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Amate (amatl) is a handmade paper of Mexico made by Otomi Indians. This craft is made from bark of tree bark amate or jonote. It is originally developed in the states of Puebla, Hidalgo and Veracruz especially in San Pablito, Puebla. However, amate paper is sold as background Nahua paintings by artists from the state of Guerrero. Amate paper paintings are a combination of Nahua and Otomi traditions. While there have been some minor innovations, the amate paper is still done with the same basic process used in the pre-Hispanic period by obtaining a classical amate tree bark fiber. This is negatively affecting the ecosystem of the North of Puebla and forcing vendors bark in search of other species, so it is necessary to make paper amate more sustainably, including new types of bark from other species and by-products of agro-industries such as rice, coffee sugar cane, and other types of fiber that have high-availability The objective of this work was to analyze and compare the Chemical pulp of coffee characteristics, as raw material for amate paper of higher quality than that produced from the bark of other species. The results showed that the structural and chemical characteristics of coffee pulp cellulose pulp showed ease of paper making, due to its properties of adherence, formation and agglutination of fibers similar to the high quality of the final product as the amate tree bark-derived paper.

This article describes a multi-method approach for usability testing. The approach combines paper prototyping and think-aloud with two supplemental methods: advanced scribbling and a handicraft task. The method of advanced scribbling instructs the participants to use different colors for marking important, unnecessary and confusing elements in a paper prototype. In the handicraft task the participants have to tinker a paper prototype of their wish version. Both methods deliver additional information on the needs and expectations of the potential users and provide helpful indicators for clarifying complex or contradictory findings. The multi-method approach and its surplus benefit are illustrated by a pilot study on the redesign of the homepage of a library 2.0. The findings provide positive evidence for the applicability of the advanced scribbling and the handicraft task as well as for the surplus merit of the multi-method approach. The article closes with a discussion and outlook. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs150379

Chile es un caso emblemático en la apertura de la educación superior al libre mercado y en la reformulación de las lógicas que regulan la producción científica en las universidades. Esto se traduce en un sistema de gestión del personal académico orientado por bonos de productividad asociados a las publicaciones de alto impacto, distribución de fondos de investigación condicionados a la productividad de investigadores y jerarquización de las tareas académicas. En este artículo presentamos los resultados de un estudio que buscó explorar y comprender cómo académicas y académicos de ciencias sociales, altamente productivas y productivos, describen la escritura científica desde la práctica laboral cotidiana enmarcada en nuevas regulaciones de la producción científica. A partir del análisis de 20 entrevistas, proponemos que hay facetas fundamentales para definir la escritura científica: la afectividad, la fragilidad y la estrategia. Éstas dan cuenta de aspectos cotidianos, así como de tensiones y conflictos presentes en el proceso de escritura científica

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Es discuteix molt sobre la plurinacionalitat de l’Estat espanyol, però potser poc sobre el concepte mateix d’Espanya. La diferència entre ser un estat o una nació sense estat consisteix en el fet que les primeres no han de qüestionar-se models identitaris, ja que el reconeixement internacional els concedeix un color determinat en un mapa o una nacionalitat que evita que gran part de la població haja de plantejar-se al llarg de la seua vida qüestions com què és la seua nació, qui la compon o per què s’hi sent vinculat. La semàntica és important, i el concepte de nació pot ser interpretat de manera molt diversa en diferents territoris o col·lectius de l’Estat espanyol. La comprensió per part de totes les parts del que totes entenen per nació, país o estat pot ser una de les claus que pot obrir una oportunitat de comprensió mútua a partir de la qual es pot desenvolupar un debat seré i democràtic sobre conceptes com la plurinacionalitat o el dret a decidir. Al seu torn, en ple segle xxi, tots aquests conceptes estan en debat constant en diferents estats de la Unió Europea, per la qual cosa el debat sobre l’encaix de les nacions sense estat, o fins i tot l’encaix del dret a decidir en el marc europeu, també ha de ser tingut en compte.

This essay attempts to show that the ancient rhetorical theory has explanatory capabilities to understand and learn to write modern texts and to analyze them in order to understand their communication skills, as in the scientific article, one of the most prestigious forms on scientific communication. It starts with the notion of discourse in the field of scientific communication and then address the rhetorical dimension of the paper.

The following review is about degree works of students of Bachelor of Basic Education with emphasis in Humanities and Spanish Language, cohort one, made up of Superior Normalists in the Municipality of Jericó, who carried out the investigative practice between 2007 and 2008. Its realization , which started from the reading of each report to identify generalities and particularities, has two intentions. The first is to recognize the effort made by teachers in professionalization, to approach their realities from other perspectives, with a sense of questioning and confrontation that, although it generates ups and downs, brings satisfaction; also to invite those who continue the journey of their lives accompanied by this Institution to continue the path undertaken in their institutional realities and call for daring. The second purpose in making a critical reading of the materials achieved by this cohort of graduates is to offer its protagonists an external view that invites them to continue improving processes and work performance; to those who are in the process of training at the headquarters and different subregions , present insights that they can contribute to the approach of their experiences of investigative practice including the communication of what happened and what was achieved. From the structural point of view and with the aim of speeding up the reading the review, I have identified relevant aspects, by affinity or difference, and I have grouped them into different items that mobilize a research process and are present in the written body of the same.

This work presents a systematized count of those articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals in Mexico and abroad, which contents refer to issues of communication and culture concerning Baja California. The essay begins showing an overview on the development of communication studies in the region and then moves on to elaborate a descriptive analysis to organize and categorize the hemerographic references.

The applied connection between quantitative and qualitative methods of social research, dealt within this paper, is based on a pre-study model. The different levels of quality refer to the quality of structure, process and outcome in this research context. These have to be measured within the complex context of academic life. Only selected information from the entire report on the search for proper indicators of quality using empirical data is presented in this paper. Moreover it exemplifies the challenges of developing new indicators for process quality (here: quality of learning, teaching and consultation). The combination of group discussions and paper & pencil inquiries is a good methodical mixture to generate these specific indicators for quality in the complex and hierarchical setting of academia. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs040231

El desarrollo y la investigación de nuevos productos que puedan sustituir parcial o completamente materias primas empleadas para la producción de energía, productos químicos de alto valor añadido e incluso la fabricación de papel, ha permitido que el cáñamo industrial (Cannabis sativa L.) se vuelva atractivo como principal materia prima en la reactivación de una economía de base biológica con altas condiciones y capacidades de producción. A partir de lo anterior, el objetivo de este trabajo investigativo es profundizar sobre el potencial del uso de fibra de cáñamo en la industria del papel, soportado por estudios realizados por el Estado Colombiano en lo referente a las disponibilidad de cultivos forestales con fines comercialesque inicialmente se destinan para la siembra y producción de recursos madereros como el pino y eucalipto. Se ha considerado de importancia demostrar que el cáñamo, como fuente de producción primaria, brinda ventajas competitivas económicas, ambientales y sociales frente a los cultivos tradicionales, incluso para las nuevas fuentes de investigación de base biológica.

Resumo O presente artigo parte da análise das práticas e representações de publicadores que frequentam as feiras de arte impressa realizadas na cidade de São Paulo nos últimos anos para compreender os vetores sociotécnicos que organizam essas práticas e as materialidades dos objetos editoriais ali publicados e comercializados. Coloca-se, no centro da análise, a relação entre as tecnicidades (o códice, o papel e a impressão) mobilizadas por esses publicadores e certas concepções de passado, presente e futuro inscritas em seus investimentos individuais e coletivos, com destaque para a tensão entre o “retorno ao artesanal” e a pretensão de construir um futuro viável para a publicação. Conclui-se que as novas formas de fetichização do livro impresso estão condicionadas tanto pelas evoluções técnicas proporcionadas pelas tecnologias digitais como pela negação programática do livro convencional, identificado com o mercado editorial mainstream.

Este ensaio pretende ser uma defesa da importância acadêmica do ensaio. Na vida acadêmica atual, vigora sobretudo o pragmatismo da produtividade funcional e da eficiência, expresso, através de um inglês comercial, sobretudo pelo paper. Esse esvaziamento das palavras convida-nos a enfatizar a importância do ensaio. De Montaigne a Steiner, passando por Adorno, o ensaio, gênero da modernidade, torna-se, assim, sobretudo num tempo de crise das grandes narrativas, o modo de captar o eterno naquilo que vivemos e percebemos como destinado a perecer. Constitui-se como escritura do sujeito moderno, e manifestação de suas extraordinárias inquietudes e de suas solidões. O ensaio como artesanato da suspeita, ao invés de ser visto como vitória do amadorismo na vida acadêmica, é o caminho com que se revelarão os limites de toda pretensão universalista e do produtivismo acadêmico hoje imperante.

The article aims to present a comprehensive review about the influence of Montesquieu, Locke and Rousseau’s thought regarding representation, division of powers, and idea of republicanism on the Federalist Articles. The discussion of such concepts on Locke`s Two Treatises of Governments (1689), Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws (1748), and Rousseau’s The Social Contract and Discourses (1762) is compared to the ideas presented by the Federalists on their 85 Articles to assess how the latter conception of republic, representation and division of powers is influenced by the former. Furthermore, the article presents the debate between Anti-Federalists and Federalists to elucidate how the ideas of those three modern political theorists formed the base for both sides’ arguments.

This text assesses some of the impacts on the Portuguese labour market resulting from the introduction of flexicurity. Taking the European Commission Green Paper as a reference, the contents and objectives of flexicurity are discussed and some of the features of the “Danish model”, normally taken as the example to be followed, are tested. From an analysis of various examples revealing vulnerable situations within the labour market, it is concluded that there is more evidence of the unsuitability of flexicurity in the Portuguese context than of the potential of this deliberate political measure.

In this paper, we explore the use of a generative metaphor for analyzing qualitative interviews on abortion attitudes. U.S. abortion attitudes are notably complex and multidimensional, thus, requiring subtle, complex, and multidimensional tools of study. We used the generative metaphor of a "doorway" as an analytic tool to enable new understandings of abortion attitudes as expressed across 24 one-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews with U.S. adults. The doorway metaphor gave us an understanding of the ways in which participants thought of their abortion attitudes as open to revision or change to some degree while also being closed to revision in other ways. This spectrum of openness and closedness does not come into view when examining abortion attitudes through the dichotomous framings. In this methodological paper, we thoroughly describe how we used the metaphor to explicate the complexities and multi-dimensionalities of a person's abortion attitudes.

While European borders have increasingly hardened since the so-called 2015 refugee crisis, practices of migrant assistance and solidarity by civil society actors have become a feature of contemporary border politics. On the one hand, across the European Union, local and international initiatives have often responded to needs of newcomers, by playing a pivotal role in doing humanitarian work; on the other hand, both organisations and individuals engaged in migrant solidarity and assistance have become the target of policies and practices of criminalisation. My analysis takes the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as a case-study, drawing on data collected during a 2019-2020 fieldwork. The paper argues that in the Spanish enclaves’ local humanitarians belonging to a range of civil society actors face different forms of intimidation and indirect pressure, both by governmental and non-governmental actors. I show how the lack of acceptance of the work of local humanitarians among some sectors of the local population lies with feelings of ‘fear’ and rejection towards some specific groups of migrants, such as unaccompanied minors from Morocco and young male migrants from Sub-Saharan countries. In addition, I describe how, along this EU external border, cases of harsher forms of criminalisation have been recorded as well. The paper concludes that tensions and hurdles that local humanitarians face in these EU border localities partially reflect a broader European trend and are a ‘sub-product’ of larger process of criminalisation of migrants and refugees travelling through irregular routes. Humanitarian border – Migrant solidarity - Civil society organisations – Ceuta – Melilla – Criminalisation

The paper aims analyzing the use of OpenAI Chatbot as an academic writer. The Chatbot was asked to write about Economic Development, specifically about the High Pyrennes and Aran Region (HPAR) and its regional economic development institute – IDAPA. The method used was exploratory, but also analogous to the “reinforcement learning” (section 1). After the introduction, the Chatbot was asked to write a paper on the economy of HPAR (section 2). Due to the incompleteness of the task, the Chatbot was then asked to write only paragraphs about IDAPA (section 4). Given its answers have presented the “Russian dolls” effect, the Chatbot was asked to state IDAPA’s major challenges (section 6), and then the forms to surpass such challenges (section 7). Intercalary sections were used to analyze the Chatbot pieces of writing (e.g. sections 3, 5, and 8). The main conclusion is that, yes, the OpenAI Chatbot does deliver academic writing over regional economic development – as well as it can make a review of scientific literature.

This paper is a poetic self-study based on a community education project in which the author was involved and in which poetry was a process of social transformation. There is a poetic process of weaving between writings produced during the project, occurred years ago, and writings created for this self-study. Its main purpose is to reflect on this poetic process, questioning how it can continue to illuminate our understandings, develop dialogue and transcend contradictions and ambivalences. A few meaningful events are selected where poetry played a relevant part and where poetic writing, combinins sounds and silence to create a singular musicality, is assumed as a way of deepening and transforming understanding and practice. It is a poetic organisation of rhizomatic relations that facilitates the flow of reflexivity and evocation of the movements experienced during the project and identified as important. They are in accordance with the principles of the project, where dialogical and critical approaches are emphasised. In the final sections the author discuss her positionalities and conflicts as researcher, educator and poet assumed along the process, and conclude by reflecting on some of the main contributions of this paper to the poetic self-study field and poetic inquiry.

The article discusses recent developments that are impacting the understandings of citizenship in late modern societies. During the past decades, citizenship has been discussed in terms of its contributions to tackling effects of political, social and economic crises. Most prominent are those challenges deriving from processes of Europeanization and globalization, but also, digital technologies are said to impinge new requirements on individuals, thus calling for European, global or digital citizenship. Well beyond simply changing the traditional orientation towards a nation-state, new conceptualizations of citizenship gravitate heavily towards individual dispositions and subjective competencies, while legal-juridical features remain untouched and largely unrelated. This explains the strong emphasis on the role of education in cultivating – global, European, digital – citizenship among individuals. The contribution asks whether and if so, how changed understandings of citizenship may lead to ‘performative citizenship’, where individuals are burdened with the requirement of constantly enacting ‘good’ and ‘worthy’ citizenship. The paper is organized along three sections: First, we revisit the mainstream literature on citizenship and discuss the main elements in historical-systematic manner. Second, based on a thorough literature review we discuss recent developments that call for updated meanings and representations of citizenship, before, third, the paper deliberates on the performative nature on newer conceptions of citizenship by examining recent examples of so-called global universities. The article closes with a discussion of research avenues for the topic, including crucial questions as to the status, role and function of citizenship in times of crises.

This paper investigates how Chinese taxi drivers utilize low-tech equipment, such as handheld radios and mobile phone services, to form local ride-hailing networks. Previous studies have analyzed how Internet platforms like Didi Chuxing have reshaped labor relations through technology and policies, but they have ignored the fact that outside metropolitan areas, traditional technological solutions, such as on-call radio platforms, have not been replaced by the rapidly expanding ride-hailing platforms. Therefore, to outline China’s diverse ICT practice environment, this paper focuses on a case study in two Chinese towns (Laizhou, Shandong; Ziyang, Sichuan), shifting the attention from metropolitan areas to neglected fourth- and fifth-tier cities. After reviewing the previous advancements in mobile communication technology, we discuss the economic, cultural, and social motivations behind the use of ‘low-tech’ devices and cooperative services by the Chinese taxi drivers in question.

With the development and application of algorithms as catalysts, the changing modes of information production, dissemination, and consumption have also given rise to a myriad of serious ethical challenges. This study employs a multi-case approach and semistructured in-depth interviews to examine three prominent international information technology companies, namely, Meta, Sina, and Byte Dance. By investigating the utilization of algorithms in content creation and distribution and adopting an epistemic, ethical framework, this paper analyzes the phenomenon of information cocooning resulting from inconclusive algorithmic evidence, the presence of algorithmic black boxes stemming from inscrutable evidence, and the issue of algorithmic bias caused by misguided evidence. Consequently, this paper proposes three fundamental ethical principles for algorithmic systems: certainty, interpretability, and reliability.

Abstract What is the concept of liberalism? Despite being a conceptually contested term, political parties still label themselves liberal and seek legitimacy by joining Liberal International (LI). In this paper, I adopt a mixed-methods strategy to assess what this ideology means in Latin America. First, I rely on economic and political theory to propose four potential components of liberalism: private property, liberal democracy, non-conformism, and social justice. Then, I search for these components in the declaration of principles of all the region’s LI members. Next, I assess liberals’ relative support for these components by comparing the attitudes of their elites and voters to those of conservatives and socialists in Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This paper finds that liberal democracy is the only core component of liberalism in Latin America. Even though non-conformism and social justice are widely mentioned in political documents, their support among elites and voters is context-dependent. These results emphasize the contestability of liberalism while shedding light on what unites liberals in Latin America.

After several decades of economic integration and enlargement, divergence has been increasing in the European Union (EU), with weaker member states and regions falling behind their stronger counterparts. This paper argues that the structural causes of this increasing divide are explained in terms of the divergent trajectories of interdependent economies with different productive capabilities. In the process of European integration, the Southern peripheral countries were exposed to macroeconomic policies and shocks that, although apparently neutral, generated different effects and ever increasing regional disparities. Since the formation of the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union in 1992, events representing important milestones in the process of divergence include China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, the eastward orientation of German industry, and the 2008 financial and sovereign debt crises and the ensuing austerity. In the final part, the paper evaluates whether new divides are likely to emerge in the new global context triggered now by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Textbooks function as an important resource for teaching and learning of mathematics at the school level across the world. At least at the primary grades the contents of textbooks are situated in the larger society around the learners, in order that the learners can relate to what is taught to them. This opens the possibility for textbooks to uncritically reinforce the prevailing stereotypes or use the opportunity textbook provide to creatively break the stereotypes. Mathematics education research has engaged with the question of gender stereotypes in mathematics textbooks which has had an impact how gender figures in textbooks. However, gender is neither a binary nor monolithic. In the Indian context, gender is not the only social hierarchy that operates. The National Curriculum Framework 2005(hence forth referred to as NCF 2005) addresses the question of prevailing stereotypes about children from social margins and says care must be taken to ensure that the curriculum, textbooks and classroom interaction do not reinforce the stereotypes. Moreover, in the last two decades transgender people have been able to demand recognition and acceptance at least in the higher educational spaces as transgender people. Given these, it would be important to understand how textbooks reflect the changes and demands. This paper analyses the content of the mathematics textbooks developed by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) of one Indian state, namely Kerala, to understand how they represent gender, caste, class and religious differences and to investigate if the textbooks are inclusive of the disabled learners. Based on the content analysis of the textbooks the paper argues that even as the textbooks try to ensure representation of both girls and boys in the pictures and word problems and make an attempt to be inclusive of different religions and marginalised cultures ( for example by incorporating the picture of Theyyam, which uses an art form of the marginalised people in Kerala) in a textbook, they end up strengthening the existing gender, class, religious stereotypes. It also draws attention to the complete absence of disabled children in the textbooks.

This paper explores how the promises of equity and inclusion vanish into discourses about effectiveness, competitiveness, and meritocracy. Intentions of correcting onto-epistemic violence mutate into paradoxes of good intentions in the search for securing social order and economic prosperity. The hopes and fears about the future embody legacies of capitalist aspirations that position mathematics teachers as agents of change. Hence, mathematics teachers are granted full responsibility for correcting the wrongs generated by historical practices that shape modern society. The paper argues that Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis becomes an analytical tool to map the flows of desire for equitable and inclusive education within capitalist aspirations. The desire flows are explored through global (transnational) and local (Chile) rhizomatic assemblage. Oedipus is used to reflect on the effects of power and desiring-production that positions education as a priority to safeguard the glocal future.

This paper aims to discuss the production and reproduction of knowledge —such categories, notions, theories, and methodologies that are part of mathematics education research— drawn from an epistemic approach that pursues to disturb the supposed neutrality, objectivity, and order of our field. The paper's premise is shaped by the idea that searching for new ways of doing is plausible to make visible conditions of possibilities, in which new ways of thinking are traced to what we can and can't do in mathematics education. Premise framed in epistemological anarchism, here it argues that scientific progress could be restricted due to prescriptive scientific methods, as well as fixed and universal norms. The acknowledgment of diverse action flows and tools able to mould in order to respond to reality and context, it is understood as potency to think of new possibilities; along with this, to unpack and read the network rhizomatic entangled to look into teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the didactic triangle. In this fashion, diverse authors assert that the research is a political and power issue. The (re)production of knowledge is not neutral or innocent. The non-neutrality and innocent become possible since an aesthetic that circulates and normalizes what is considered as —valid and valuable— research, as well as the ways of doing and producing —valid and valuable— knowledge. This normalization generates events of violence, particularly against —epistemic or ontological— minorities.

As a mathematics education researcher from India, I try to capture glimpses of a messy terrain named education— or maybe field-notes from experiential tours, humbly inviting the MES community to engage and together become more reflexive towards our collective practices and baggage. This paper would, nonetheless, ask questions pertaining to mathematics education. However, it would not start with asking them, marking them as research questions. In this paper, I would rather try to trace the birthmarks of certain research questions; to show how this endeavour brings us to certain existential methodological issues in conducting and reporting mathematics education research.

In this paper we explore the concept of dialogicity, taking a workshop offered to in-service indigenous teachers as a reference. This concept has been explored for decades in the academic literature. In recent years, it has gained greater importance, as official curricula in several countries have emphasized the importance of developing education that is more centered on the needs of learners. Although the general guidelines of these curricula are defined, the exercise of dialogue in classrooms involves the challenge of balancing the formal requirements of the various fields of knowledge with the students' own interests. Thus, in most cases, researchers examine dialogues in the classroom, verifying the extent to which teachers allow students to express themselves on issues specific to school knowledge. In this sense, it is still not the students’ existential questions that prevail, since the most valued results of the dialogues are already defined in advance. Such results will be related to the domain of school contents. Would it be possible to approach formal education in other ways? Would it be possible to prioritize questions raised by students? These are present challenges for educators who propose to approach teaching from a socially centered perspective. The workshop described in this paper constitutes an example of dialogicity exercised from an existential questioning formulated by the participating teachers. Such questioning was related to the creation of a numbering system that would suit their mother tongue. In that context, it can be inferred that there has been progress in the sense of understanding school practice as a possibility of broadening perceptions of the world through serious consideration of the needs formulated by the learners.

In this paper, the authors take part in a duoethnographic dialogical and reflective conversation about their experiences in mathematics teaching and learning in two unincorporated United States (US) territories (Guåhan and the US Virgin Islands) and discuss how such differed from experiences since moving to the US mainland. The two authors are in a professional mentor-mentee relationship and currently work at a large research university in the central US. Informed by recent experiences since living in the US mainland, the authors used the edited book, “Rehumanizing Mathematics for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Students” by Goffney et al. (2018) to ground their reflections and discussion. The Rehumanizing Mathematics conceptual framework was used as a sociopolitical lens to guide their dialogic exchange. As duoethnography was used as the methodological approach to analyze the discussion and reflections, the authors were the focal sites of research. Findings from this duoethnography revealed three themes: (1) a recollection of race, culture, language in mathematics; (2) math classrooms as familial community; and (3) culturally responsive mathematics. The paper concludes with implications of these findings for researcher and practitioner communities.

Research on multilingualism and intercultural communication has been gaining large recognition. However, a number of subject areas are still largely underexplored. For example, verbal communication is prioritised while little emphasis is given to the multimodality of multilingual and multicultural interactions. Also, while some studies focus on the role of gestures in intercultural communication, elements such as gaze, physical contact, and time are far less researched. However, the lack of attention to some non-verbal elements can create misunderstandings, particularly when people share a spoken code only partially, as is the case with non-native speakers. Thus, non-verbal language should be given a wider scope in multilingual and intercultural research. This paper is a preliminary investigation of how intercultural differences in the use and interpretation of non-verbal codes of communication can affect interactions between migrants and social workers in Italy. The focus is on gaze, physical contact, and time perception and organization. The paper provides a qualitative analysis of focus groups and online questionnaires submitted to social workers working in northern Italy and supporting migrants in their daily integration in the society. The results show that the use and interpretation of gaze, physical contact and time vary considerably depending on the individual migrant as well as their culture of origin. Considerations are drawn on the extent to which cultural differences in the interpretation of non-verbal codes can create misunderstandings and undermine migrants’ integration. Keywords: Intercultural communication; non-verbal communication; migration; gaze; physical contact; time

In the 2010s, conservative leaderships dominated governments in many western democracies. In this wave, Jair Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil in 2018. This paper aims analyzing some of the government’s central strategies, especially the promotion of an intense neoextrativism as the main driver of economic growth, representing a new form of alliance between conservatism and neoliberalism. The disruption of environmental policies in Brazil is a main feature of this model. This paper makes a document and descriptive statistical analysis to show how this strategy is practiced, underlining its most important consequences. Our research has identified and described four strategies adopted by Bolsonaro’s Government that heighten this situation: the dismantling of spaces for social participation, militarization of environmental agencies, institutional breakdown, and cuts in budget resources. Finally, we alert about the severe consequences of this situation, which affects Brazilians and the global capacity to face environmental challenges.

The black swan event in education systems of the whole world has generated a surge in the demand for web based teaching and learning. Starting as inevitability, online education turned into an emergence of numerous educational platforms, tools and methods. The saying presuming that black swans did not exist-has become reinterpreted to rare events that are beyond the realm of normal. The general understanding that online education as a whole does not exist —has become reinterpreted to the most up-to-date and commonly used way of teaching. Getting used to an absolutely digital way of delivery is a long process, which requires supporting our learners throughout this journey of digitalization. This paper explores which lesson conducting patterns, such as various activities and games, can help overcome psychological barriers related to the lack of interpersonal communication and one-on-one support in online teaching. It also addresses how university students can benefit from the online delivery of ESL courses and examines the strategies that make the students more successful in a new normal. This paper raises questions how to best support English preparatory program university students in a way that they can take the most out of e-learning. This study was designed to analyze the psychological determinants of the learners’ behavior relevant to online learning. The number of psychological challenges that the students are facing in online medium of communication, and how these issues can be addressed. This study, based on the students being surveyed, focused on English Preparatory Program university students, who are currently combining faculty courses and English language course. The research study was conducted through the questionnaire and sent to the students via Google Forms. The students got open ended and Yes/No questions pertaining to the online environment, and structure of the course in terms of benefits, pitfalls and suggestions to take into consideration, when learning in a new reality. All the questions were answered anonymously.

Introducción/objetivo: Hoy en día la sociedad requiere de los sistemas agrícolas, no solo del aprovisionamiento de bienes, sino también de la prestación de servicios ambientales y sociales. Esta transformación es compleja ya que requiere implementar acciones en un sistema de muchas variables y bajo condiciones de riesgo e incertidumbre que no garantizan los beneficios de las acciones. Este artículo de perspectiva describe la aplicación del Análisis de Decisiones (AD) en tales escenarios de decisión de los sistemas agrícolas. Metodología: El trabajo presenta un protocolo general para la implementación de AD y desarrolla una perspectiva espacio-temporal para la aplicación de AD en los sistemas agrícolas usando conceptos extraídos de las áreas de la Teoría de Decisiones y planificación estratégica, e introduce un estudio de caso para mostrar cómo esta perspectiva puede ser introducida en los sistemas de innovación del sector agrícola. Resultados: Los problemas de los sistemas agrícolas pueden describirse como una tipología de modelos de decisión usando escalas de planificación estratégica. Esta perspectiva tiene el potencial de permitir la aplicación de AD en los esfuerzos de planificación del Sistema Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria (SNIA) de Colombia, especialmente en la implementación de los Sistemas Territoriales de Innovación (STI). Conclusión: Este artículo presenta una perspectiva extendida de AD orientada a proveer una base conceptual para su aplicación en la búsqueda de soluciones en el contexto de complejidad de los sistemas agrícolas, en la planificación de las actividades de ciencia, tecnología e innovación en el sector agrícola, y para apoyar el proceso transformación hacia la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agrícolas. Abstract Introduction/Objective: Nowadays society demands from agricultural systems not only the provision of goods for the market but also environmental and social services. This transformation is a challenge due to the unpredictability of executing actions in a complex system with no certainty that it will lead to the desired outcome. This perspective paper describes the application of Decision Analysis (DA) for such uncertain scenarios of decision-making in agricultural systems. Methodology: This paper describes a general protocol for the implementation of DA, proposes a temporal-spatial framework for the application of DA in agricultural systems using concepts of Decision Theory and strategic planning, and introduces a case study for describing how this framework can be applied to agricultural innovation systems. Results: Problems in agricultural systems can be outlined as decision analysis models of specific spatial-temporal scale (planning horizons). This framework has potential for the application of DA in the planning efforts of the Colombian National Agricultural Innovation System, but especially in the implementation of Regional Innovation Systems. Conclusions: We provided an extended DA framework aimed to constitute a sound basis for finding solutions in the complex setting of agricultural systems, for planning actions of science, technology and innovation and for supporting the decision making process of sustainability transformation of agricultural systems.

In this paper, we present and discuss mixed methods research in the context of research on learning and instruction. Education as a field of research can be viewed as highly complex. This complexity is reflected at various levels of the educational system, which are highly interrelated, and where multiple perspectives must be considered, as well as in the reciprocal and intertwined relationships between factors related to learning and instruction. Therefore, we first introduce one of the central theories on the quality of learning and instruction: the offer-and-use model. Second, we review the methodological foundations of research on learning and instruction. Two methodological approaches are discussed in more detail and their strengths and weaknesses are elaborated. Third, we present two studies from our research program and focus on their methodological implementation. Thus, we illustrate significant challenges and opportunities for implementing a mixed methods study in schools. Finally, we discuss the implications for school-based mixed methods research. We conclude the paper with general suggestions on how mixed methods approaches might be further advanced in applied school-based research.

This paper aims to trace the founding elements of the carceral institution in the United States by highlighting the effects of settler culture and slavery on its rise and development. The first section will show how the evolution of the prison system in the US has been highly informed by racializing rationalities and practices connected to the global history of colonial incarceration. The second section, in contrast, will be dedicated to a close reading of a selected collection of narrative fragments written by African American political prisoners between the 1960s and 1980s, focusing on the concept of neoslavery. The ultimate objective of this paper is to demonstrate that prison has been a site of critical production of knowledge and that incarcerated activists’ contributions played a pivotal role in critiquing the interrelation of colonial incarceration, racism, and political repression.

ABSTRACT Why would a country provide International Development Cooperation (IDC)? The aid literature identifies moral and humanitarian purposes, political-diplomatic objectives, and economic interests as the main reasons a country would have an IDC policy. This paper contributes to this debate through a case study of Brazil’s motivation to provide technical cooperation between 2003 and 2016, employing an innovative analytical framework for this case. Especially during Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s government, Brazil’s official discourse emphasized its national cooperation’s solidarity characteristics. One may link this non-indifference tone to the moral and humanitarian principles of providing IDC. Notwithstanding, the South-South Cooperation (SSC) mutual benefits narrative indicates political and economic interests in its execution. This paper analyzes the Brazilian Technical Cooperation (TC) allocation patterns between 2003 and 2016. It explores whether (and which) political and economic considerations were significant determinants of Brazilian cooperation. On the one hand, trade exports, subsided loans, and political support in international institutions help explain the Brazilian Technical Cooperation allocation pattern during this period. On the other, Brazil prioritized less-developed countries with better democratic institutions in its TC policy.

COVID-19 has exposed, reproduced, and created new inequalities in Latin America and the world. In this introductory paper, we discuss the impact of extant inequities on vulnerability to COVID-19 but we also identify new, and some unexpected, vulnerabilities. We emphasize vulnerabilities to the disease as well as vulnerabilities to policies and other responses in the fight against COVID-19. Building on insights from Peter Hall and Michele Lamont’s work on social resilience, we draw on the papers of this special issue to identify the important role of the state in addressing vulnerabilities and discuss the types of social resilience that vulnerable groups have turned to in their response to COVID-19.

This paper examines the Non-Habitual Residents (NHR) tax regime from a sociological perspective. This analysis is twofold: it explores the social conditions for its emergence and next conceptualizes the political rationality that determines it, and the type of individual subjectivity regulating it. Methodologically, the analysis is developed according to the principles of Foucauldian governmentality studies. The paper is structured in three sections: 1) characterization and analysis of the evolution of the beneficiaries applying for this tax regime; 2) analysis of the emergence of NHR regime within the scope of 2008 financial crisis; and 3) the definition of the political rationality that inspires the regime. We conclude that this is a program conceived according to a neoliberal political rationality, and also a procedure to reproduce such rationality through the promotion of an “economic citizen” model.

La generación fotovoltaica se presenta hoy en día como una alternativa ventajosa desde el punto de vista ambiental frente a las fuentes convencionales de energía y es una opción para el sector agropecuario poder disminuir los gastos debido a la facturación de electricidad. Un sistema fotovoltaico conectado a la red en La Empresa Agropecuaria Horquita permitirá reducir el consumo de electricidad desde la empresa eléctrica. En este artículo se describe una propuesta de sistema fotovoltaico conectado a red que consta de 1014 paneles de 270 Wp con 13 inversores. La capacidad total del sistema es de 273 kWp y es capaz de generar 346,4 MWh/año. Se simuló el desempeño del sistema utilizando el software profesional PVSyst 7.1 para comprobar los resultados del cálculo manual además de obtener información adicional sobre el desempeño del sistema en el tiempo. La propuesta es factible económicamente arrojando un VPN de 1,7 MMCUP con un periodo de recuperación de 8 años a partir de la disminución de la facturación de electricidad en 640 840 CUP/año. Sin embargo, se detectó que este tipo de proyecto no es muy atractivo para aprovechar fondos de oportunidad si se tiene en cuenta que la TIR es muy baja (4%) en comparación con la tasa de descuento empleada. El proyecto tiene como ventaja adicional que permite la reducción de emisiones de CO2 a la atmósfera estimándose emisiones evitadas de 242,5 t de CO2/año. Palabras clave: Sistema fotovoltaico, fuentes renovables, paneles solares, energía, software PVSyst. ABSTRAC Photovoltaic generation is presented today as an environmentally advantageous alternative to conventional energy sources and is an option for the agricultural sector to reduce the expenditure incurred due to electricity billing. A photovoltaic system connected to the grid at the Horquita Agricultural Enterprise allow reducing electricity consumption from the electrical company. This paper details a proposal for a connected to grid photovoltaic system that consists of 1014 panels with 270 Wp connected to 13 inverters. The total capacity of the system is 273 kWp and it is capable of generating 346,4 MWh/year. The performance of the proposed system was simulated using the professional software PVSyst 7.1 and the results of the manual calculation were verified in addition to obtaining other information about its performance. The proposal is feasible from an economic point of view, yielding a positive NPV of 1,7 MMCUP and a payback period of 8 years from the decrease in electricity billing by 640,840 CUP/year. However, it was detected that this type of project is not very attractive to take advantage of opportunity funds if it is taken into account that the IRR is very low (4%) compared to the discount rate used. The additional advantage of the project is that it allows the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, estimating avoided emissions of 242.5 t of CO2/year. Keywords: Phtovoltaic system, renewable sources, solar panels, energy, PVSyst software

In the present paper, I take findings from the postphenomenological variation of instrumental realism to develop an ‘environmental framework’ to provide a philosophical answer to the ‘problem of representation.’ The framework focuses on three elements of the representational environment, image-making technology, image as a representational device, and scientific hermeneutic strategies occurring within the image interpretation process in the laboratory set-up. The central idea in this regard is that scientific images do not produce meanings without their instrumental environment or that an image becomes representational through the interplay between three framework elements. In the second part of the paper, I apply the framework to contemporary debates on fMRI imaging. I show that fMRI images receive meaning not in isolation but within a complex instrumental environment.

This paper outlines the results of a research study aiming to analyse the prevailing standard of probability in relation to both evidence and context as means of proof in simulation proceedings in Colombian civil law. The fundamental contribution of this research study is to prioritise the logical-valuative judgements made by the judge when analysing the context circumstantial evidence in court ruling on simulated legal transactions. The question to be addressed, by means of a basic legal, analytical, systematic and hermeneutic methodology, is the following: Does context evidence constitute a limit to the standards of circumstantial evidence in decisions on simulation proceedings? The paper concludes that, although it does not constitute a valuation limit, it does allow the development of the prevailing probability standard with respect to simulation.