Crossing the borders of governance

La gobernanza es presentada por áreas confusas e indefinidas que tienden a expandirse de una manera más o menos arbitraria en ausencia de estándares normativos estables y confiables. Todo esto pone en cuestión conceptos y categorías monolíticas recompositivas de moderna racionalidad política-legal y en primer lugar de la soberanía. Al mismo tiempo, la estructura neogubernamental actual no se sostiene como una tecnología de poder excluyente o alternativa a otras racionalidades, sino que tiende a llevar a cabo todas las contradicciones y ambigüedades del tiempo presente.Governance is presented by undefined and confused areas that tend to expand in a more or less arbitrary way in the absence of stable and reliable normative standards. All this calls into question concepts and recompositive monolithic categories of modern political-legal rationality and in the first place sovereignty. At the same time the current neo-governmental structure does not stand as a technology of power, exclusionary or alternative to other rationalities, but rather it tends to bring out all the contradictions and ambiguities of the present time

Confronting the Past. Trauma, History and Memory in Wajda’s film

Confronting the Past. Trauma, History and Memory in Wajda’s filmHistorical films are important carriers of collective memory, and as a genre historical films can activate both strong feelings and strong debate. Historical fiction films often tell very accurate and almost documentary stories, but fictional films have the freedom to make historical reality in quite another way than factual historical films. This article deals with some of the most important historical film genres and uses a general theory of genres, emotions, memory and history to analyse the historical films of Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, especially those made post 1989. Dealing with both his heritage drama Pan Tadeusz (1999) and critical historical drama Katyń (2007), the article analyses the ways in which Wajda uses historical narratives to comment on both history and contemporary society, and how this strategy is reflected in all his historical films. The article argues that the traumatic and contrast-filled history of Poland makes historical films especially important and interesting as a critical part of public debate and the reframing and reinterpretation of the past

Galileo's Revenge: ways of construing knowledge and translation strategies in the era of globalisation

Galileo’s fateful confrontation with the Holy Office in 1633 is often taken to mark the start of the Scientific Revolution, the moment when a whole new approach to knowledge began to take over the western world. Amongst the many repercussions of this great epistemological shift was the development of a new ‘transparent’ type of discourse, felt to reflect reality more directly than the elaborate verbal edifices of the Scholastics. Today, the ‘authoritative plain style’, as Lawrence Venuti calls it, is so prevalent in English academic and factual writing that knowledge configured otherwise is rarely allowed past the cultural gatekeepers. There are countries, however, where, for historical and cultural reasons, the Scientific Revolution never really took place. In Spain and Portugal, for example, the anthropocentric paradigm favoured by the Christian humanist tradition has persisted well into the 21st century, and as a result, many of the academic texts produced in these countries operate according to an entirely different philosophy of language. This paper discusses some of the linguistic and ideological problems of translating such scholarship into a form that is publishable in English

Governance: A Soft Revolution with hard Political and Legal Effects

El supuesto básico de este artículo es que la gobernanza señala un alejamiento de los dos pilares del proyecto moderno: la democracia representativa y las instituciones legislativas. La gobernanza, como fenómeno institucional complejo, que va mucho mas allá de la participación, ha desestructurado sensiblemente los dos principales puntos de referencia de la democracia moderna: pueblo y territorio. Su trato inclusivo y abierto no ha impedido el surgimiento de un lado oscuro, hecho de modos exclusivos: un teatro sin publicidad. Desde la perspectiva de las transformaciones este artículo pone en evidencia la emergencia de una normatividad cambiante y fluida, capaz de adaptarse a las especificidades y a la variabilidad de situaciones y procesos, ofuscando inevitablemente la misma primacía de la legislación.The basic assumption of this article is that governance marks a departure from the two pillars of the project of modernity: representative democracy and legislative institutions. Governance, as a complex institutional phenomenon that goes far beyond participation, has significantly deconstructed the two main points of reference of modern democracy, that is, people and territory. Furthermore, its inclusive and open nature has not prevented the emergence of a dark side, made of exclusive modes: a theater without publicity. From the perspective of transformations, this article highlights the emergence of a changing and fluid normativity, one capable of adapting to the specificity and the variability of situations and processes, inevitably eclipsing the primacy of the legislation itself

Hidden protocols: Modifying our expectations in an evolving world

When agents know a protocol, this leads them to have expectations about future observations. Agents can update their knowledge by matching their actual observations with the expected ones. They eliminate states where they do not match. In this paper, we study how agents perceive protocols that are not commonly known, and propose a semantics-driven logical framework to reason about knowledge in such scenarios. In particular, we introduce the notion of epistemic expectation models and a propositional dynamic logic-style epistemic logic for reasoning about knowledge via matching agentsÊ expectations to their observations. It is shown how epistemic expectation models can be obtained from epistemic protocols. Furthermore, a characterization is presented of the effective equivalence of epistemic protocols. We introduce a new logic that incorporates updates of protocols and that can model reasoning about knowledge and observations. Finally, the framework is extended to incorporate fact-changing actions, and a worked-out example is given. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

The Evolution from “I think it plus three” Towards “I think it is always plus three.” Transition from Arithmetic Generalization to Algebraic Generalization

This research was conducted within the project references EDU2016-75771-P and PID2020-113601 GB-I00, financed by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) and MCIN/ AEI/https:// doi. org/ 10. 13039/ 50110 00110 33. Furthermore, it was supported by a fellowship reference BES-2017–080124, awarded by the government of Spain.thinking in primary education. Our general research objective was to identify and describe generalization of a 2nd grade student (aged 7–8). Specifically, we focused on the transition from arithmetic to algebraic generalization. The notion of structure and its continuity in the generalization process are important for this transition. We are presenting a case study with a semi-structured interview where we proposed a task of contextualized generalization involving the function y = x + 3. Special attention was given to the structures evidenced and the type of generalization expressed by the student in the process. We noted that the student identified the correct structure for the task during the interview and that he evidenced a factual type of algebraic generalization. Due to the student’s identification of the appropriate structure and the application of it to other different particular cases, we have observed a transition from arithmetic thinking to algebraic thinking.Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Granada/CBUAEDU2016-75771-P and PID2020-113601 GB-I00, financed by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) and MCIN/ AEI/https:// doi.org/10.13039/501100011033Fellowship reference BES-2017–080124, awarded by the government of Spai

Mediterranean models of Welfare towards families and women

After tracing a Malta’s short historical excursus with its effects on female condition, family’s structure and concept, organizational model of non profit sector, the paper gives a survey of the most recent economic and demographic trends with special attention to families’ well-being and women’s working and social conditions, based not only on statistical data of Malta’s National Institute of Statistics and of Eurostat, but also on the results of some empirical studies based on some surveys carried out into the archipelago. The main islands’ social problems are outlined with the indication of the principal sources of aid to face peoples’ different needs (first of all family, followed by the State, while the Third Sector, with its strong component of foundations, heritage of English culture, is not pre-eminent yet). The paper also shows that the same citizens’ expectations of satisfaction of social needs are still mainly placed in the State, according to the collective image. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short history of Malta’s Welfare State specially considering legislation concerning families and women. In addition to the description of the legislative measures, a deeper investigation is also devoted to other programs realized at european and national level: Equal Program (2004-2006) and Malta’s latest “Action Plan”, alias the National Social Plan in its general lines of policy towards families and women. Besides the illustration of the services provided to families by the Ministry of Family and Social Solidarity in the context of the National Action Plan, three other articulations of the Plan are briefly examined: Gender Equity National Action Plan (2003-2004), National Action Plan on Poverty and Social Exclusion (2004-2006), National Action Plan for Employment (2004). The correlative institutional framework is also reviewed: the National Family Commission established in 2001 and the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for Men and Women considered by the “Equality for Men and Women Act” of 2003. Finally the paper classifies Malta’s Welfare State among the Mediterranean models of social assistance for its specific characteristics though, differently from the evolutive tendencies of these last ones, the passage from Welfare State to Welfare Mix is still problematic and slow in Malta. In spite of the increasing forms of collaboration between public and non profit organizations, Malta’s Third Sector has still a too weak role, in comparison with family and State, in supporting people’s life on both factual and symbolic dimension. In this missing transition, specially as regards elderly care, Malta can not see yet the growth, inside Welfare Mix, of the more informal components formed by immigrated women to detriment of the services offered by private or non profit organizations (“care drain” phenomenon), which is very strongly in course in other Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Greece).Family and Social Policy, Social Segregation, Poverty

Trapped in mirror-images: The rhetoric of maps in Israel/Palestine

The map of Israel/Palestine has long been used by both Israelis and Palestinians, from their unequal power positions, as a celebrated national symbol. It is virtually the same map, depicting a sliver-shaped land between River Jordan and the Mediterranean, two overlapping homelands in one territory. Thus, a single geo-body appears to contain two antagonistic and asymmetrical nations, locked in a bitter struggle. The article interprets the uncanny mirror-maps of Israel/Palestine by drawing on recent work in critical cartography. One approach has read maps as rhetorical claims for power and over territory; indeed, the mirror-maps of Israel/Palestine are often read as indications of maximalist territorial ambitions and hidden wishes to “wipe the other off the map”. However, this article suggests an alter- native, de-territorialised reading of political maps as “empty signifiers” of multiple meanings. Following analysis of maps as objects of performance, whose meaning depends on users and contexts, the article emphasises the ritualistic sacralisation of the Israel/Palestine map. Embedded within discourses of memory and history, maps are tools of narrating the nation, often in diasporic contexts, carrying with them vast emotional significance to both peoples. These issues were largely left unaddressed by the territorial paradigm which has dominated scholarship and political negotiations. Moving the discussion of geography beyond narrow territorial claims towards an appreciation of the richness and heterogeneity of space is crucial, yet faces formidable challenges both politically and conceptually

Ambivalence of the notion of “Mimesis”: between the opening towards the other and the repetition of the same

One of the main characteristics of the contemporary aesthetic debate is the recovery of the concept of mimesis, as a dimension that is originally involved in the foundation of human culture and the processes of cultural learning. This is evident in the aesthetic reflection developed by Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf. For these two authors, mimesis is never a mere reproduction of the given reality, but always implies the production of the New, of the Other, of the different with respect to the empirical world, i.e. to the existing categorical order of the world. In particular, Gebauer and Wulf underline the constitutive ambivalence of the notion of mimesis: on the one hand, it favors the processes of reification fueled by capitalist society and, on the other hand, it contributes to the affirmation of a critical and “utopian” instance that can counter “instrumental reason” and the primacy of identity