Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose

The publication of Euan Sinclair and Ann Stewart, Conveyancing Practice in Scotland (6th edn, 2012) is a reminder of the enduring role of the WS Society's members in supporting best practice in property law for over 200 years. We look at how things began in the 18th century with the remarkable Robert Bell, WS (1760-1816). (Co-authored with Robert Pirrie.

Computational biology: plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change

A report on the joint 19th Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB)/10th Annual European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) meetings and the 7th International Society for Computational Biology Student Council Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 15-19 July 2011

The new information professional : plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

We are faced in our profession with a time of great change, great challenge but also great opportunity. Technology is reshaping radically the traditional processes by which knowledge is created, packaged, supplied and used. Technology means the globalisation of the information business which is why the issue of the "digital divide" is so important. Technology underpins the aspirations of our society for equality and inclusivity through access to knowledge and access to opportunities for learning. The new information professional understands this – understands that the information profession has a central role in the creation of our information society – a society based on knowledge and learning. But that new information professional, while embracing the opportunities of our future, needs also to understand and acknowledge the enduring heritage of our past

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: la economía política del desarrollo impulsado por las rentas en Mauritania

Tras cuatro decenios de desarrollo impulsado por las rentas que han acabado de forma sistemática con toda competencia en los principales sectores de la economía, Mauritania sigue siendo intrínsecamente proclive a intervenciones autoritarias cuando se ven amenazados intereses importantes. La economía sigue creciendo a un ritmo relativamente lento y sigue sin diversificarse. Aunque la elección de Uld Cheikh Abdallahi en 2007 sí que supuso una ruptura con el pasado, su breve mandato se caracterizó por las mismas tensiones sin resolver que han venido provocando sistemáticamente la intervención de “hombres fuertes” desde la independencia del país en 1960. La economía de Mauritania se basa en los recursos naturales: mineral de hierro, pesca, cobre, oro y, más recientemente, petróleo. Los decenios de desarrollo impulsado por las rentas en estos sectores han fomentado el surgimiento de un sistema basado en el clientelismo y el trato de favor. Unos cuantos grupos poderosos controlan de facto las grandes empresas de comercio y el sector bancario, un fenómeno que ha impedido el surgimiento de un sector privado competitivo. Aunque las elecciones de 2007 dieron lugar a la Asamblea Nacional más plural desde el punto de vista político de la historia de Mauritania, el bloque de parlamentarios vinculado a la “vieja guardia” siguió controlando la mayoría de los escaños. El país presenta una compleja mezcla cultural y étnica. El grado de representación política y de poder económico, las cuestiones lingüísticas y el acceso a la tierra en el valle del río Senegal son algunos de los principales aspectos de la “cuestión nacional” aún por resolver, que caracteriza la interacción entre los principales grupos etnoculturales de Mauritania. En el futuro, la estabilidad del país dependerá de la capacidad de la clase política para empezar a abordar abiertamente estas cuestiones y darles una respuesta efectiva

In search of a third place: a telecollaborative model for languaculture learning

This thesis presents a five-year, global classroom project, in which French and American students study the same texts (literature, film remakes, works of sociology and anthropology), while corresponding using ICTs. Their reflections provide the basis for the development of conceptual and perceptual toolkits, containing consciousness-raising activities on individual and culturally-biased semantic and perceptual differences and similarities. Students compare home culture images and the corresponding images from the other culture(s), in an attempt to arrive at a "third place" (Kramsch 1993), as an intercultural speaker (Byraml995; 1997). Feedback and transcripts from participants are used to assess the effectiveness of this pedagogy of languaculture in broadening discourse options and educational opportunities, and of the role of telecollaboration in student motivation and engagement. The analytical framework draws on insights of Bakhtin, Vygotsky and Flarre and Gillet, focussing on the learner as agent, and language as fundamentally dialogic in nature. Telecollaboration provides access to multiple discursive perspectives and negotiation of meaning, whereby students, especially the more motivated, ask real questions and receive real answers. The global classroom leads to a change in the locus of control, increasing motivation and encouraging students to appropriate their own learning. Significant individual, group and cross-cultural differences emerge in the interpretation and degree of appropriation of the materials and opportunities for intercultural communication. This thesis provides research-informed, pedagogical guidelines for developing similar intercultural telecollaborative courses and makes a creative contribution, both to the dialogic teaching of language as culture and to the integration of new technologies into the curriculum