Regimes in Babel are Confirmed: Report on Findings in Several Indonesian Ethnic Biblical Texts

The paper introduces the presence of three statistical regimes in the Zipfian analysis of texts in quantitative linguistics: the Mandelbrot, original Zipf, and Cancho- Solé-Montemurro regimes. The work is carried out over nine different languages of the same intention semantically: the bible from different languages in Indonesian ethnic and national language. As always, the same analysis is also brought in English version of the Bible for reference. The existence of the three regimes are confirmed while in advance the length of the texts are also becomes an important issue. We outline some further works regarding the quantitative analysis for parameterization used to analyze the three regimes and the task to have broad explanation, especially the microstructure of the language in human decision or linguistic effort – emerging the robustness of them

Emigration and Regime Stability: Explaining the Persistence of Cuban Socialism

The ‘Cuban safety-valve theory’ explains sustained survival of Cuban socialism in part through the high levels of emigration, following Hirschman’s model of ‘exit’ undermining ‘voice’. The article argues that this remains insufficient in two important ways. Taking a closer look at the crisis years since 1989, at least as important as the opening of exit options was the Cuban state’s capacity to rein in uncontrolled emigration and to reassure its ‘gatekeeper role’. In addition, the transnationalization of voice and exit must be taken into account as a crucial factor, as much in feeding the regime’s anti-imperialist discourse as, paradoxically, by generating sustained economic support from the emigrants.Emigration, Regime Stability, Transnational Networks, Cuba, USA

Emigration and Regime Stability: Explaining the Persistence of Cuban Socialism

The ‘Cuban safety-valve theory’ explains sustained survival of Cuban socialism in part through the high levels of emigration, following Hirschman’s model of ‘exit’ undermining ‘voice’. The article argues that this remains insufficient in two important ways. Taking a closer look at the crisis years since 1989, at least as important as the opening of exit options was the Cuban state’s capacity to rein in uncontrolled emigration and to reassure its ‘gatekeeper role’. In addition, the transnationalization of voice and exit must be taken into account as a crucial factor, as much in feeding the regime’s anti-imperialist discourse as, paradoxically, by generating sustained economic support from the emigrants.Emigration, Regime Stability, Transnational Networks, Cuba, USA

Oak Persistence in Mediterranean Landscapes: The Combined Role of Management, Topography, and Wildfires

Mediterranean ecosystems have been shaped by a history of human and ecological disturbances. Understanding the dynamics of these social-ecological systems requires an understanding of how human and ecological factors interact. In this study, we assess the combined role of management practices and biophysical variables, i.e., wildfire and topography, to explain patterns of tree persistence in a cork oak (Quercus suber L.) landscape of southern Portugal. We used face-to-face interviews with landowners to identify the management practices and the incentives that motivated them. We used aerial photographs and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to classify vegetation patch-type transitions over a period of 45 years (1958-2002) and logistic regression to explain such changes based on management and biophysical factors. The best model explaining vegetation transitions leading to cork oak persistence in the landscape included both biophysical and management variables. Tree persistence was more likely to occur on steeper slopes, in the absence of wildfires, and in the absence of understory management. We identified ecological, ideological, and economical barriers that preclude oak persistence and that are important to consider in implementing efficient environmental policies for adequate conservation and reforestation programs of Mediterranean cork oak landscape

In a Pickle: African Americans Struggles with Racism and Progress in Mount Olive, North Carolina, 1930-1955

This paper examines the experiences of African Americans living in Mount Olive, North Carolina during the 20th century. Life in Mount Olive afforded African Americans a multitude of opportunities such as economic, educational, and access to healthcare. Though African Americans\u27 situation in Mount Olive was better than Black people living in other locations throughout North Carolina, an exodus still occurred in the latter half of the 20th century. I argue African Americans stayed in Mount Olive because of the stability and economic opportunities provided to them by staying post-great migration, but that the persistence of racism and segregation made living there untenable, especially as these opportunities dissipated

Written with the Finger of God: Divine and Human Writing in Exodus

The presence of writing in the book of Exodus must be considered not only for its contribution to the narrative as story, but also as a witness to several key socio-political issues (such as the interplay of textuality and orality in ancient Israel), for the role of writing in the history of Israel\u27s religion, and for the struggle to define, through several centuries and editorial layers, the nature of YHWH\u27s true image\u27\u27 in the world

Identity Resilience Within the Coloured South African Community in Canada; Exploring the Impact of Settler Colonialism, Racialization and Diasporic Movement on Racial/Self Identification

This thesis is an interdisciplinary examination of the resilience of Coloured South African racial identity/self identification. I assert that the dark legacy of settler colonialism, and its concomitant racialization and diasporic movement resulted in the persistence of many identity/traits within immigrant Coloureds living in the Toronto area, long after their departure from South Africa. Coloured identity remains complex and often contradictory while continuing to impact the lives of these immigrants. Existing research and my personal knowledge supplements the life narratives of three Coloured South African interlocutors who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s, during the tightening of apartheid legislation and heightened violence against non-whites. Only scanty information exists on this sizeable exodus. This study additionally provides a broader understanding of the persistence of settler colonialism, the impact of racialization and diasporic movement, expands existing research on Coloured South Africans and the multifaceted and problematic position of being interracial, during apartheid

Development stakeholders and territorial identity in Portugal

The need to reaffirm the diversity of places and regions in order to make them economically and culturally “more competitive” on the globalised market of goods and services has been widely accepted in regional and local development policies in Portugal, but much more so rhetorically than in operational terms. This largely reflects the fact that policies, as well as their instruments, do not rely on empirical evidence of the changing character of territorial identity. In particular, there are virtually no records regarding representations of territorial identity features and issues by local/regional development stakeholders, both individual and institutional ones. The problem is that appropriate conceptualisations and analytical tools for comprehensive identification and assessing of various dimensions local/regional identity have been lacking. Since it has not been clear what the identity of places and regions means in factual and verifiable terms to different development stakeholders, it is has not been possible to determine what aspects of the identity need to be strengthened, preserved, diversified, or made “more competitive” in regional and local development policy design and implementation. This paper brings forward a methodological framework for the study of the changing character of local identities and the role of local development stakeholders in this change. The region-specific evidence obtained from a nation-wide field survey of Portuguese local development agents’ knowledge, attitudes and practice in relation to the territorial identity as a regional development issue is presented and discussed.

Castoriadis and social theory:from marginalization to canonization to re-radicalization

This chapter examines Cornelius Castoriadis's trajectory from obscurity and the margins of post-war French intellectual and political milieu to the misappropriation and canonization of his thought after the 1970s and argues for a re-radicalization of his thought. First, it considers his formative experience in Greece and examines how the post-war French political, economic and ideological conditions and the group and journal Socialisme ou Barbarie contributed to Castoriadis's radicalization. The chapter explores some reasons for the rising interest in the social and political thought of Cornelius Castoriadis, expressed in both academic and political circles after the 1970s and has led not only to his international recognition but also to a triple diversion of the political and radical meaning of his theorizing. After the 1970s, Castoriadis's radical and left critique of totalitarianism, Marx and Marxism was misconstrued and misused by the new philosophers'. The chapter concludes by arguing for a need to restore to Castoriadis's work its proper political and radical problematic