Berlin: A Morphology of Walls

Transcription

Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen
discussed
in Schlossplatz
with Manuela
Schwesig,
Christian Traxler,
Anna Kostreva et al.
Schlossplatz3 · Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen Schlossplatz3
p. 2
Editorial
p. 4
Post-Wall Germany
by Dr. Johannes Staemmler
p. 7
Interview with Anna Kostreva by Meilin Möllenkamp
p. 12
Borders Based Identification in Empirical Research: Lessons from the Fall of the Wall
by Prof. Dr. Christian Traxler
p. 15
Glass Ceilings and Working Parents
Interview with Manuela Schwesig by Katri Kemppainen-Bertram
p. 18
Overcoming Barriers to Good Education
Interview with Ulf Matysiak by Anna Hoffmann
p. 24Migration’s Funnel Effect from Central to North America
by Carlos J. Guizar
p. 27
Are Non-Tariff Barriers the New Walls to Trade? A Case Analysis from Argentina and Ecuador
by Luis Felipe Torres and Fabio Tamburrini
p. 31
The Great Firewall of China
by Sven Herpig
p. 35
The Open Access Movement: Unlocking the Gates of Academic Knowledge
by Riya De Los Reyess
p. 40
Imprint
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen Editorial
On the 9th of November 2014 we celebrated the 25th anniversary since
the fall of the Berlin Wall. This event, a landmark in global history,
made us reflect upon the concept of walls in today’s society. So, where
do walls appear today? What shape do they take? What is the function
or impact of walls in different policy contexts? Are they forms of
protection or impairing barriers?
2
Schlossplatz3
About us
Beyond their notion as physical borders, walls are
also discussed as abstract boundaries throughout the
magazine. We begin by focusing on the consequences
of physical walls and borders, with a special attention
on the German reality. The first article by Dr. Johannes Staemmler
explores the still persistent effects of the fall of
the Berlin Wall, by analysing the transitioning and
converging of the two Germanies. This is followed
by an interview with the artist and architect Anna
Kostreva, who thinks of walls as historical forces
that have shaped Berlin’s urban development over
decades and therefore deserve attention. Prof. Dr.
Christian Traxler then examines how the fall
of the Berlin Wall serves as a natural experiment in
empirical research to analyse different social and
economic phenomena.
Schlossplatz3 is a student-run
policy magazine of the Hertie
School of Governance. As
public policy students we
are exposed to fascinating
and crosscutting issues on
a daily basis. This enables
us to choose a theme from a
myriad of relevant topics for
each Schlossplatz3 edition.
The magazine highlights these
topics from different perspectives—public sector, private
sector, and civil society—
hence the superscript “3” in
our name. Each semester, the
magazine publishes academic
and opinion pieces written
by a wide range of experts
and students from different
cultural and interdisciplinary
backgrounds.
We turn towards more abstract considerations of
walls, in an interview with the German Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth, Manuela Schwesig about the walls towards
gender division in the labour market and how to balance work and childcare in Germany. Potential walls
in our minds are also central in the interview with Ulf
Matysiak, ceo of Teach First Deutschland, namely,
mental walls, which prevent us from believing that it
is possible to grant good education to everyone.
We next turn our attention to the idea of walls in the Even 25 years after the Berlin Wall was torn down,
sense of today’s borders, where Carlos J. Guizar it still remains relevant for the dynamics of the city
presents research findings on undocumented immi- itself, for citizens of Berlin and even for empirical
gration from Central America and Mexico to the US, researchers. By drawing attention to walls in different
highlighting the issue of strong border security in policy areas and countries, we try to heighten the pera case that resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Mean- ception of what gets separated and what gets grouped
while, Luis Felipe Torres and Fabio Tamburr- or protected by such walls. From what we encountered
ini evaluate the negative effects on international in this issue it becomes clear that walls have been and
trade of Non-Tariff Barriers put in place by Ecuador still are of huge relevance in the 21st century, even
and Argentina. The authors address the question of though with the onset of new technologies they may
be changing their form.
whether these are becoming the new walls of trade.

Finally, the issue ends with more abstract consid- Your Editorial Team
erations of walls in the new Digital Age. As Sven
Herpig’s article on the “Great Firewall” of China
discusses how digital walls can restrict free access to
information, Riya De Los Reyes argues in her contribution, that the Open Access movement in China has
succeeded in unlocking gates of academic knowledge.
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen 3
Post-Wall Germany
by Dr. Johannes Staemmler
“Wahnsinn!” they said over and over again. For the people in Berlin and
East Germany (GDR) it was pure madness when the Berlin Wall was
suddenly opened in fall 1989. History seemed to have changed course
within a day. People were allowed to cross over to the West, something
unthinkable since the Wall was built in 1961. Furthermore, it was the
people themselves who stood up to the GDR regime, which collapsed
surprisingly fast when it became clear that the ruling autocrats had lost
much of their support from the Soviet Union.
All of that happened 25 years ago and today it is taught
in history classes. One might think that this time span
was sufficient to reunite the two parts of Germany
thoroughly, overcoming much of the legacies from
the failed socialist experiment. The fall of the Wall
was the starting point of a process of multidirectional
change in Germany, which included the eastern and
the western parts. Today, it is the younger generation
that is driving these social changes.
What happened immediately after 1989? A huge
investment programme was launched to help modernise much of the infrastructure in East Germany, the
former GDR. The institutional system of West Germany was copy-pasted to the east, bringing masses of
4
Schlossplatz3
Unemployment in East Germany 2013:
10.3 per cent
Unemployment in the West Germany 2013:
6 per cent
GDP per capita in East Germany 2011:
23.800 Euro
GDP per capita in West Germany 2011:
33.600 Euro
professionals into universities, city administrations,
and firms amongst other entities. The East German
economy was taken apart and revamped to integrate
what could be used into the Western system. But there
are still many traces of the past division that shape
Germany today.
Share of unmarried mothers in East Germany 2010:
58.9 per cent
Share of unmarried mothers in West Germany 2010:
27.7 per cent
DESTATIS: Statistisches Bundesamt, 2014
Looking at some socio-economic indicators, one
clearly finds differences between the two halves of the
country. Unemployment rate in former East Germany
is almost twice as high, pointing to the fact that the In addition to the slightly different socio-economic
regional economy is still not strong enough to ade- reality, voting behaviour and indicators of trust in
quately integrate the active population. Additionally, democracy reinforces the east-west divide. The share
many Eastern Germans have moved to West Germany, of people in the East voting for the socialist party
Switzerland, or Austria in order to find a job. Also, The Left (Die Linke) is much higher than in the rest
GDP per capita is substantially lower in East Ger- of the country. East Germans also vote less than their
many, where there are more unmarried women with Western fellow citizens. Whenever asked if they trust
children and where the normative force of various the current political system to solve current problems,
religious strands is fairly weak. The following figures, approximately 20 to 40 per cent of East Germans show
amongst others, show how the economic and social considerable doubt.
structures are still somewhat different; hence, one
As time has gone by, there have been some disagreecan argue that reunification is an ongoing process.
ments on how the recent past should be interpreted.
Whereas people in the West have a clear view of the
GDR as a totalitarian system, which had little to be
proud of, people in East Germany have mixed opinions about the country they grew up in. Also, young
East Germans with little experience in the GDR opt for
a differentiated view because they have experienced
the ups and downs of the process of overcoming the
disappearance of the GDR and integrating into the
West. Their childhood and adolescence in the 1990s
were directly affected by the fall of the Wall in 1989.
The desire to overcome all the legacies from the GDR
of the past has become an obsession, often making
it difficult to appreciate the modernizing impact
of reunification for the German society as a whole.
Reunification was often thought of as lifting the East
to the Western level. For many reasons, however, it
did not entirely work. In the meantime people from
the East with their experiences of the 1980s and 1990s
have contributed to changing the former West into
the most diverse, open, and relaxed Germany there
ever was.
Take the two leading figures in the country today,
Angela Merkel and Joachim Gauck. Many political
commentators still wonder how GDR-born Angela
Merkel managed to become the country’s chancellor.
She embodies characteristics that do not fit many of
the stereotypical features of heads of government such
as public outspokenness, notorious narcissism, and
dominant decision-making. Her pragmatism makes
her appear almost post-modern and post-ideological.
Similarly, President Joachim Gauck is different from
his predecessors in his own way. Having spent most
of his life in the GDR, President Gauck’s speeches on
freedom and international involvement are heard and
reported with interest, adding to his credibility.
There are also bottom-up changes in Germany with
regard to the equality of men and women. Young
people from East Germany enjoy a sort of pragmatic
feminism. They grew up in households where both
parents worked. They perpetuate this model with
greater normality than many of their Western fellow
citizens because they themselves experienced daycare
among other public services. Work and childcare are
not perceived as mutually exclusive. Hence, a family
with an income-earning dad and a stay-at-home partner is not a model for many in the East.
Many young people experienced the
1990s as a time of freedom and chaos
because most of the authorities were
busy coping with the inexorable
changes.
6
Dr. Johannes Staemmler is
a senior researcher at the
Stifterverband in Berlin. He
holds an MPP and a doctoral
degree from the Hertie School
of Governance. He is also
a former editor-in-chief of
Schlossplatz3 and has published on civil society, social
transformation, as well as
urban recovery.
Many people in the East experienced the years following the fall of the Wall as a permanent hangover.
The changes they had desired were often difficult
and required time to materialise. Many young people
experienced the 1990s as a time of freedom and chaos
because most of the authorities were busy coping
with the inexorable changes. It is exactly the time
when electronic music conquered cellars and bunkers
in East Berlin. People from East and West Germany
found the energy and the spaces for endless raves. The
unbound energy fuelled people like Paul Kalkbrenner
or bands like Rammstein—all of whom came from
East Germany.
What does it all mean? The fall of the Wall started a
process of growing together for two very different
Germanys. In the short run, East Germans had to
adapt, and learn at a rapid pace, with which many
could barely keep up. But 25 years later, it has become
apparent that the West also started to change due to
the influx of many East Germans. Particularly, the
younger generation blends historical legacies with
present-day desires, thereby bringing down the inherited wall between East and West Germany.
Schlossplatz3
Interview with Anna Kostreva conducted by Meilin Möllenkamp
Most of the time we think of walls, we focus on more recent walls in the
world like the Berlin wall, the Israeli West Bank barrier or the border wall
between Mexico and the United States. However, walls can have an
impact on how people live in and move through a city even hundreds of
years after they were torn down.
The architect and artist Anna Kostreva thinks of
walls as forces that form and shape cities over
decades and therefore deserve attention. Her
recent book “Berlin: A Morphology of Walls” is
comprised of hand drawn images recreating the
eras of our past that are missing in history books.
It reveals forgotten walls that have shaped Berlin’s
urban structure that we live in today.
Why did you come up with a whole book about
historic walls in Berlin?
My interest remains in the forces that move a city.
Looking at the physics, the mechanical and material
side of what it is that makes cities cities. I am asking:
what is the direction that the city is moving towards
or growing in and where does it come from? So, for
example, in New York the logical direction is the
grid—the grid begins to define everything and that
is a major aspect of many American cities. Whereas
in Johannesburg, where I did my first independent
project, the persistent driving forces are the divisions
in the city based on Apartheid segregations.
Proliferation of Axes and Gates: Trade routes formed an original centralised intersection upon which
the market cities of Berlin and Cölln were founded. Over time, a series of walls encircled that intersection
and informed the development, continuation, and branching of the trade routes into axes that projected
out into the region. (Image: Anna Kostreva, 2014)
When I came to Berlin in 2010, I initially had two ideas
in mind for the city’s driving forces: the destruction
after World War II and connection points that you can
find in the city, for example, “Unter den Linden”—the
Prussian axis that connected Schloss Charlottenburg
to the Stadtschloss.
However, I had to reject these ideas after I looked at
maps for a long time and realized that much of the
destruction of World War II has already been filled
back in. Despite the fact that the destructions created
really interesting architectural spaces for Berlin, they
did not change the morphology of the city. The street
lines remained very similar compared to pre-World
War II, as the majority of Berlin’s infrastructure
that was underground was not destroyed during the
bombing by the Allied Forces.
Walls try to capture the next
period of growth.
8
While I was looking at these maps and realised that
my initial hypothesis was wrong, I began to see these
rings in the city. Even when I first got here, I noticed
that there are certain streets that pull you around
the city like Danziger, Skalitzer or Torstraße and of
course there is also the S-Bahn that goes around the
city. I began to understand that these ring structures
are a defining aspect of Berlin’s morphology.
After studying further historical maps, I found out
that Torstraße actually held a series of gates that were
part of the tax wall. Furthermore, many of the other
roads that ring around the city are built in direct correlation to a historic wall. I came to the conclusion that
the ring structures of the city have evolved out of the
medieval city wall (12th—17th Century), the fortification (17th—18th Century), the tax wall (18th—19th
Century) and the Ringbahn (19th Century—Present),
as the fourth edge circling the inner city.
Schlossplatz3
Morphing the Ideal: The medieval city wall (12th C.), the fortification (17th C.), the tax wall (18th C.), the
Ringbahn (19th C.), the metropolitan boundary of Berlin (20th C.), and the A10 Motorway (20th C.) each
expand the city, but they often morph out of an ideal circle form in order to capture parts of the surroundings
that should be programmatically incorporated inside their boundary. (Image: Anna Kostreva, 2014)
But what about the Berlin Wall?
The four previously mentioned walls or edges of Berlin are political and physical boundaries that served
an extremely important role in Berlin’s urban development. The Berlin Wall acted as a counterpoint to
this history, because it worked with different strategies. For the Berlin Wall, existing municipal borders
were used to set its boundaries rather than following
the logic of expansion. Its border to the west was a
physical representation of Berlin’s predefined metropolitan boundary rather than an attempt to expand
the city. However, during the 30-year period of the
Berlin Wall, there was a ring that did actually expand
off from it—self-organisational properties of the city
appropriated the Berlin Wall and a rail ring was built,
approximately 5 km larger, around it.
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen So, in your understanding, the walls in Berlin
are similar to the idea of a tree's annual growth
rings. Does this mean that new walls are going
to evolve in the future?
I don’t know if Berlin will achieve any further rings
around the city. Nowadays, one of the outer growth
rings is the A10 motorway, being a huge boundary
outside of Berlin. I doubt that anything will surpass
that.
However, many of the rings get reinterpreted and they
manifest or become physical in different ways over
time. Of the four historical walls that I studied, many
have turned into transport corridors. For instance,
the S-Bahn is laid into the area where the fortification
used to be—starting from Friedrichsstraße going
through Alexanderplatz until Jannowitzbrücke. And
the U1 on Skalitzer Straße is basically where the tax
wall used to be. So, it may not be likely that more walls
appear, but that they begin to change their physical
nature or reappear after they have been torn down.
9
Growth Rings: Many streets in Berlin echo off of the lines of historic walls and create a concentric grain for the
city. (Image: Anna Kostreva, 2014)
Why did the walls in Berlin often turn into traffic corridors and become a major part of Berlin’s
infrastructure?
First, because there was space, and second, even
though in many people’s consciousness a wall is a
solid border that cannot be crossed, walls usually have
gates or points of passage. Often, important places
developed around the intersections with the gates
over time. Therefore, it made sense to build transport
corridors and squares that are equally meaningful
in the same areas. Rosenthaler Platz, Kottbusser Tor,
Brandenburger Tor—these are all places that were
defined by gates and continue to be important spaces
in the city because of their history.
10
Which of the four historic walls has the biggest
influence on Berlin’s urban structure today?
I am most fascinated by the tax wall. On the one hand,
it was an incredibly simple wall—being about three
meters high and a few bricks deep—that almost
looked like a graveyard or a cemetery wall. In addition, at the time of the tax wall (between 1730 and
1830) the city had its first extreme expansion that was
ultimately creating the space for industrial Berlin.
The tax wall attempted to control the financial boom
of the city and to control the traffic in and out of the
city in order to prevent smuggling and to collect taxes.
When the tax wall was built around the city, it changed
its streets and infrastructure, as well as the whole
political and social structure of Berlin. The tax wall
defines the point in history when this idea of concentric spaces and lines became more concrete and was
created throughout Berlin.
Schlossplatz3
Is it possible to compare the four different walls
to each other?
I would definitely differentiate between the functions
of each of these walls. However, they can be grouped.
The medieval wall and the fortification are similar
in many ways: Both were land structures, expanding
and moulding earthwork features that redefine the
surrounding landscape.
However, the medieval wall was bit of a sham, because
it was not built by the citizens’ desire for protection.
Instead, various lords came and required this wall to
be built or ‘improved’ as a symbol of the city’s capture
by those same lords. Thus, the medieval wall was a
scorned patchwork. The fortification, in contrast,
was constructed by a single ruler who had a sort of
absolute power to create the mathematical structure
that was forced onto the city.
Contrary to the first two walls, the tax wall was a
financial structure. It evolved, eventually, as a sort of
transport corridor, which makes it quite similar to the
Ringbahn. The first Ringbahn was actually exactly at
the line of the tax wall, before it got moved out to its
current location.
Why do you consider the S-Bahn Ring to fulfil
the characteristics of a wall?
Well, I introduce the Ringbahn usually more as an
edge. However, when you think of the reasons why
the walls were built, it was each time in order to create
an interior and an exterior and the interesting thing is
to somehow delineate what an edge meant for the city
during that period.
When they built the Ringbahn, it was in the hope
that they would be able to capture as much of what
would be the future city inside of this ring. This idea
is similar to the other walls—they try to capture the
next period of growth, so that enough people will
live inside and that things can be delivered to them
through the provided infrastructure.
Anna Kostreva is an artist,
architect, and urban
researcher. She studied
architecture at the Cooper
Union in NYC and was granted
a Fulbright fellowship to
South Africa in 2009. Her
recent book of analytical
drawings, Berlin: A Morphology of Walls, investigates
the historical forces that
persist and shape the city.
Walls however, also act as connectors. It was important to me, when I made my drawings, to look at what
is being separated and what the wall is able to connect. An important question related to this is: Which
programmes get grouped? Some programmes, in the
architectural sense of what types of buildings and
what types of utility purposes, get grouped towards a
wall. For instance, when the tax wall was built, cemeteries were pushed outside of the city wall. However,
these cemeteries are naturally still part of the city’s
infrastructure, even though they are outside the wall.
Also, by determining the position of gates in the wall
important axes and market places arise.
The relevant point I want to make here is that walls
are not only about separation. Especially when looking at the long-term effects of walls you can find that
they are shaping so much of what is going on in a city
even after they have disappeared.
Especially when looking at the longterm effects of walls, you can find
that they are shaping so much of what
is going on in a city even after they
have disappeared.
Borders Based Identification in Empirical Research:
Lessons from the Fall of the Wall
by Prof. Dr. Christian Traxler
Quantitative research strategies frequently exploit the existence, appearance,
and disappearance of borders. Several important contributions in this
literature build on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification.
What can we learn from this ‘natural experiment’?
My first thought when I hear the word “border” is a A more sophisticated empirical design to identify the
very negative one. I think of U.S. Customs and Immi- TV effect was recently implemented by Bursztyn and
gration officers’ unique way of asking to scan my Cantoni (2012). Instead of comparing households
fingerprints, “four fingers, right hand! right from the East and the West, the authors exploit geothumb!” As an empirical researcher however, I think graphical borders in access to Western television
of borders as instruments that can help us with the within the former GDR. This variation was induced
identification of social and economic regularities. by geographic features such as valleys and mountains that would block western broadcasting signals.
How does that work?
(For those not familiar with German culture: guess
why the area in the Elbe valley around Dresden was
Exploiting differences across borders
Borders separate regions or jurisdictions that typi- dubbed “valley of the clueless”?) Bursztyn and Cancally differ in certain policies or institutions. By com- toni’s results suggest that access to Western television
paring outcomes across jurisdictions we can then did not have any effect on consumption levels (during
learn something about the impact of different policy the mid-1990s), but it caused a shift in consumption
approaches. This view—which relates to the notion of patterns in favour of product categories with high
‘federalism as a laboratory’ for social and economic intensity of pre-reunification advertisement.1
quasi-experiments—seems a bit too optimistic: not
every comparison is meaningful and informative Exploiting variation over time across borders
since jurisdictions tend to differ in many dimensions. Above we have noted that a simple comparison
This makes it hard (and often impossible) to identify between heterogeneous jurisdictions might not help
which difference causes the observed variation in an us to pin down the causal effect of one specific factor.
outcome.
A prominent method that accounts for this concern
is the so-called difference-in-differences approach.
Let us illustrate this point with an example. Suppose The basic idea behind this method is to study changes
we want to study the long-run impact of exposure within different regions over time. Let us illustrate
to Western television commercials on consumption. this method with another interesting lesson one can
We focus on consumption patterns of households in learn from German reunification.
(reunified) Germany during the 1990s and compare
households from the West with households that lived Demographers (including Hertie School’s Michaela
in East Germany before 1989. In this example, we Kreyenfeld) have long noted that the peaceful revoluwould not be able to distinguish whether differences tion of 1989 had quite a different effect on fertility
in consumption behaviour were caused by the dif- rates in the East and the West of reunified Germany. In
ferential access to Western television or simply due to the West, fertility smoothly declined during the 1990s.
any of the other countless differences between East In contrast, birth rates in the East dropped dramatiand West Germany.
cally between 1990 and 1993 (the largest recorded fall
12
Schlossplatz3
in birth rates during peacetime), followed by a strong
recovery starting in 1994. One aspect of this episode
of German re-unification that is still not properly
understood is the underlying ‘parental selection’
—i.e., who decided to have children in these uncertain
times—and the socio-economic implications from
this selection.
In an intriguing and provocative contribution, Che- dispersion of economic activities within Berlin after
valier and Marie (2013) study the consequences of the the post-WWII division and its later reunification. To
fertility drop by analysing cohort specific crime rates do so, the research team compiled remarkable data on
in German Länder from the East and the West.2 The land prices, local wages, commuting and employment
authors first compare arrest rates during 1995 to 2012 information on thousands of city blocks for the 1930s,
of cohorts born before, during and after the fertility 1986 and 2006.
drop in the East. In a second step, they contrast these Why is the Berlin case interesting to study? The
differences to those observed for the same cohorts separation of the city accounts for a unique shock
in the West. Based on the difference-in-differences to a historically grown economic structure within a
in arrest rates, Chevalier and Marie obtain a striking metropolis. If one wants to understand the implicaresult: children born in the East between 1990 and tions from, say, an advantageous central location
1993 are, on average, about 40 per cent more likely or good public transport access for local economic
to be criminally active than average children of the activities, this shock offers an interesting natural
same age born in the West (or after 1994 in the East). experiment. Consider, for instance, the separation
Using rich survey data, the authors provide further of the district Mitte. The Wall turned all houses one
evidence suggesting that the mothers of these highly block south of Checkpoint Charlie, which used to be
crime-active “Children of the Wall” were significantly in walking distance to the pre-war economic centre
younger, less educated, less likely to be married or of the city, into a fairly peripheral area of West Berlin.
employed and, most interestingly, much less risk For such blocks, separation resulted in a substantial
averse (data limitations do not allow analysing drop in housing prices (by approximately 50 per cent),
fathers). In line with other evidence, this last observa- a decline in local employment and an increase in
tion supports the idea of intergenerational transmis- commuting time. The fall of the Wall reversed this
shock, with relative economic structures returning
sion of risk attitudes.3
to pre-war patterns. For economically more remote
areas along the Wall, however, neither division nor
Exploiting precise location of borders
A growing body of empirical research in Political reunification had any significant impact.
Science and Economics moves beyond the mere comparison of outcomes between different regions and Ahlfeldt et al.’s analysis documents that locationmakes use of small-scale geographical variation rela- specific effects, as well as agglomeration forces,
tive to the precise location of a border. An impressive are crucial in shaping the allocation of economic
example from this strand of literature is the study by activities within Berlin. Accounting for such agglomAhlfeldt et al. (2014) who analyse agglomeration and eration spillovers has important implications for city
planning, urban public policy—and the location of
the Hertie School.
As an empirical researcher I think
of borders as instruments that
can help us with the identification
of social and economic regularities.
Prof. Dr. Christian Traxler
teaches Economics at the
Hertie School of Governance.
His research addresses questions in Public Economics,
the Economics of Crime, and
Behavioural Economics. His
main focus is the analysis of
tax evasion and tax enforcement. His work has been
published, among others, in
the Journal of the European
Economic Association, the
Journal of Public Economics
and the Review of Economics
and Statistics.
Continuing to learn from Germany’s
natural experiment
The studies summarised in this essay illustrate the
variety of research strategies that used the fall of the
Wall to analyse different social and economic phenomena. Social sciences have gained a lot of insights
from Germany’s natural experiment and even today,
25 years after the peaceful revolution, we continue
to learn new lessons from the reunification. For an
empirical researcher, this is yet another reason to
celebrate the anniversary.
1. Following a similar empirical strategy, Kern and
References
Hainmueller (2009) arrive at the surprising finding that
AHLFELDT, G., REDDING, S., STURM, D. & WOLF, N. (2014):
East Germans who had access to Western television were
in fact more satisfied with life in East Germany and more
14
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Curtain: The Impact of Western Television on Consumption
and Levitt, 2001).
Behaviour.” Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion
3. While Chevalier and Marie understand their analysis
Papers No. 9101.
as a positive rather than a normative one, we can think
CHEVALIER, A. & MARIE, O.E. (2013): “Economic Uncertainty,
of several possible implications. For instance, cutting
Parental Selection, and the Criminal Activity of the ‘Children
educational expenditures for the smaller cohorts that
of the Wall.” CESifo Working Paper, No. 4462.
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DONOHUE, J. & LEVITT, S. (2001): “The Impact of Legalized
be a particularly bad idea. Assuming external validity
Abortion on Crime.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. (116):
of the results, the significant fertility drop during the great
379-420.
recession in Southern European countries could also
KERN, H.L. & HAINMUELLER, J. (2009): “Opium for the
trigger a delayed but substantial increase in social
Masses: How Foreign Media can Stabilize Authoritarian
deviance, when these cohorts reach their peak crime ages.
Regimes.” Political Analysis, (17): 377–399.
Schlossplatz3
Glass Ceilings
and Working Parents
Interview with Manuela Schwesig conducted by Katri Kemppainen-Bertram
In Germany, it often feels like women—including highly educated women
with careers—return to the confines of home walls when children are born,
and men spend even more time inside workplace walls. From your experience
as Minister, is this the division of labour that German parents want?
Many parents wish they could divide work and family
tasks more evenly among themselves. Surveys show
that many fathers would like to work slightly less and
many mothers would like to increase their working
hours. Rigid full- and part-time working models no
longer serve the needs of today’s working parents. We
therefore need models for flexible working times. My
vision is a ‘family work time’ of, for example, 32 hours
per week for parents with small children. Young
couples should have time for their families, but also
for the jobs that they want to pursue. A new German
parental allowance model (‘Elterngeld-Plus’) that we
aim to introduce next year is a first step in this direction, allowing parents to share their parental leave
months.
Is there still a wall between East and West Germany when it comes to both parents balancing
work and childcare?
In East Germany, there is greater acceptance that
work and family are compatible. My parents both
worked and ran the household together. Kindergarten, full-day school—all of this was normal and this
was how I grew up. Among West German mothers I
constantly experience that they need to justify their
decisions. My hope is that these decisions will be better respected and become easier to make.
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen There has been a lot of debate about removing
‘glass ceilings’ and creating infrastructure (such
as day-care) that enables mothers to work. What
policies are you proposing to enable both parents
to work and partake in childcare?
In the ‘rush hour of life’ different things coincide for
many families: having and raising children, caring
for elderly parents, organizing care or being available.
If both parents work full-time, in a way that this is
currently defined, this is not a manageable situation
for many people. Men would like to work less, but are
worried about the negative effects on their careers.
Women would like to work more, but are unable to
progress from their part-time jobs. With a family
working time, where both parents can balance their
working hours, we can ensure that men can take more
time for their families. Women could then return to
work sooner, and this is what many women would
indeed like to do. This would be an improvement not
only for families, but also for the economy.
15
16
Schlossplatz3
What role do you think quotas can play in breaking down glass ceilings or walls? Does it suffice
to focus only on women, or would you agree that
we also need policies that provide more flexibility for fathers in the workplace?
For over a decade, politicians have expected that
businesses self-regulate and implement voluntary
agreements. This has been a failure. Despite high
qualifications, women fail to progress due to oldfashioned gender stereotyping and male-dominated
networks. Facts underscore this: there are only a
handful of women in leadership positions. In large
company boards, women represent 17.2 per cent. In
top-level management positions in these companies,
women comprise only 6 per cent, and this figure used
to be higher. These structures, these glass ceilings,
are what we aim to tackle with a legally binding quota.
I am certain that a long overdue change in thinking
will take place in companies and society at large.
Manuela Schwesig is the
German Federal Minister for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth. She is a
trained tax administrator and
was the former Social Affairs
Minister in MecklenburgWestern Pomerania from 2008
to 2011, and Labour Minister
from 2011 to 2013. She is married and has one child.
In your experience as Minister, what have been
the most difficult walls to tackle?
The project that I founded, “KarriereFamilie”,
Implementing more equality between women and
aims to make having children and careers more
men, in particular in work and family life, is an imporcompatible—for all parents. Do you think that
tant task that I pursue with conviction as Minister for
this is currently possible in Germany? If not,
Families and Women. Together with partners at the
what policy changes would you propose to make
federal, state and communal levels, I hope that we will
it possible?
achieve the goal of equality for women and men in the Our new parental leave ‘Elterngeld-Plus’ will improve
spheres of work and family. Equal opportunity also the current situation. What happens currently is: If
means more time for family—for both parents!
you want to take leave from work after the birth of a
child you can get parental pay. However, mothers or
In your opinion, which stakeholders are key to fathers that would like to return to work earlier on
making having children and careers more com- a part-time basis lose part of their parental pay. We
patible?
want to change this with ‘Elterngeld-Plus’, which
We need a paradigm change at the workplace: Families allows Parents who return to work with reduced
should not be forced to become more employment- hours to receive their parental allowance for up to
friendly, but the other way around: the workplace twice as long. In this way, I want to enable women in
needs to become family-friendly. For this to happen particular to return to work sooner—but in a way that
we need some structural changes. Key to this is to allows them to spend enough time with their children.
expand childcare for children under the age of three, If both parents share their childcare tasks after the
while also investing in the quality of childcare. We birth of a child, they receive an additional bonus of up
also need a right to temporary part-time work, flexible to four months of parental allowance.
working hours, as well as new parental leave offers
(‘Elterngeld-Plus’). These tools are key, particularly Katri Kemppainen-Bertram holds an MPP from the
to enable women to have improved opportunities at Hertie School of Governance. Under the ‘Hertie Felwork.
lowship 2014—15’, Katri founded and heads the initiative ‘KarriereFamilie’, which aims to improve the
As a working mother, what practical or norm- compatibility of having a career and children—for
based walls do you experience in your daily jug- both parents. Through workshops and interviews
gle to balance your career with being a parent?
with parents, employers, academics and political
My husband and I face similar challenges to other decision-makers, KarriereFamilie tackles several
families. We both want to do our jobs well and challenges: What do parents want? What do employhave time for our family. It is not always easy to ers need? And how can the political environment
find a balance. But we manage this well because we support both parents and employers in making work
equally divide our childcare and household tasks. and family more compatible? The project focuses
Furthermore, we have regular family time. I pick up mainly on Germany, but also builds on international
my son from school on Wednesdays and we have the expertise. Visit www.karrierefamilie.org for further
afternoon and evening for ourselves. I also try to keep information.
Sundays and vacations free from political work.
Overcoming Barriers to Good Education
Interview with Ulf Matysiak conducted by Anna Hoffmann
Teach First Deutschland’s vision is a society in which all children and
youth receive an excellent education, regardless of the circumstances
into which they are born. The organisation recruits committed
university graduates (“fellows”) to spend two years teaching at schools
in disadvantaged communities in Germany. Fellows are active both
inside and outside the classroom to improve students’ achievement
and career opportunities. In the long run, programme alumni take on
leadership positions in business, politics, and society and draw on their
in-depth insights to advocate greater educational equality in Germany.
Today, Teach First Deutschland has 118 Fellows working in five of
the 16 German states, as well as 92 alumni continuing to address
educational inequity across all sectors of German society.
The offices of Teach First Deutschland are found just
a 10-minute bike ride away from the Hertie School of
Governance. As recent as 2008, you could have
found them on the second floor of our school. The
German branch of this global initiative was born
at Hertie as part of Kaija Landsberg and Michael
Okrob’s Master’s Thesis on how to bring the Teach
for America and Teach First model to Germany. This
is a story about one of the most significant walls our
society should overcome and a reconnection with
a true Hertie spin-off.
18
Schlossplatz3
The topic of this edition of Schlossplatz is “overcoming walls”—which walls are you trying to
overcome?
Teach First Deutschland’s vision is that every child
in Germany should leave school with a degree and
a strong belief in his or her own abilities. A common
reaction to this vision is something like: “You’re so
naïve. There will always be dropouts. You will always
have children who won’t succeed.” Many people
believe that good education or excellent education
is not for everyone. Frankly, it seems ridiculous that
a country that has seen a peaceful revolution and
that has somehow managed to overcome not just
the segregation of itself, but a segregation was symbolic of the whole Cold War, does not hold the shared
belief that it is possible to change its educational
system. If I think about the metaphor of a wall, it
seems that we first need to overcome the wall in our
minds that prevents us from believing that it is possible to grant good education to everyone. That should
be the first step.
What are the main challenges to more equal educational opportunities, apart from the wall in
our minds?
The single best indicator we have to predict whether
a child will be successful at school is the parents’
income. That in itself is scandalous. It’s not about
intelligence, talent, skills, or even language—it just
is income. Secondly, we know that in Germany close
to 50,000 students leave school every year without a
diploma. Without a diploma you are not able to continue your education. We have a very good dual system,
which offers an alternative to university, but in order
to enter this system you still need a diploma and an
employer who will agree to hire you for 3 years. For
many kids that is a hurdle that is too high.
We, as a society, are failing these kids. We don’t
succeed in preparing them for the job market, for
the next step in their development and, even more
dramatically, to play an active role as citizens. We
don’t teach them how to navigate society, how to
participate and stand up for their rights. They don’t
think that they’re important to society. We need
their voices, brains and competencies in order to
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen build the future. But what kids hear in a lot of schools
is: you are not needed here, maybe not even wanted.
You will not succeed. There is Hartz IV waiting for
you (state welfare). As a result it is often devastating
to listen to the aspirations of kids coming out of these
schools. These kids say that they have learned that
they will never have a chance here. That is the truth
for some schools in such areas –we prepare kids to
be losers. These kids have come to share this belief.
We effectively rob them of their future. If they stop
believing in their potential, it’s no longer just about
being fair but about having a very negative and cruel
impact on these young people.
How can we change this? Should we teach differently?
Of course it is very easy to blame the teachers, but I
don’t think that is fair either—in every school we have
brilliant teachers. We need to talk not only about the
way we teach but also the way we support and train
our teachers. We have been discussing structures for
over 20 years. We have not talked about who works
in schools and under which conditions we let these
important people work and how we support them.
It would also be important to specifically prepare
teachers for work in low-income areas, because the
work there is different. We believe that teachers in
such communities need to take a much more active
role in pushing children to a higher level and feel more
responsible for their success. We cannot keep lowering our expectations in such schools and we cannot
The vision of Teach First Deutschland
is that every child in Germany should
leave school witha degree and a strong
belief in his or her own abilities.
19
tolerate passive teaching in such environments. I am
a big fan of the Humboldtian ideal1 of teaching but I
do think we need to see teaching more as coaching
in such difficult circumstances. That means that if
children are not taking up the “offer” of education by
teachers, we should ask ourselves why and try harder.
I have travelled to many countries and there is often
a high overlap between schools in low-income areas
across the globe. These schools are often more
similar to each other than they are to schools in
high-income areas in their own country. So, maybe
there is not so much difference between countries but
there are great differences within a country. When
I talk to principals at schools in such low-income
areas, the stories are often similar, no matter whether
you are in China, India, Chile, or Washington D.C.
—you often hear the same story, such as: “we try to
establish a good connection to parents but it’s hard.
We try to get the best people to our schools but often
they don’t want to stay. We try to adapt and be an
active member in our community but we lack the
funds or buildings, etc. “
How do you think the German education system
could perform better?
Firstly, if we want teachers to have a strong feeling
of responsibility, then we need a system that allows
schools similar responsibility and the freedom to
come up with the right answers to the problems
in their communities. But that’s hardly the case in
Germany. For example, school principals cannot hire
according to the needs of the school. This process is
highly centralised in each state. There is only a very
limited amount of money that schools can freely
spend on their own projects. If you run a very Prussian system with strict hierarchies and the teacher is
the very last person in this chain, it will be very difficult for teachers to act as strong leaders. If you want to
attract leaders into these positions, you have to treat
them as such and trust them.
The single best indicator we have
to predict whether a child will be
successful at school is the income
of the parents. That in itself is
scandalous.
20
Secondly, we have to adapt the job description of
teaching to the actual challenges of the job. For
example, teachers are not prepared to work with
parents. They are not trained to do so, especially not
for more challenging situations when the parents are
from other cultural backgrounds. Often they also do
not see it as their responsibility to train or coach the
kids until they achieve certain goals. Many very good
teachers are there for students and talk to parents,
but not because they have been prepared for this or
because it is paid but out of their own motivation.
That should definitely change.
Holes in the wall: could you share some positive
stories from your work?
There was one student who was rather shy in class
and her Fellow organised a day at the Charité to get
the kids to work in these laboratories. The student
was very inspired by this experience and started to
dream of finding a job at a hospital. She then developed a plan with the Fellow to do that and succeeded.
They are still in touch. This just shows that teaching is
not just about transferring knowledge but also about
inspiring students and creating a vision about where
they could go.
A similar project was started with the Bucerius Law
School, one of the best law schools in Germany. Fellows realised that students lost a lot of their knowledge over the summer and that English training was
weak. So, they developed a fascinating cooperative
programme where they would take students to the
Law School and hold summer classes on that campus.
The students would be immersed in this learning
environment, meet many different other students and
everything would be in English. Over the course of
the project this new and very different place became
more familiar to them. While they studied, they also
widened their horizons by just being in this place
Schlossplatz3
and conquered a part of Germany that seemed utterly
closed to them. It created a sense of possibility—the
feeling that one could belong to such an environment.
I believe that this motivational impact is crucial.
Access is not the problem in Germany—everyone can
access the Internet and in theory the knowledge of the
whole world is open to all students. Too often aspiration is lacking.
Ulf Matysiak joined Teach
First Deutschland in 2007 in
its early stages. He quickly
transitioned to become the
organisation’s head of training
and support, a position he
held until 2011. Today, Ulf
leads Teach First Deutschland.
How can Hertie Students get involved?
If there is something you want to do directly, there are
many ways to reach out to us. So if there’s a group of
you who want to work with kids in Berlin—we will
find a way.
And then, no matter where you think about building
your future, think about becoming a teacher. There 1. The Humboltian ideal refers to the ideology that
are more than 35 “Teach For …” organisation like accompanied the founding of the University of Berlin in 1810,
Teach First Germany and many more—there is hardly traditionally seen as the model institution of the 19th century.
anything more powerful than doing the work your- In this context it refers to an ideal of teaching that sees
self if you want to make a difference, and I believe that students as independent minds who only need freedom and
that is a strong motivation for many students at the an enabling environment to achieve success.
Hertie School, then I would highly recommend going
into teaching, at least for some time.
So, why are these barriers to equal educational
opportunities the most important walls we
should break through?
I believe that there are only a handful of challenges
worldwide and we should all try to find our place in
tackling them. One of them is the ecological situation
of the planet. Will we survive as a species? That’s a
question we all need to try to find an answer to. The
second is enduring peace. Peace links of course to
development challenges more broadly and 10-15 years
ago I would’ve said that things had become so much
better. Now, however, I see a backlash of old problems, many of which we had optimistically thought
overcome.
Worldwide, the total number of students with a
low level and quality of education is increasing, not
decreasing. This is a tragedy, as education and good
schooling are the key to responding to the other two
challenges. It will be very difficult to change the
mindset of an older person and convince them to, say,
live a more sustainable life or lose certain prejudices.
If we work with 5-15 year olds, we have it all in our
hands. It’s not even a miracle, it’s just solid teaching.
22
Schlossplatz3
Migration’s Funnel Effect from Central to North America
by Carlos J. Guizar
The issue of undocumented immigration from Central America and
Mexico to the United States has led to another humanitarian crisis
due to the funnel effect starting at the weak southern Mexican border
and finishing at the well-protected southern US border. Between
October 1, 2013 and May 31 of this year, American authorities have
apprehended over 47,000 unaccompanied children and youth
attempting to illegally cross the U.S. border.
The issue of undocumented immigration from Central America and Mexico to the United States has
led to another humanitarian crisis due to the funnel
effect starting at the weak southern Mexican border
and finishing at the well-protected southern US border. Between October 1, 2013 and May 31 of this year,
American authorities have apprehended over 47,000
unaccompanied children and youth attempting to
illegally cross the U.S. border.
The humanitarian crisis has arisen due to the sudden
arrival of thousands of unaccompanied children that
has overpopulated shelters and detention centres, neither of which have the facilities or sufficient personnel to properly care for the minors who have waited
weeks to be deported. The children were encouraged
by their parents to move to the US firstly because it
seemed that immigration reform was about to be
approved and secondly due to the misunderstanding
that unaccompanied minors would not be deported by
the American government.
24
Schlossplatz3
According to a comparison made by the Pew Hispanic
Center (2014), we can better comprehend the size of
the crisis by contrasting previous detention numbers
with those from Fiscal Year 2009. Apprehensions vary
depending on the nationality of the minors; there was
a 707 per cent increase in detained Salvadorans, a 930
per cent increase in Guatemalans, a 1,272 per cent
increase in Hondurans, and a decrease of 28 per cent
in Mexicans. Furthermore, in under a year, apprehensions of children aged 12 years and younger increased
117 per cent, in contrast to the 12 per cent increase of
minors between 12 and 17 years.
Therefore, along with other questions, one that
should be asked is how it has been possible for 9,850
Salvadorans, 11,479 Guatemalan, and 13,282 Hondurans, all underage, to illegally cross the Mexican
border and travel all the way to the U.S.?
Despite the gravity of this particular humanitarian
crisis, it is a permanent reality that has been happening for decades and that starts in the immigrants’
home countries due to the lack of opportunities,
emigration traditions within their communities and
families, insecurity, violence, organised crime groups,
and childrens’ desire to join their parents in the U.S.
However, for children, youngsters, and adults alike,
being apprehended is not the only concern awaiting them at the end of the 3,000-kilometer through
Mexico. Their worries begin when many of them pay
between $5,000 and $10,000 U.S. Dollars to human
smugglers, nicknamed polleros, for them to arrange
their undocumented trip to the U.S. They travel on a
train known as The Beast—it continually derails due
to poor maintenance and because of the thousand
plus immigrants that make each trip atop it. Additionally, they may have to face other hazards such as
kidnappers, corrupt authorities, or organised crime
organisations—according to Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA), over 20,000 Central American
immigrants are abducted in Mexico each year (Castillo, 2014).
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen The funnel effect
Now that we have better understood the dimensions
of the Central and North American migration to the
U.S., we still need to go further in order to answer the
main question: how does the funnel effect work? As
migrants have a wide range of possibilities to cross
to and to go through Mexico but very few chances to
enter the United States, there is a funnel effect that
starts at the Mexico-Central American border and
finishes at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mexico shares a 1,200 kilometre border with Guatemala and Belize, with eight and one official crossing
points respectively; however, there are at least 350
unofficial crossings just from Guatemala. Despite
the number of unofficial crossings, in 2013, 85,000
Central Americans were deported to their home
countries by the Mexican authorities (Ferriz, 2014),
nearly 10,000 more than in 2012 and 27,000 more than
in 2011 (INAMI, 2012). Nevertheless, these efforts do
not seem to be enough to deal with Latin American
immigration to Mexico.
Despite the graveness of this
particular humanitarian crisis, it is
a permanent reality that has been
happening for decades and that starts
in the immigrants’ home countries.
25
Carlos Guizar (MPP class of
2009) is author of “Transición
democrática y política social
en México” and has written
over 40 articles in Mexico,
Germany and Uruguay. He
has worked as a lecturer, a
speechwriter to the National
Executive Committee of the
PAN, a member of Mexican
Delegations to the UN and IPU,
and as advisor to the Mexican
Congress and the Mexican
Ambassador to China.
On the other hand, the U.S.-Mexico border has 54
border entries, and the U.S. has put up a 560-kilometre wall—plans exist to expand it to 1,200 kilometres
in order to fence in more than three quarters of the
3,000-kilometre border but these plans have been
postponed since the Bush administration. Additionally, if the Senate's Gang of 8 immigration reform is
ratified by the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S.
government would have to invest $30,000 U.S. dollars
in the next ten years in order to hire nearly 20,000
extra border patrol agents (Gold, 2013).
In order to diminish the funnel effect from Central
America and Mexico to the U.S. and to prevent future
These examples make it is easier to see how walls humanitarian crises, joint international policies
can intensify a migration funnel effect in Central taking into account regional circumstances must be
and North America due to unequal border conditions implemented. Firstly, these should tackle the causes
and requirements between the South and the North. that force or motivate emigrants to leave their comMexico has a border resembling a wall with nooks and munities by creating more development opportunicrannies, while the U.S. has a border with a tall wall, ties and reducing crime and violence levels in Central
strong security measures and thousands of border America. Secondly, they should improve the condipatrol officers. Therefore, Central Americans and tions at the southern Mexican border to disincentive
Mexicans who travel illegally to the United States have immigrants from illegally crossing to Mexico and, as
to face the end of the funnel because, in comparison the Mexican Government has recently proposed, give
to all of those who leave their hometowns, just a few temporary working visas to Guatemalans so that they
are able to achieve their goal of immigrating to the can travel safely. Finally, the Mexican government
U.S.
needs to find more effective mechanisms for locating
and deporting immigrants to their home countries as
Walls are not the answer
soon as they enter Mexico while also ensuring their
Even though the Mexican government recently imple- human rights, as the National Institute of Immigramented the Southern Border Program to enhance bor- tion (INAMI) does not have the human and economic
der security measures and to promote more coopera- resources or the capacity to effectively accomplish
tion with Central American governments, it may not its responsibilities. Otherwise, the crisis may soon
be enough to protect the integrity and human rights become a Mexican humanitarian crisis and not only
of immigrants.
an American one.
References
In order to diminish the funnel
effect from Central America and
Mexico to the U.S. and to prevent
future humanitarian crises, joint
international policies taking
into account regional circumstances
have to be implemented.
26
KROGSTAD, J. & GONZALEZ-BARRERA, A. (2014): “Number
of Latino children caught trying to enter U.S. nearly doubles
in less than a year.” Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center,
2014/06.
CASTILLO, G. (2014): “PF, la dependencia implicada en más
abusos contra migrantes, denuncia Wola.” La Jornada, 2014/07.
FERRIZ, P. (2014): “Reconoce EU esfuerzos de México en crisis
de niños migrantes.” Ferriz.com.mx, 2014/07.
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE MIGRACION– INAMI (2012):
“Síntesis 2012, estadística migratoria” México, DF: Secretaría
de Gobernación.
GOLD, M. (2013): “Immigration Deal Would Boost Defense
Manufacturers.” The Washington Post, from the online
edition, 2013/07.
Schlossplatz3
Are Non-Tariff Barriers the New Walls to Trade?
A Case Analysis from Argentina and Ecuador
by Luis Felipe Torres and Fabio Tamburrini
Non-Tariffs Measures (NTMs) have become relevant instruments of protection
in countries that have traditionally protected specific economic sectors from
international trade. This recent development is a result of the reduction or
elimination of import tariffs due to the adoption of the provisions established
by the World Trade Organization (WTO) or by the signature of bilateral or
regional trade agreements. The increase in the adoption of NTMs over the past
five years shows that the targeted scenario of free flow of goods within the
principles of the WTO is far from being achieved.
Although the adoption of NTMs is legal within the
WTO framework, with incorrect implementation,
often influenced by local interests, these measures
become Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs). Non-Tariff Barriers are receiving growing attention from different
actors due to their important economic implications
in trade. The cost of protection achieved by NTBs in
terms of trade flow, international resource allocation,
and productivity efficiency can be high. In fact, NTBs
are usually more trade-restrictive and distorting than
tariffs, not least because they are less transparent
in their price effects (OECD. Looking Beyond Tariff,
2005).
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen What are Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) and NonTariff Barrier (NTBs)?
Non-tariff measures (NTMs) are generally defined as
policy measures other than ordinary customs tariffs
that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded,
or prices or both. (UNCTAD/DITC/TAB/2012/1).
The classification comprises technical and non-technical measures, such as sanitary and phytosanitary
measures (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBT),
environmental protection measures, and other means
of traditionally used commercial policy instruments
such as quotas, price controls, exports restrictions,
contingent trade protective measures, as well as other
behind-the-border measures like trade-related competition laws and investment measures, government
procurement or distribution restrictions.
27
NTBs are unjustified and/or are improper applications
of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs). They include different measures taken by governments and authorities
in the form of government laws, regulations, policies,
conditions, restrictions or specific requirements, and
private sector business practices, or prohibitions that
protect the domestic industries from foreign competition. Their common feature is that they make import
or export of products more burdensome and/or costly
and additionally, they are not in accordance with the
WTO procedures.
had to comply with these new regulations immediIn Latin America the adoption of NTBs has increased ately, local producers had an 18-month transition
considerably and is reflected in the number of specific period, contrary to the non-discrimination principle
trade concerns (STC) presented by other countries in of the WTO. Additionally, the measures where not
the TBT and SPS Comities, as well as the constitution previously notified to the WTO, and thereby in violaof panels to resolve controversies regarding other tion of the provisions of the TBT and SPS Agreements.
NTBs at the WTO.
After implementing these measures, international
producers could not export their products to Ecuador
Trade Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and
given the impossibility of complying with the new
Phytosanitary (SPS) measures in Ecuador
technical requirements. For example, all the plastic
In January 2013 Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, containers that were in contact with food had to run
publicly announced his intention to modify the indus- tests at an accredited Ecuadorian laboratory, despite
trial production matrix of Ecuador with the objective no facilities existing in Ecuador to carry out these
of encouraging growth and the development of new tests. The government also required all products
productive sectors to counter the growing trade deficit subject to mandatory labeling to be inspected in port
(about USD 7.3 billion in 2013). Although local indus- by a certification body accredited by the Accreditation
try and experts positively received this announcement, Body of Ecuador (OAE), though at the date of the reguthe reality of Ecuador’s economy was quite different lation coming into effect there was no certification
from the economic indicators, especially fiscal bud- body that could perform this activity.
get and balance of payments, which showed troubling Six months after these measures were adopted, the
figures that forced the Ecuadorian government to take government had to modify several of its technical
measures so as to prevent capital flight and to protect regulations because of the shortage of products in the
dollarisation.
market resulting from the lack of laboratory infraThese measures translated into the enactment of structure and certification bodies in Ecuador. These
around 250 technical regulations, sanitary and phy- new amendments allowed importers to use a firsttosanitary requirements and conformity assessment party declaration (suppliers declaration) to certify
procedures for strategic industrial sectors. The TBT the compliance of their products with the mandatory
and SPS Comities of the WTO had never seen the issu- requirements. This was completely different from the
ance of commercial regulations at such a scale and in original conformity assessment requirement, which
such a short period of time. International producers had established that only third-party declarations
from certified bodies in Ecuador would be accepted.
Furthermore, in June 2014 the General Secretariat of
the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) issued a
Resolution condemning the new regulations as trade
restrictive.
The targeted scenario of free flow of
goods within the principles of the
WTO is far from being achieved.
28
Schlossplatz3
The continuous changes in the conformity assessment
procedures of the technical regulations—since their
issuing in the second semester of 2013—show clearly
how a public policy can generate unwanted affects.
NTMs were not designed to correct macroeconomic
problems and the measures taken by Ecuador had
unintended consequences in correcting their current
trade deficit and only resulted in unnecessary costs to
international trade.
Import Licensing in Argentina:
a de facto restricting mechanism and appears to be
protectionism and currency outflows
part of a deliberate policy of “trade balancing:” many
On August 22, 2014, a WTO settlement panel pub- companies received telephone calls directly from
lished its final decision against Argentina, after government officials, requiring them to compensate
receiving joined complaints from the EU, the US and their imports by agreeing to export products of equal
Japan about import restrictions by the Argentinean or higher value. These allegations—although not supgovernment, stating that the trade policies enacted ported by any explicit formal directive—are backed by
by current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s press releases and statements to the media, in which
cabinet violate international law.
high-ranking officials announced a “trade balancing”
Since 2008, the government has in fact extended the policy in order to sustain the balance of payments.
list of goods subject to import licensing, including
600 different commodities such as laptops, autos, At the root of this protectionist turn is the economic
chemicals and textiles. The EU, the US and Japan policy undertaken by Kirchner’s cabinet: After the
reported that, as a consequence, many companies sovereign default in 2002, the Argentinean governexperienced delays in approval procedures that ulti- ment has neither been able to access the international
mately resulted in trade restrictions and distortions. financial market nor to adopt unpopular fiscal
The WTO recognised these duties as non-automatic adjustments. The public budget balance has steadily
import licensing and judged them to be more burden- deteriorated, pushing Buenos Aires to find alternative
some than necessary, ultimately sanctioning these ways to finance the rising deficit. The government
measures as contrary to international trade rules.
turned to the central bank, forcing it to buy treasury
Import Licensing is however only the first of a number bonds and to monetise the deficit. As a consequence,
of protectionist measures taken by the Argentinean inflation has taken root and quickly accelerated (indegovernment in recent years. In 2012, a new regulation pendent estimates report a 30 per cent price increase
was put into effect requiring pre-registration and in a year) despite the efforts of the officials to falsify
direct consent from the ministry. Since then, import- the national statistics.
ers that intend to market these products are required Attempting to protect their savings, the public has
to submit a sworn statement (“Declaración Jurada sought refuge in the dollar, hoarding the American
Anticipada de Importación”) and must await appro- currency while the government imposed strict meapriate government approval. This system operates as sures to prevent the outflow of foreign-exchange
reserves. This trade balancing policy can be seen as
an emergency solution to stop the hemorrhage of currency and at the same time as a protectionist reaction
to the steady deterioration of national competitiveness. In summary, the government is passing the
consequences of its economic measures to its trade
partners, attempting to distort international trade in
order to mitigate its internal problems.
Conclusions
As is often the case, trade barriers in Ecuador and
Argentina reflect internal weaknesses of their respec-
The desirability of free trade is today
widely established both in advanced
and emerging countries, but this
consensus is called into question
when local economies are under
stress.
Luis Felipe Torres is a first year
MPP student at Hertie School
of Governance. He holds a LL.B
and a B.A. in Political Science
from the Andes University in
Bogotá, Colombia. He was the
Director of Regulation at the
Ministry of Trade, Industry
and Tourism of Colombia and
official representative before
the Trade Barriers to Trade
Committee of the World Trade
Organization.
tive economies, and serve as attempts of their governments to cope with contradicting domestic and external goals. In the case of Ecuador, we see a “standard”
protectionist turn in order to protect domestic industries from international competition and to restore its
balance of payments. The Argentinean experience, on
the other hand, shows how governments are inclined
to translate the costs of their economic policies to
their trade partners.
Developments like these are indeed not a novelty in
international trade, but it is noteworthy that, in the
current context of a globalised world and liberalised
trade flows, protectionist measures tend to take the
shape of Non-Tariff Barriers. The desirability of free
trade is today widely established both in advanced
and emerging countries, but this consensus is called
into question when local economies are under stress.
The binding agreements of WTO prevent them from
explicitly enacting duties and customs and as a
consequence local governments tend to adopt traderestricting policies concealed as health or environment regulations in order to seek legitimacy from
trade partners.
Thus proving that such measures are actually NTBs
is particularly demanding for WTO panels. Litigations are likely to intensify and they will pose serious
risks to the effectiveness of free-trade agreements as
a safeguard against protectionist measures. On the
one hand this will require a new legal framework that
will enable to fight abuses from governments and on
the other, these developments underline the severity
of new threats facing emerging countries, that is in
an increasingly integrated world economy, the only
sustainable way to take on the competition coming
from new markets (China in primis) is to improve
Fabio Tamburrini is a first year
MPP student at the Hertie
School of Governance. He
holds a B.A. in History and
Philosophy from the University of Rome and a B.A. in
Economics from the University
of Bologna. He has worked
as a journalist and has been
member of Progré, an organisation active in the field of
immigration policy and prison
overcrowding.
economic governance and respond to the new challenges with stronger, efficient economies. Defensive
policies such as Non-Tariff barriers may seem useful
in the short term, but in the long term they would
result in weaker and dysfunctional economies unable
to successfully compete in the globalised world.
References
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND
DEVELOPMENT. (2005). “Looking Beyond Tariff; The Role
of Non-Tariff Barriers in World Trade.” OECD Trade Policy
Studies.
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION. (2014). G/TBT/ 31, 32, 33 and
34. G/SPS/GEN/204
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION. (2014). WT/DS438/R/Add.1
ADMINISTRACION FEDERAL DE INGRESOS PUBLICOS DE
ARGENTINA (2012). Resolución No. 3252/2012.
WEBBERS, J. (2012). “Trade partners rebuke Argentina over
restrictions.” The Financial Times, 2012/03.
MOUNT, I. (2012). “Argentina trade: nothing to celebrate.”
The Financial Times 2012/02
THE ECONOMIST. (2014). “New data, old qualms” [Online].
EL COMERCIO (2014). “Ecuador analiza resolución de la CAN
sobre restricción de importaciones” [Online].
EL TELEGRAFO. (2014). “CAN califica como restricción al
comercio la Resolución 116 del Ecuador” [Online]
30
Schlossplatz3
The Great Firewall of China
by Sven Herpig
One quarter of a century after the concrete wall in Berlin was torn
down, new walls arise daily. These new 21st century walls are virtual
in nature, yet their effect is quite real. So-called ‘firewalls’ or filters can
protect information technology systems as well as censor the flow of
information, thereby denying everyone on the other side the unfiltered
access to one of the greatest inventions: the Internet.
About (Fire-)Walls
Walls are meant to protect—against storms, tides,
wild animals or human aggressors. There have always
been walls at the centre of political debates. The
Hadrian’s Wall, the Mauer, which divided East and
West Germany or the Great Wall of China—which is
probably the most well-known wall still in existence.
It was built to guard the Chinese kingdoms and later
on combined to serve as protection for the Chinese
Empire Following this historical precedent, the
People’s Republic of China transferred the idea of a
wall protecting its geographical borders to the digital
domain. The virtuality of such walls does not make
them less of a political issue.
The Golden Shield Project
Nowadays, walls can even consist of 1’s and 0’s, code
fragments in a digital world, referred to as firewalls.
However, firewalls even existed before they became
part of our 21st century defences against dark corners
of the Internet. They are devices commonly found in
cars or planes with the purpose of stopping fires from
spreading, thus increasing safety. Similar, computer
firewalls serve as protection from malicious activities
spreading towards personal devices and business net-
works. These firewalls can be installed on individual
devices, on the edges of corporate or government
networks1 and, with reference to the Great Firewall,
even as divider between one nation-state’s networks
and the rest of the worldwide Internet.
foreign IP address to an internal server in China
(transparently)” (Singh, 2012). To put it simply, information leaves and reaches China only through certain
Internet gateways, which are equipped with tools to
block and track information flow. It is comparable
to a destination which can only be reached through
a certain number of highways. All of these highways
have border control in place, checking every single
vehicle traveling on it in either direction. It can also
block all the traffic, look into (most of ) the cars and
paint the top of a car with fluorescent colour to track it
later on. The border control follows instructions from
the government no matter what they are2.
The Great Firewall, also known as the Golden Shield
Project, was initially designed as a database project, interconnecting various networks such as law
enforcement agencies and close circuit television (Political-)Implications
(Lyons, 2009). It has since then been developed into Walls are meant to protect. However, they can and
the “world’s most sophisticated information barrier, always have been perverted for political purposes.
a semi-permeable membrane that lets in what the In that sense, the [ab]use of the Great Firewall is not
government wants and blocks what it doesn’t” (Gold- inherently unheard of. This firewall ‘protects’ the
smith and Wu, 2008: 92). The Great Firewall makes for Chinese netizens from unfiltered access to informaa potent technical platform which could potentially tion and free speech and facilitates prosecution of
protect Chinese business systems, personal devices those who seek it. There might be advantages for the
and government’s networks in addition to its destined Chinese government to use the Great Firewall as a
purpose. If it were used as such, it could do what walls tool for censorship and surveillance but it comes with
do best: protect its government’s interests.
a number of drawbacks as well. It’s in the best interest of the government’s decision-makers to carefully
In a way, the Great Firewall of today serves its purpose examine those detriments and change the project
to defend the government’s best interests. Instead of accordingly.
achieving this goal by protecting the people from
harm, it does so by surveying them and tampering There are three major disadvantages and potential
with their free access to information. The Great problems for the Chinese government with the curFirewall is “in effect a giant distributed firewall con- rent setup of the Great Firewall. First, the most crucial
nected to all of the edge routers in China. All border issue is the Chinese business interest. Globalisation
routers in China route through the Great Shield. is progressing fast-paced and leaves rarely a business
A major function of the Great Shield is to block access completely disconnected from worldwide interacto content by preventing IP addresses from being tion and connection. Thus, an unfiltered access to
routed through the Shield. This portion of the Great data and information on the Internet is crucial for
Shield consists of conventional firewalls, DNS Servers businesses around the world—even those located in
and Proxy Servers. The proxy servers map undesired China (Mozur and Tejada, 2013). If the government
appreciates its companies to be efficient, it has to
allow them unfiltered access to information, even
outside of the special economic zones. The same
goes for attracting foreign investments. If the government wants international companies to set up in
China, restrictions on Internet access are counterproductive. Economic interests can potentially exert
a lot of pressure on the government. Second, the
firewall creates social pressure. Though not as vital as
economic pressure, social pressure is still something
that the Chinese government has to take into account.
People who are tech savvy can penetrate the Great
Firewall without too much of a hassle, even though
it is a constant cat-and-mouse game in which getting
caught on the grounds of subversion is an unfavour-
In a way, the Great Firewall of today
serves its purpose to defend the
government's best interests. Instead
of achieving this goal by protecting
the people from harm, it does so by
surveying them and tampering with
their free access to information.
32
Schlossplatz3
Sven Herpig just handed in his
Ph.D. thesis entitled “Strategic
Implications of Cyber Security
and Warfare for the NationState” at the University of
Hull. He regularly participates
in conferences and has presented inter alia at the Royal
Military Academy of Sandhurst
and the EU forum on Trust in
Digital Life & Cyber Security.
He recently published a work
entitled “Anti-War Era: The
Need for Proactive Security”
in the Springer series on Communications in Computer and
Information Science (CSIS).
able outcome for every citizen. The not-so-tech savvy
citizens, on the other hand, might not be too happy
about the restrictions either. Maybe they are not able
to communicate with friends or relatives outside
China or they would simply like to access content
on the Internet which is blocked. Third, there is also
the political dimension, especially within the international arena. Censorship and spying on citizens
make international negotiations more difficult for a
stakeholder—at least with countries officially valuing
freedom of speech. Thus, keeping censorship in place
might agitate international partners—especially in
connection with economic interests. Taking all these
points into account, the current setup is not going to
be a successful long-term strategy.
1. CHESWICK, W., BELLOVIN, S. (1994), Firewalls and Internet
Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
Conclusion
2. This metaphor is in no way accurate enough to translate
From social, economic and political points of view, the complexity of the Internet to the real world and therefore
changing the setup of the Great Firewall seems has to be regarded as a mere simplification of the actual
prudent. This does not however mean that the Great issue.
Firewall should be abandoned, the opposite is true. It 3. Olympic Games refers to a series cyber operations
should be maintained and upgraded to serve the orig- (including Stuxnet) launched against Iranian nuclear research
inal purpose of walls: to protect. With the revelation capabilities in order to cripple them and stop Iran from
of the Olympic Games3 cyber sabotage campaign and becoming a nuclear power.
subsequent countless espionage campaigns, (fire-)
walls in the virtual domain might now be needed more References
than ever. Having this unique infrastructure in place CHESWICK, W., BELLOVIN, S. (1994): “Firewalls and Internet
puts the PRC at a competitive advantage when it comes Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker.” Boston: Addison-Wesley.
to cyber security. While hardening the firewall to GOLDSMITH, J., WU, T. (2008): “Who Controls the Internet?
resist attacks from the outside, it should make it easier Illusions of a Borderless World.” Oxford: Oxford University
for Chinese netizens to travel back and forth through Press.
it without restrictions. If the Great Firewall of China LYONS, D. (2009): “China’s Golden Shield Project: Myths,
is adapted to serve as real protection, it might truly be Realities and Context.” 7th Annual Chinese Internet Research
following in the historical footsteps of its predecessor. Conference. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
MONZUR, P., TEJADA, C. (2013): “China’s ‘Wall’ Hits Business.”
This firewall ‘protects’ the Chinese
netizens from unfiltered access to
information and free speech and
facilitates prosecution of those who
seek it.
34
The Wall Street Journal, 2014/02.
SINGH, C. (2012): “Analyzing The Great Firewall of China or
The Golden Shield.” Sikh Archives, 2012/02.
Schlossplatz3
The Open Access Movement:
Unlocking the Gates of
Academic Knowledge
by Riya de los Reyes
Over the past decade, the Open Access (OA) movement has come to dominate
debates concerning the dissemination, publication, and consumption of
academic knowledge and scientific research. It is premised upon open
standards of the Internet and open law licenses.
The movement’s main impetus is to ensure that academic and scientific research becomes widely and
freely available throughout the Internet. This entails
the elimination of (a) price barriers (for instance,
subscription fees or paywalls) and (b) permission
barriers (i.e. copyright and licensing restrictions),
allowing users to read, download, copy or distribute
academic literature that is available on the Internet
without restrictions—provided that authors are
acknowledged and appropriately cited for their work
(Suber, 2012). The aim is “unrestricted access and
unrestricted reuse” of publicly funded research, and
thus OA presents itself as a revolutionary alternative
to traditional gatekeepers of academic knowledge.
Strong proponents of OA argue that the current academic publishing model is unfair to both knowledge
consumers and producers, as publishers profit from
their near monopolistic hold over journals essential
to research. In January 2012, a so-called ‘Academic
Spring’ occurred when Cambridge mathematician
Timothy Gowers launched The Cost of Knowledge
boycott against Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher
of scientific journals (Gower, 2012). Gowers refused
to submit or review papers to any journals published
by Elsevier in protest against the publisher’s exorbitant prices for its articles, leading to vocal demands
for the promotion of open access to academic and
scientific knowledge. In the following month, Elsevier
retracted its initial support for the Research Works Act
in response to “some of the concerns expressed [and
to] create a less heated and more productive climate
for our ongoing discussions with research funders”
(Jha, 2012). Elsevier also supported Stop Online Piracy
Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which, like the
Research Works Act, implicitly limit the freedom to
exchange information through copyright and intellectual properly laws.
The Origins of Open Access (OA)
The genesis of the OA movement can be traced to the
Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which was
organised by the Open Society Institute on February
2002. BOAI framed academic research as “an unprecedented public good” and new technology—that is, the
Internet—would empower readers “to find and make
use of relevant literature, [and give] authors and their
works vast and measurable new visibility, readership,
and impact.” However, it must be noted that even
before that, in 2001, Britain had started BioMed Central while the U.S. had launched the Public Library of
Science (PLoS) (The Economist, 2014). The Bethesda
Statement on Open Publishing (BSOP) was drafted
in April 2003 following the BOIA and it underscored
two main points: first, OA is a property of the authors
rather than of journals or publishers, and second,
instead of copyright law, OA would depend on the
academic community’s standards in ensuring “proper
attribution and responsible use of the published work”
(BSOP, 2013). OA does not include scientific and scholarly works that are published in book format—i.e., the
OA model is limited to electronic and digital forms of
academic research (Machado, 2013).
In October 2003, the Max Planck Society and the European Cultural Heritage Online organised a meeting
that culminated in The Berlin Declaration on Open
Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and the Humanities. The Berlin Declaration is considered a milestone
for the OA movement, as it entailed tangible steps that
“promote the Internet as a medium for disseminating
global knowledge” (Berlin Declaration, 2003). The
300 signatories included Harvard University and the
National Institutes of Health in the United States,
while the Wellcome Trust from the United Kingdom
was the first organisation to offer financial support for the initiative. Leading academic publisher
36
Springer gave credence to the alternative publishing model when it acquired open access publisher,
BioMed Central. As further testament to its increasing currency, 30 per cent of peer-reviewed articles and
close to 10,000 academic journals are now under open
access (see Open Society Foundations).
Implications of the Open Access (OA) movement
1. The ‘democratisation’ of academic and
scientific knowledge
The OA movement carries an enticing promise of
“knowledge democratisation”, and thus has had profound policy implications on international development, particularly in bridging the ‘knowledge gap’
between developed and developing countries. The
Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO
noted that “the voice of the Global South is not suf-
The OA movement carries the
enticing promise of ‘knowledge
democratisation’. Thus it has
profound policy implications
for international development,
particularly for bridging the
knowledge gap between developed
and developing countries
Schlossplatz3
ficiently heard” in discussions about OA, and proposed that OA be “defined as a ‘global public good’:
an instrument […] for realizing the rights to share
in scientific advancement and its benefits, to education and to information (articles 27, 26 and 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights respectively).”
Developing countries face particular challenges that
marginalise them from the production of academic
knowledge. These challenges include lack of research
funding, the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon whereby their
scientists, academics, and medical practitioners move
to developed countries, and inability to afford exorbitant journal subscriptions charged by academic and
scientific publishers. Therefore, OA proves crucial to
narrowing the ‘knowledge gap’ by making research
available online, such as in Google Scholar, and in
digital repositories and open access publications for
researchers in developing countries.
scholars and policy-makers, and invest in studies
for new publication models and funding strategies.
In September 2014, a UNESCO conference in Paris
discussed the role of OA in the post-2015 development agenda, primarily in its relevance towards “new
approaches to poverty eradication and sustainable
development, where access to knowledge is essential.”
2. Impact on the academic publishing industry
Another crucial implication of the OA movement is
a re-evaluation of the academic publishing industry,
particularly on monopolistic behaviours of major
publishers. The advent of OA coincides with the rise
Information Geographies at the Oxford Internet of “the sharing economy”, as the digital revolution
Institute published a map on their website called claims to reduce “transaction costs, making sharing
“The Location of Academic Knowledge” and it shows assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore
evidence of the great disparity in the geographical possible on a much larger scale” (The Economist,
production of academic knowledge, which is highly 2013). This involves new transaction systems that
concentrated in Anglo-Saxon and Western European often threaten, if not eliminate, ‘middlemen’ such
countries. The map depicts the production of knowl- as corporate publishers. Publishers are perceived to
edge in Switzerland as more than thrice the size of provide “little added value” to research input, save for
knowledge production in Africa. The onus is there- the commodification of scholarly works which they
fore upon governments and international organisa- charge at high prices (see Open Society Foundations).
tions to provide open access to developing countries. Anglo-Dutch publisher Elsevier, which derives 66 per
The United Nations pledged its support for the OA cent of its revenue (by format) from articles in elecinitiative “for the benefit of global knowledge flow, tronic format and 52 per cent of its revenue (by type)
innovation and socio-economic development” (see on journal subscriptions, has since strengthened its
UNESCO). The Netherlands Commission to UNESCO Corporate Social Responsibility agenda (see Elsevier.
in 2011 appealed to the Dutch government and other com).
stakeholders and educational institutions to promote
OA for economic development in the Global South, The OA movement also brings to focus the role of
allocate funding to provide access to on-line scientific ‘knowledge workers’ in the production of scholarship
resources, contribute awareness about OA among within the traditional academic publishing industry
and research economy model. Most of the electronic
articles are based on publicly funded academic
research and rely on the work of academics are not
compensated for their peer-reviewing duties. The
scholarly publishing industry functions as a “gift
economy”, in which scientists and scholars contribute their works and perform peer-reviewing duties
free-of-charge for the sake of advancing scholarship.
This is based on the academic tradition that started
in 1665 when the first journals were launched in London and Paris (see Royal Society Publishing). The OA
movement therefore not only challenges corporate
publishers, but also criticises the Academy wherein a
competitive “publish or perish” and a peer-reviewing
culture without commensurate compensation—in
light of the current digital and economic environment—is viewed as not only unsustainable, but also
grossly unfair to ‘knowledge workers’ such as scientists and academics.
journals that reflect “poor journal standards.” Securing an established reputation might therefore be the
biggest obstacle to the sustainability of OA (Kelty,
Conclusion: No more barriers
2014). In addition, converting copious archives of aca—a truly ‘open’ future for knowledge?
The OA movement has successfully promoted demic articles proves costly and effort-intensive, and
increased freedoms and access to information, but major publishers can defend the prices they charge in
its overall practicality and feasibility continues to order to cover editorial fees, production costs, and the
be challenged. Established rankings have merited maintenance of digital infrastructures and distribuprestige for journals that have existing legal and com- tion channels.
mercial agreements with major corporate publishers.
OA will take a long time to achieve, let alone surpass, Nevertheless, the benefits of OA cannot be ignored.
such journals. Scholarly Open Access has already It is a revolutionary consequence of the Internet and
identified a list of potentially ‘predatory’ academic the Information Age. Compared to well-connected
Internet structures in the developed world, it would
take costly infrastructural initiatives to replicate that
same ease of access in developing countries. Contrary
to received knowledge, the Internet is not free even
in the developed world—its provision is possible
because developed countries have the resources that
are sorely lacking in poorer countries (Osnos, 2013).
The digital divide is also not simply a Global NorthSouth issue; in developing countries in Southeast
Asia, for instance, urban regions benefit far more
from the positive externalities of faster and better
Internet connection, while rural areas continue to be
marginalised from access to Internet and hence, the
opportunity to be better informed. This is true even
for developed countries such as Germany, which
has recently launched its “Digital Agenda” aimed at
increasing Internet connectivity throughout the country, especially in rural areas.
The OA movement not only
challenges corporate publishers,
but also critiques the academy
wherein this culture of “publish or
perish” and peer reviewing without
commensurate compensation is
viewed as unsustainable and grossly
unfair to knowledge workers.
Closing the ‘knowledge gap’ is also not just about
gaining access to knowledge from the developed
world. Bioline International is a platform that aims
to bring “the knowledge that we didn’t know about
into the public domain” because it is important not
to “ignore what the developing countries themselves
know.” Indigenous knowledge may not be as sophis-
38
Schlossplatz3
Riya de los Reyes graduated
with a B.A. (Hons.) in History
at the National University
of Singapore in 2011. She
has worked as marketing
representative in a university
press and as project manager
and curator-in-training at a
museum. She is interested in
exploring the intersections of
applied research, intellectual
property and the Internet, and
knowledge management
vis-à-vis the public policy
context.
ticated as medical and scientific knowledge from
the west but it is just as crucial in the development
of new drugs and agricultural innovations, and in
understanding environmental and genetic differences that can contribute to medical research. For
instance, recent studies show that tuberculosis in
the west is different from tuberculosis in India and
China. Although the current vaccine, BCG, provides
80 per cent protection in the west, “it offers virtually
no protection to adult sufferers in India” (see Open
Access Success Stories). It is therefore in the interests OSNOS, P. (2013): “The Enduring Myth of the Free Internet.”
of international organisations, national governments, The Atlantic, from the online edition, 2013/02.
and policy-makers dealing with higher education and OPEN ACCESS SUCCESS STORIES. (2011): “Bioline InternaICT sectors to ensure the realisation of the values tional: A trailblazing bioscience platform sharing bioscience
that the OA movement represents—not only for the research, globally.”
advancement of research and innovation, but for OASIS (2010): “Open Access and Developing Countries.”
greater and equitable access to knowledge.
SUBER, P. (2010): “Open Access Overview.” Research on Institutional Repositories: Articles and Presentations. Paper 45.
1. OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE. See: Information Geogra-
SWAN, A., & M. Hall (2010): “Why Open Access Can Change
phies. Visualization and analysis by Dr Mark Graham,
Science in the Developing World.” Public Service Review:
Scott A. Hale and Monica Stephens in collaboration with
International Development Online, issue 17.
Dr Corinne M. Flick and the Convoco Foundation. This map
THE ECONOMIST (2013): “The Rise of the Sharing Economy.”
is taken from the following publication: “Graham, M., Hale,
[Online].
S. A. and Stephens, M. (2011) Geographies of the World’s
THE ECONOMIST (2014): “The Sharing Economy: Remove the
Knowledge. London, Convoco Edition.”
Roadblocks.” [Online]
THE ECONOMIST (2014): “Scientific Publishing: Grand Open-
References
ings.” [Online]
GOWERS, T. (2014): THE COST OF KNOWLEDGE, 2014/10.
The Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO (2011): “A
JHA, A. (2014): “Academic spring: how an angry maths blog
Global Perspective on Open Access.” Amsterdam: January
sparked a scientific revolution.” The Guardian, from the
2011.
online edition, 2014/10.
KELTY, C. et.al. (2014): “Beyond Copyright and Technology:
What Open Access Can Tell Us about Precarity, Authority,
Innovation, and Automation in the University Today.” Cultural
Anthropology, 29(2): 203-215, 2013/05.
MACHADO, J. (2013): “’Open’ or ‘half-open’ Access? Rethinking Open Access Initiative (OAI) Policies.” Observatorio.
7(1) 119-132, 2014/05.
IMPRINT Schlossplatz3
Winter 2014 · Issue Seventeen
PUBLISHER:
Hertie School of Governance gGmbH
Helmut Anheier
Anna Sophie Herken ( V. i. S. d. P. )
Quartier 110 · Friedrichstraße 180
10117 Berlin
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Editor in Chief: Meilin Möllenkamp
Editorial Team: Anastasia Sikiaridi,
Carolin Reiner, Luis Felipe Torres,
Fabio Tamburrini, Janna Rheinbay,
Anna Favero, Rajat Rai Handa
Events: Amy Austin, Léa Duplan
Content Editors: Isabelle Miller,
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Theresa Heithaus, Franziska Maier,
San Rajgopal, Daniel Tobar
Art Direction & Graphic Design:
Plural Severin Wucher, Berlin
in association with
basics09, Berlin
Illustrations: bitteschön.tv, Berlin
Photos: supplied, Hertie School
of Governance
Print: Brandenburgische Universitäts-Druckerei und Verlags
gesellschaft Potsdam GmbH
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Disclaimer: The material contained
herein is property of Schlossplatz3,
Berlin 2014. Opinions stated within
are those of the respective authors
and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the editors of the magazine.
Address:
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10117 Berlin
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Hertie School of Governance—
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very first edition.

Berlin: A Morphology of Walls

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