Towards a constructional approach to discourse-level phenomena : the case of the Spanish interpersonal epistemic stance construction

This study contributes to a better understanding of how constructional models can be applied to discourse-level phenomena, and constitute a valuable complementation to previous grammaticalization accounts of pragmatic markers. The case study that is presented concerns the recent development of the interpersonal epistemic stance construction in Spanish. The central argument is that the expanding use of sabes as a pragmatic marker can best be fully understood by taking into account the composite network of related expressions which Spanish speakers have at their disposal when performing a particular speech act. The diachronic analysis is documented with spoken corpus examples collected in recent decades, and is mainly informed by frequency data measuring the productivity, as well as formal properties of the construction and its instances

Knowledge-intensive business services as an element of learning regions - the case of Baden-Wurttemberg

In the globalizing process, the production of knowledge and the management of information gain increasing strategic importance for the competitiveness of regions. Theoretical conceptions of the learning economy and the learning region emphasise that the capability to learn is crucial for the economic success of firms, regions and national economies. Given this background, the proposal will focus on the significance of knowledge?intensive business services for innovation and learning. So far, knowledge about innovative activities of service firms and their significance in the technological change is existent only to a low extent. For a long time, research concerning technological change as well as innovations focussed on the manufacturing industry and the development and transfer of technological knowledge. The dynamic growth of business?related services has now been documented in numerous studies not only in Germany, but also in other European countries. Their role in innovativeness and competitiveness in the current situation of structural change has, however, received little attention. A major reason is that it is very difficult to establish the quantitative contribution these services make to innovation at both the macro and micro levels. The present state of the statistics for services and innovation make it impossible to determine what the contribution is. From a qualitative point of view, however, this service segment is an important element in the innovation system. The contribution of knowledge?intensive business service firms to innovation is not just the result of their own innovative activities. It also results from the indirect and positive feedback effects which originate on the demand side as a result of the use of the services by client firms. The speech will focus on specific development trends of knowledge?intensive business services in the regional innovation system of Baden?Wuerttemberg, and the role of these services in the present regional restructuring process will be examined.

The blob and the block. When the rhetoric of the smooth and the striated went all wrong

This paper conforms to a view of architecture and the distribution of urban space as bio-political parameters of dominance and resistance. Using G. Deleuze & F. Guattari’s seminal essay on 1444. The Smooth and the Striated, I intend to show how Global Capitalism, by replicating the discourse of the smooth and the ungraspable, has voided Dialectics of its subversive potential.El presente artículo contempla la arquitectura y la distribución del espacio urbano como parámetros biopolíticos de dominación y resistencia. Valiéndose del ensayo 1444. Lo liso y lo estriado, de Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, se pretende demostrar cómo el capitalismo global, gracias a su capacidad para emular el discurso de lo fluido y lo intangible, habrá conseguido despojar a lo dialéctico de su potencial subversivo

Growth strategies and poverty reduction: the institutional complementarity hypothesis

This article starts from the limits of the policies that assume a significant de-connection between antipoverty strategies and the logic of the growth regime and that mainly rely upon market mechanisms. By contrast, a branch of the new institutional economics argues that a complete set of coordinating mechanisms is constitutive of really existing economies and that they are more complementary than substitute. The Institutional Complementarity Hypothesis (ICH) may be useful for analyzing simultaneously the antipoverty policies and the viability of growth regimes. The different brands of capitalism are the outcome of complementary institutions concerning competition, labor market institutions, welfare and innovation systems. Generally, such configurations cannot be emulated by poor developing countries, but reviewing the preliminary findings of the UNRISD country case studies suggests some common features to all successful experiments. Basically, antipoverty policies are efficient when they create the equivalent of virtuous circles within which growth entitles antipoverty programs and conversely these programs sustain the speed and stability of growth. Two methods are proposed in order to detect possible complementarities and design accordingly economic policies: the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) on one side, national growth diagnosis on the other side. A special attention is devoted to the timing of policies and the role of policy regimes. A brief conclusion wraps up the major findings and proposes a research agenda.development theory ; antipoverty policy ; Washington consensus ; new institutional economics ; institutional complementarity hypothesis ; qualitative comparative analysis ; growth diagnosis

The role of high-performance people management practices in Industry 4.0: The case of medium-sized Spanish firms

Purpose: This paper wants to build the case for the key role of high-performance people management practices in the development of I4.0 in SMEs. The research upon which this paper is based wants to prove that the consolidation of those practices should be a priority for any company willing to embark in this journey. The paper deals specifically with medium-sized Spanish firms which, on top, are already having significant issues with digitization. Design/methodology: The paper starts by digging into the literature to see how past technologies have impacted productivity, followed by a review of the material available on digitization and Industry 4.0. It moves on to explore the relationship between people management practices, productivity and innovation. Finally, the focus is placed on Spanish medium-sized companies, understanding their current levels of consolidation of high-performance people management practices as well as digitization. With all this information, several propositions are posited for validation using the Delphi methodology. Findings: I4.0 is, at its core, about productivity improvements through business process and business model innovation. People management practices are found to be strongly correlated with both productivity and innovation. It has also been found that Spanish medium-sized firms already have a significant initial gap compared to those of other OECD countries not only in productivity, but also people management practices and digitization. The experts seem to agree on the key role of people management practices and that they should be a high priority for any firm seriously thinking about industry 4.0. This is not to say that strategy or leadership will not play a paramount role in any digital transformation, but to emphasize the fact that the normally-forgotten people management practices will be important enablers in this process. Originality/value: It is believed that this is a topic that has been mostly neglected in the I4.0 literature. In that sense, the findings of this paper could be relevant for small and medium-sized businesses embarking on the industry 4.0 journey. This will entail a significant investment of time and money and, if the key role of people management practices is not on the radar screen, it may have significant implications for the success of those ventures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Towards cost-efficient prospection and 3D visualization of underwater structures using compact ROVs

The deployment of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) for underwater prospection and 3D visualization has grown significantly in civil applications for a few decades. The demand for a wide range of optical and physical parameters of underwater environments is explained by an increasing complexity of the monitoring requirements of these environments. The prospection of engineering constructions (e.g. quay walls or enclosure doors) and underwater heritage (e.g. wrecks or sunken structures) heavily relies on ROV systems. Furthermore, ROVs offer a very flexible platform to measure the chemical content of the water. The biggest bottleneck of currently available ROVs is the cost of the systems. This constrains the availability of ROVs to a limited number of companies and institutes. Fortunately, as with the recent introduction of cost-efficient Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the consumer market, a parallel development is expected for ROVs. The ability to participate in this new field of expertise by building Do It Yourself (DIY) kits and by adapting and adding on-demand features to the platform will increase the range of this new technology. In this paper, the construction of a DIY OpenROV kit and its implementation in bathymetric research projects are elaborated. The original platform contains a modified webcam for visual underwater prospection and a Micro ElectroMechanical System (MEMS) based depth sensor, allowing relative positioning. However, the performance of the standard camera is limited and an absolute positioning system is absent. It is expected that 3D visualizations with conventional photogrammetric qualities are limited with the current system. Therefore, modifications to improve the standard platform are foreseen, allowing the development of a cost-efficient underwater platform. Preliminary results and expectations on these challenges are reported in this paper

Expanding the Domain of Policy-Relevant Scholarship in the Social Sciences

In this paper the author argues that social scientists need to do more to provide policy-relevant research. Rapid technological and economic change raise new issues about how policy should adjust that are not adequately addressed by older and narrower approaches. The author suggests two ways in which the domain of policy-relevant scholarship can be expanded. First, social scientists should be more flexible about the kinds of data they use and the ways they use them. Preliminary data can suggest new hypotheses, which can widen debate, and ethnographic and other qualitative methods can uncover patterns of behaviour invisible in quantitative sources. Second, social theories, concepts and ideas should play a greater role in the policy arena, shaping the way policy actors think about how the world works.social science, policy debates, research approaches

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education

New firm performance and territorial driving forces

The article analyses recent approaches on entry and post-entry performance by new firms, with particular focus on its applicability to small manufacturing firms recently borned in Argentina. The analysis is based on a sample of small firms created in the period 1990-2000 in three intermediate cities in Buenos Aires province (Argentina) in manufacturing sector. The survey collected data about microeconomic and mesoeconomic elements influencing firm performance. Results indicate that tradability is a key factor influencing firm performance. New firms entering markets where the spatial markets are reduced face limited perspectives on expansion. In turn, tradability is also affected by entrepeneurial motivation and, especially in underveloped regions, macroeconomic variables.new firms, post-entry performance, transability