wave characteristics. The presence of numerous river deltas, estuaries and mud banks makes the situation worse especially during the south-west monsoon season (June-September). The investigation on the contemporary evolution of this coastline has not been undertaken and the knowledge of the climate factors that influence the shorelines of the southern tip of India are unknown. This study attempts to understand the temporal dynamics of the longshore sediment transport in this region.

The learning crisis in developing countries is increasingly acknowledged (World Bank, 2018). The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include goals and targets for universal learning and the World Bank has adopted a goal of eliminating learning poverty. We use student level PISA-D results for seven countries (Cambodia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Senegal, and Zambia) to examine inequality in learning outcomes at the global, country, and student level for public school students. We examine learning inequality using five dimensions of potential social disadvantage measured in PISA: sex, rurality, home language, immigrant status, and socio-economic status (SES)—using the PISA measure of ESCS (Economic, Social, and Cultural Status) to measure SES. We document four important facts. First, with the exception of Ecuador, less than a third of the advantaged (male, urban, native, home speakers of the language of instruction) and ESCS elite (plus 2 standard deviations above the mean) children enrolled in public schools in PISA-D countries reach the SDG minimal target of PISA level 2 or higher in mathematics (with similarly low levels for reading and science). Even if learning differentials of enrolled students along all five dimensions of disadvantage were eliminated, the vast majority of children in these countries would not reach the SDG minimum targets. Second, the inequality in learning outcomes of the in-school children who were assessed by the PISA by household ESCS is mostly smaller in these less developed countries than in OECD or high-performing non-OECD countries. If the PISA-D countries had the same relationship of learning to ESCS as Denmark (as an example of a typical OECD country) or Vietnam (a high-performing developing country) their enrolled ESCS disadvantaged children would do worse, not better, than they actually do. Third, the disadvantages in learning outcomes along four characteristics: sex, rurality, home language, and being an immigrant country are absolutely large, but still small compared to the enormous gap between the advantaged, ESCS average students, and the SDG minimums. Given the massive global inequalities, remediating within-country inequalities in learning, while undoubtedly important for equity and justice, leads to only modest gains towards the SDG targets. Fourth, even including both public and private school students, there are strikingly few children in PISA-D countries at high levels of performance. The absolute number of children at PISA level 4 or above (reached by roughly 30 percent of OECD children) in the low performing PISA-D countries is less than a few thousand individuals, sometimes only a few hundred—in some subjects and countries just double or single digits. These four hard lessons from PISA-D reinforce the need to address global equity by “raising the floor” and targeting low learning levels (Crouch and Rolleston, 2017; Crouch, Rolleston, and Gustafsson, 2020). As Vietnam and other recent successes show, this can be done in developing country settings if education systems align around learning to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning processes to improve early learning of foundational skills.