Search results

1 – 10 of 83
Article
Publication date: 10 January 2019

Marc Richard Hugh Kosciejew

The purpose of this paper is to begin a conversation about the term “nondocument.” It analyzes this term’s possible concepts, components and contexts.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to begin a conversation about the term “nondocument.” It analyzes this term’s possible concepts, components and contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper draws upon the work of documentation studies scholars, including Michael Buckland, Bernd Frohmann and Niels Windfeld Lund, to begin an exploration of the term “nondocument,” framed within the context of the 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations brokered by the USA. It is comprised of seven sections revolving around different questions regarding non-document.

Findings

The document at the center of the 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations aimed to establish a framework for an eventual final-status peace agreement. There was skepticism, however, about the document’s proposed reservations inscription permitting either party to express reservations with any part of the framework. It was claimed that this reservation inscription made the document self-negating and therefore a non-document. This document was arguably a hybrid entity: a document-non-document. It was a document in the context of the negotiations. It became a non-document in the context of the collapse of the negotiations.

Research limitations/implications

The 2013–2014 peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, brokered by the USA, revolved around a diplomatic document outlining provisions for a final peace settlement. The two parties were skeptical of a proposed provision permitting reservations to be expressed over other provisions within the document. An official involved in the negotiations stated that this provision made the document a non-document. But what exactly is meant by this term? This paper takes the opportunity to begin exploring such a notion. The aim, however, is not to definitively define non-document but instead to raise questions and provoke further discussions of this term.

Originality/value

The concept of non-document is underdeveloped. This paper presents questions and conceptual tools to help develop this term whilst providing possible points of departure for further examinations of how documents are or might be non-documents. These questions and tools also point in directions for various other approaches to phenomena that could be regarded as documents in some respects but not in others, or the ways in which something could is “almost” but “not quite” a document, or even help determine what is “not document.” Ultimately, this term could help expand other “conventional” approaches to documentation.

Article
Publication date: 6 September 2019

Jim Berryman

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to investigate the documentality of human remains in museum and research collections. Second, to provide a rationale for a processual…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to investigate the documentality of human remains in museum and research collections. Second, to provide a rationale for a processual model of documentation, which can account for their repatriation and eventual burial.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the repatriation issue. It considers an ethical argument developed to support claims for repatriation: the nominal identification of a body as a universal criterion for its burial. Based on Igor Kopytoff’s processual model of commoditisation, it looks to cultural anthropology to help explain how objects can move between a document and non-document state.

Findings

Human remains can be understood as examples of information-as-thing. However, while document theory can readily account for the expanding realm of documentation, it cannot adequately accommodate instances where documentality is revoked, and when something ceases to be a document. When a human biological specimen is returned, the process that made it serve as a document is effectively reversed. When remains are interred, they revert to their primary standing, as people. The process of becoming a document is therefore not unidirectional, and document status not permanent.

Research limitations/implications

The implications of a processual model of documentation are discussed. Such a model must be able to account for things as they move into and out of the document state, and where the characteristics of documentality change through time.

Originality/value

This paper explores problematic material not usually discussed in relation to document theory. The repatriation movement poses a challenge to a discourse predicated on documentation as a progressively expanding field.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 76 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1980

N.J. Adnett, J.D. Golby and P.D. Taylor

The levels of unemployment experienced in the last decade have served to concentrate attention on the operation of the labour market. A major concern of recent assessments of the…

Abstract

The levels of unemployment experienced in the last decade have served to concentrate attention on the operation of the labour market. A major concern of recent assessments of the British labour market has been the apparent persistence of labour shortages, particularly skill shortages. An additional concern has been the need to improve labour market information, particularly at the local labour market level. This article seeks to assess the appropriateness of this emphasis by analysing the meaning and performance of the various measures of pressure of demand available for local labour markets at the occupational level. The conclusion of the analysis is that all the commonly used indicators of the pressure of demand have severe theoretical and practical weaknesses and that extreme care needs to be taken in the use of published labour market data. Furthermore, knowledge is needed concerning the interrelationships between the documented and non‐documented labour markets.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2017

Ana Dinis, António Martins and Cidália Maria Lopes

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the following research questions: Is the Portuguese corporate income tax (CIT) losing its internal consistency by extending the autonomous…

1461

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the following research questions: Is the Portuguese corporate income tax (CIT) losing its internal consistency by extending the autonomous taxation of expenses (ATE)? Are receipts derived from autonomous taxes so relevant that what began as an exception is gradually becoming a permanent feature of the income tax? Given the constitutional principle that corporate taxation should be fundamentally based on income, is the taxation of expenses unconstitutional? Is Portugal an international outlier, in applying this type of taxation to corporate expenses?

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in the paper is a blend of legal research method and case study analysis. The interpretation of legal texts and the ratio legis discussion (hermeneutical side), the evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of autonomous taxes (argumentative approach) and the use of aggregate data to gauge an impression of autonomous taxes’ impact on global tax receipts (empirical side) will, jointly, be used to analyse the topic. Autonomous taxation is a case study on how a (albeit distortive) solution is being applied in an European Union (EU) country to significantly enhance corporate-related tax revenue.

Findings

The authors conclude that autonomous taxation is a relevant source of revenue and its elimination is not foreseeable, at least in the medium term. Moreover, the extension of the tax base is gradually transforming CIT in a kind of dual tax, by charging profits and some expenses. The Constitutional Court, stressing the equity principle, has not ruled autonomous taxation unconstitutional, invoking usefulness against tax evasion. Finally, with the exception of some Portuguese-speaking countries, no other comparable international experience is observed.

Practical implications

The autonomous taxes (ATE) and its progressive enlargement imply, on the one hand, that the CIT has been slowly, but inexorably, losing its sole purpose of taxing profits, and imposing a tax penalty on an increasing set of accounting expenses. On the other hand, the growing number of expenses subjected to taxation leads some authors to ponder if the Portuguese tax regime is losing attractiveness. By increasing ATE’s scope, the effective rate tends to move upwards, countering reductions in the statutory rate. Finally, tax law will increasingly influence managers’ daily decisions, given the set of expenses targeted by autonomous taxes.

Originality/value

Taking into account the aim of this study, the discussion of a Portuguese particular feature of corporate taxation can highlight useful policy points to a broader audience. Many Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries face a dire situation in public finances. Therefore, given the pressure to increase tax receipts, the ATE can be a case study on how a (albeit distortive) solution is being applied in an EU country to significantly enhance corporate-related tax revenue.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 59 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2004

Christopher Brown

While documents librarians are generally familiar with document usage through their circulation statistics, they have no idea of how publications are being accessed online. The…

1074

Abstract

While documents librarians are generally familiar with document usage through their circulation statistics, they have no idea of how publications are being accessed online. The University of Denver has developed a system for tracking online document access. By redirecting every URL in their OPAC for federal documents first to a ColdFusion database, recording the URL, and then sending the user to the online document, they were able to track each access to online documents. Then, importing these statistics into an Access database, they were able to provide an analysis by agency, date of document, and other features. This article presents the results of one year of tracking access through the University of Denver library OPAC.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 October 2003

Carl-Ulrik Schierup

During the last decade of the Twentieth Century the advanced North Atlantic economies performed in a markedly profitable way seen from the perspective of corporate business. This…

Abstract

During the last decade of the Twentieth Century the advanced North Atlantic economies performed in a markedly profitable way seen from the perspective of corporate business. This has neither led, however, to the impediment of a deepening social crisis, nor to the arrest of a crisis for liberal political values and norms of citizenship. On the contrary social exclusion was exacerbated, increasingly racialized and associated with immigrants and new visible ethnic minorities. A perhaps more conspicuous, but closely related, manifestation of this crisis of welfare and political values has, within the European Union, been the upturn of new nationalist, racist-populist political movements centered on the “problem of immigration.” This change of the political spectrum, brought about by the new right nationalist-populist upsurge, may eventually jeopardize the whole project of European integration, and the current tightening up of European regimes of both immigration and the societal incorporation of immigrants obviously reflects such worries. Simultaneously, however, influential employers, politicians and public servants have, time after time, cried out for the need for continued and increased large-scale import of low- as well as high-skilled migrant labor, seen as a remedy to Europe’s imminent “demographic crisis.”

Details

Multicultural Challenge
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-064-7

Article
Publication date: 12 November 2018

António Martins, Ana Dinis and Cidália Lopes

Autonomous taxation of expenses (ATE) is a special and contentious feature of corporate income taxation in Portugal. By taxing of an expanding set of corporate expenses, it has…

Abstract

Purpose

Autonomous taxation of expenses (ATE) is a special and contentious feature of corporate income taxation in Portugal. By taxing of an expanding set of corporate expenses, it has caused many conflicts between the Portuguese tax authority and corporate taxpayers. Many of these conflicts emerged from the legal interpretation of ATE’s clauses, while others derived from frequent, and difficult to apply, legislative changes. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the following research question: does the recent evolution of the rules on ATE show an efficient process of making and interpreting tax law in Portugal? The authors intend to analyze the process of making and changing ATE’s rules, as well as to study how interpretative complexity increases conflicts between tax authorities (TA) and taxpayers.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used is a mix of the legal research method, namely, doctrinal methodology, with an analysis of jurisprudential and arbitration trends in litigation rulings, blended with the case study analysis of ATE in Portugal. Arbitration rulings will have a particular relevance to the analysis.

Findings

The main conclusion is that, urged by the need of revenues, and sensitive to the TA’ argument of ATE’s loopholes, the government hastened to close them. However, given the procedure adopted, new legal questions aroused, creating additional layers of complexity for companies, courts and tax auditors. Constitutional issues were highlighted by companies based on the prohibition of retroactive application of tax laws.

Research limitations/implications

The paper has a conceptual nature and its conclusions cannot be automatically extended to other tax controversies or processes of amending tax laws. However, for the legal and accounting professions it offers valuable lessons in law interpretation and political lobbying to change tax laws. Also, in the international tax scene, some countries also introduced ATE, with potential for similar problems.

Practical implications

Regarding ATE’s streamlining, the process recently observed in Portugal was not, in authors’ view, managed in the best way, leaving a significant number of difficulties to be solved by courts. The change in ATE’s legal framework could have been more carefully managed, avoiding costly and time consuming disputes, in order to minimize compliance costs.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature because this Portuguese experience, while highlighting the difficulties in making tax law, can be seen as a lesson on how to improve these processes, avoiding time and costs for business, TA and courts. Moreover, arbitration is a way of solving tax disputes that has been gaining ground in Portugal. In this respect, the paper also contributes to a better perception of the tax arbitration scenario in anEuropean Union country. It is also important for the accounting profession, whose members have often to deal with tax topics and the interpretative complexities they originate.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 June 2005

Karrie Ann Snyder

By synthesizing case studies on the informal economy throughout the world, I show that women and men specialize in different tasks, work in separate settings, and have differing…

Abstract

By synthesizing case studies on the informal economy throughout the world, I show that women and men specialize in different tasks, work in separate settings, and have differing access to positions of economic power in the informal economy. Moreover, women are more likely than their male counterparts to seek employment in the informal sector. I also explore why gender segregation is such a marked feature of the informal economy by examining characteristics of the informal sector that encourage such gender segregation including the relationship between the informal and formal economies and the social status of informal work.

Details

Gender Realities: Local and Global
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-214-6

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2010

Miladin Stefanovic, Milan Matijevic and Goran Devedzic

The paper presents current level of the Serbian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, global parameters of ICT in Serbia, as well as some economic indicators…

Abstract

The paper presents current level of the Serbian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, global parameters of ICT in Serbia, as well as some economic indicators. Existing problems and suggest actions necessary for improvement of IT in the Serbian industry are also defined. One approach to improvement of Serbian ITC industry is adopting a general framework policy for the integration of the acquis in the field of quality, standards and technical regulations, developing an updated national Quality Plan for the ICT. This paper will also present development and implementation of Quality Management System (QMS) in Serbian ICT sector.

Details

World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5945

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2004

Jennifer L. Cox and Susie A. Skarl

An urgent topic of conversation among government documents librarians today is the need for training, in both the use of federal depository collections and the provision of…

893

Abstract

An urgent topic of conversation among government documents librarians today is the need for training, in both the use of federal depository collections and the provision of reference services for these collections. Two trends that have pushed this issue to the forefront in recent years are the proliferation of electronic resources and the fact that, in many institutions, government documents reference services are being integrated into general reference service points. This selective bibliography focuses on recent articles that present a substantially detailed account of training and educational programs for everything from ongoing professional development training for staff to course‐integrated instruction for students, and will serve as a resource for librarians involved in these educational efforts.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

1 – 10 of 83