This year I supervise three Master students in their thesis work, and a few other written assignments of students. It’s the time when students come up with their proposals and try to work out a puzzle and a methodology around it. Now, research would not be called research if it was easy. It’s a lot [...]
Sustainability Concepts in 500 words — Consumerism
SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS IN 500 WORDS This is to start a new series of posts which deal with the issues of sustainable development. In order to aid in my teaching and research dissemination, I will follow the suit of some other professors, such as Dr. Paul Cairney, and limit all concepts and discussions to 500 words. [...]
Workshop on “Translation in World Politics” at Kate Hamburger Kolleg, Duisburg, Germany
Last week, on October 08-09, I took part in a workshop at the University of Duisburg’s Kate Hamburger Kolleg (Centre for Global Cooperation Research) named “Translation in World Politics”. It was very pleasing to see the ideas of policy translation making headway in other disciplines, and now also in International Relations and World Politics. I [...]
Crafting or Designing Socio-Ecological Systems? Read our Special Issue in Environmental Science & Policy
Finally, our Special Issue of Environmental Science & Policy is online, and you can enjoy the articles. You can read our editorial about the issue here, and the article I wrote with colleagues on water user associations in the region here.
“Our Kids” by Robert Putnam, 2015
The New York Review of Books published a review of the new book of Robert Putnam “Our Kids”. This book is about where America is going in terms of the “morality” of life — increasing divorce rates, children born out of the wedlock and an overall decreasing happiness trend.
ADA University Faculty Debate
On March 13, 2015, ADA University Debate Society hosted a great round of debate with ADA University faculty – Dr. Anar Valiyev, Dr. Kavus Abushov, Dr. Javid Gadirov, Dr. Farhad Mukhtarov on the motion “Freedom of speech is more important than religious sensitivities.” The event followed up with a round of discussion and Q&A panel. [...]
Oxford Bibliographies: Great Resource for Students and Researchers!
Energy Security and Water Security Farhad Mukhtarov (ADA University, Azerbaijan) and Aleh Cherp (Central European University, Hungary; Lund University, Sweden), with essential assistance from a graduate ADAU student Richard Sarpong, published 2 articles in Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press. One article is about Energy Security — the concept that commands great policy attention nowadays, from [...]
Public Policy Concepts in 1000 Words!
Public Policy is a very complex process. If you doubt — try to define it and see how hard that is! You can get confused reading from various books published on the subject.
ADA Faculty Debate on Charlie Hebdo
Friday, 13 March at 4pm in the Large Auditorium of ADA University I am going to debate freedom of speech versus religious sensitivities. This is open to all ADA members, especially students interested in the subject. All are welcome!
Weekend Reading: “Social Theory”
One day when I was a student in Oxford, I went to a student auction to buy a bicycle. Instead, I bought a book. It was only 3 GBP and it was second hand. It was called “Social Theory: a Historical Introduction” by Alex Callinicos, and this was a start of my passion for social [...]
Books that Defined 2014 for Me!!!
This year was not rich with books (and time to spare) apart from those for work. Still, there is a number of books I started and some I finished, which makes me feel proud! Below is the list with some first impressions as I am planning more detailed reviews later on. 1. “The Goldfinch”, by [...]
Weekend Reading: “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
The travel of ideas This week’s weekend reading is the international bestseller from Malcolm Gladwell “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”. In this book released in 2000, the New York Times columnist and a writer Malcolm Gladwell describes the turning point when a trend starts to catch fire, becomes important, [...]
How Lonely is a Scientist?
Why did I choose to become a scientist? It is a lonely, not so well-paid and often insecure job after all. And in a society where I live and work now, it has little social prestige. Moreover, if you end up as a teacher, it is very hard to juggle teaching, administration, research and writing. [...]
Ukraine and “Yes Minister”!
In connection with the recent events in Ukraine, the expansionism of Russia is to be opposed by certain actions by the West. The absurdity of reliance on nuclear power and the absolute necessity to have the strong conventional forces with the latest technology are as timely for Europe and the world now as in the [...]
Oxford Handbook on Water Politics and Policy (2015)
An excellent news for the scholars and policy-makers in water policy and politics is that the new Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy is contracted and currently in progress to be published in 2015! Most excitingly, this is the first edition of such a high profile Handbook in the field of Water Policy and [...]
Ways of Knowing Public Policy
Farhad Mukhtarov and Andrea Gerlak have just published an article in Policy Sciences, a well-respected political science journal, on Ways of Knowing and Integrated Water Resources Management. In this article, the authors came up with the argument that there are 3 ways of knowing reality, and public policy for that matter, which they named prescriptive, discursive [...]
Albert Camus’ birthday and the philosophy of absurd
Today is birthday of Albert Camus, who was born on November 07, 1913 in French Algeria. He is best known as the Nobel Prize winner in literature and the major voice in what came to be known as ‘philosophy of absurd’. Albert Camus in my mind has always been associated with Jean-Paul Sartre as an [...]
“Technology will fix it”! How long are we going to fool ourselves?
Albert Einstein famously proclaimed that “you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it”. But we keep trying to fool ourselves that we can. We see technology as our ultimate solution, from extending our lives through synthetic biology, to arguing that we must have genetically modified food and other organisms as we are [...]
Cigarettes for Children! Public policy issues around smoking
“Old Joe Camel cartoon advertisements are far more successful at marketing Camel cigarettes to children than to adults. This finding is consistent with tobacco industry documents that indicate that a major function of tobacco advertising is to promote and maintain tobacco addiction among children.”
Emotion and Policy Analysis
By Farhad Mukhtarov. It is not clear how to reconcile emotion and policy analysis which seem to encompass different worlds. The first is enveloped in subjectivity, whereas the second claims to be objective; the first occurs mostly in private sphere, whereas the second is mandated and takes place in public arena. The challenge is great: [...]
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