Nordmin 2013 2017

NordMin started in 2013 as a project under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers with the aim to strengthen Nordic collaboration for a sustainable Mining and Minerals industry in the Nordic countries. NordMin was initiated by the Swedish chairmanship of the Nordic Council as a strategic initiative with a duration of 4 years. The project management has been hosted by Luleå University of Technology and a number of activities have been rolled out over the last few years. The aim of this report is to give a brief overview of NordMin activities and also to draw some final conclusions on what has been achieved in terms of a closer Nordic collaboration within the field and how we can benefit from this in the future.

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at. Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities. Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.

International Business is a well-established research field, in which regionalisation has gained prominence in the last decade. Because Europe is a market that shows specific patterns of highly advanced market integration, European Business is a subject in its own right and with its own research momentum. In particular, firms view Europe as a challenging, mostly – yet not entirely- mature market location that is subject to complexities that help reveal strategic corporate strengths and weaknesses. Europe represents a location that undergoes frequent and rapid change due to its geo-economic and geopolitical position This comprehensive reference volume brings together a global team of contibutors to analyze and overview the key issues, themes and phenomena that affect business in Europe. With interdisciplinary perspectives from key disciplines, the book covers a range of vital themes such as culture, entrepreneurship, identity, human rights and climate change. The selection of authors reflects the international scope of this book, and is drawn from institutions located in 17 countries across Europe. A unique resource, this book covers a region undergoing significant geoeconomic and geopolitical change, and provides a comprehensive guide to research students and scholars of business and the social sciences.

Moroccan Other-Archives investigates how histories of exclusion and silencing are written and rewritten in a postcolonial context that lacks organized and accessible archives. The book draws on cultural production concerning the “years of lead”—a period of authoritarianism and political violence between Morocco’s independence in 1956 and the death of King Hassan II in 1999—to examine the transformative roles memory and trauma play in reconstructing stories of three historically marginalized groups in Moroccan history: Berbers/Imazighen, Jews, and political prisoners. The book shows how Moroccan cultural production has become an other-archive: a set of textual, sonic, embodied, and visual sites that recover real or reimagined voices of these formerly suppressed and silenced constituencies of Moroccan society. Combining theoretical discussions with close reading of literary works, the book reenvisions both archives and the nation in postcolonial Morocco. By producing other-archives, Moroccan cultural creators transform the losses state violence inflicted on society during the years of lead into a source of civic engagement and historiographical agency, enabling the writing of histories about those Moroccans who have been excluded from official documentation and state-sanctioned histories. The book is multilingual and interdisciplinary, examining primary sources in Amazigh/Berber, Arabic, Darija, and French, and drawing on memory studies, literary theory, archival studies, anthropology, and historiography. In addition to showing how other-archives are created and operate, El Guabli elaborates how language, gender, class, race, and geographical distribution are co-constitutive of a historical and archival unsilencing that is foundational to citizenship in Morocco today.

The study presented in this report has been performed for Nordsyn sponsored by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The aim of this study was to analyse if the information given on the energy labels of air-to-water heat pumps give consumers in Nordic countries sufficient information on energy performance. When comparing results from field measurements to declared values, it shows the declared values are usually better than the field data, especially in countries with humid climate. There could be several reasons for this deviation as non-optimal installations, bypass of control systems, old field data etc. The suspicion that the deviation is due to that the standard tests do not take humidity sufficiently into account could not be proved nor fully dismissed. Recommendations are given on how this could be further investigated, including field measurements in Nordic countries.

Hybrid energy systems integrate multiple sources of power generation, storage, and transport mechanisms and can facilitate increased usage of cleaner, renewable, and more efficient energy sources. Hybrid Power: Generation, Storage, and Grids discusses hybrid energy systems from fundamentals through applications and discusses generation, storage, and grids. Highlights fundamentals and applications of hybrid energy storage Discusses use in hybrid and electric vehicles and home energy needs Discusses issues related to hybrid renewable energy systems connected to the utility grid Describes the usefulness of hybrid microgrids and various forms of off-grid energy such as mini-grids, nanogrids, and stand-alone systems Covers the use of hybrid renewable energy systems for rural electrification around the world Discusses various forms and applications of hybrid energy systems, hybrid energy storage, hybrid microgrids, and hybrid off-grid energy systems Details simulation and optimization of hybrid renewable energy systems This book is aimed at advanced students and researchers in academia, government, and industry, seeking a comprehensive overview of the basics, technologies, and applications of hybrid energy systems.

Migration is a development challenge. About 184 million people--2.3 percent of the world's population--live outside of their country of nationality. Almost half of them are in low- and middle-income countries. But what lies ahead? As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. 'World Development Report 2023' proposes an innovative approach to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves. The framework it offers, drawn from labor economics and international law, rests on a 'Match and Motive Matrix' that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants' skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements. This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.