Managing sustainability: the role of multinational corporations in the global south

Multinational corporations and international business practices as well as international investment are considered important elements for the diffusion of new modes of production, namely through a flow of cleaner production and new management practices such as corporate social responsibility (CSR). This view is lacking consistency and is not buttressed on strong empirical evidence. The positive driver of environmental sustainability is probably not international business and trade but strong and good institutions. The focus here is on four limitations: the context of the private firms and corporations, the workings of complex organizations, the technology and the right institutions that buttress the global, national and local contexts, taking as concrete examples some specific cases from the Global South, as Mozambique. The article concludes that these aspects have to be considered and contrasted to the technological and management solutions for sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trends and challenges of mathematic education in Mozambique (1975-2016)

Mathematics has always been a difficult issue, especially in the African countries. Mozambique is not an exception. This country had been colonized by Portugal until 1975. When the independence was obtained, a socialist regime was adopted (1977). The learning of mathematics entered the struggle against colonial and imperialistic ideas. Its best ally was Paulus Gerdes, one of the most relevant ethnomatematicians of the world, who carried out an intense promotion of this approach to mathematics in Mozambican school system. Albeit the great international impact of Gerdes’ ideas, Mozambique never implemented his methodology. When, at the end of the 80s, the country changed from socialism to liberalism, voting a democratic Constitution in 1990, its school system was aligned to the measures of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The most recent ones are represented by the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the various reforms of Mozambican school system, the results of Mozambican children in mathematics are among the worst in Africa. The reasons of such a failure are here explained, through a historical approach based on national documents. The most recent experiences of school reform carried out by international agencies together with national institutions are stressed. The negative results obtained by the Mozambican learners as to mathematics are due to several reasons: 1) a lack of consideration of the Mozambican cultural substrate; 2) an improper massification of the school system, where the quality of instruction has been neglected; 3) the specific choice to marginalize mathematics education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Editorial to: "A challenge for the analysis of environmental stress. The measurement of chlorophyll a fluorescence (ChlF) from plants to ecosystems"

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A new war in Mozambique?

The political situation in Mozambique is agitated. At sunrise on April 4, a group of about 200 members of Renamo (National Resistance of Moçambique, the main opposition party) organized a meeting in Muxunguè (Chibabava, Province of Sofala). The FIR (Police of Rapid Intervention) then entered the meeting room in order to disperse the people. It seems that a woman died. As a reaction, in the night of the same day, a Renamo group attacked the Police Headquarters. Five people died and 11 were injured

On popularization of Scientific Education in Italy between 12th and 16th Century

Mathematics education is also a social phenomenon because it is influenced both by the needs of the labour market and by the basic knowledge of mathematics necessary for every person to be able to face some operations indispensable in the social and economic daily life. Therefore the way in which mathematics education is framed changes according to modifications of the social environment and know\u2013how. For example, until the end of the 20th century, in the Italian faculties of engineering the teaching of mathematical analysis was profound: there were two complex examinations in which the theory was as important as the ability in solving exercises. Now the situation is different. In some universities there is only a proof of mathematical analysis; in others there are two proves, but they are sixth\u2013month and not annual proves. The theoretical requirements have been drastically reduced and the exercises themselves are often far easier than those proposed in the recent past. With some modifications, the situation is similar for the teaching of other modern mathematical disciplines: many operations needing of calculations and mathematical reasoning are developed by the computers or other intelligent machines and hence an engineer needs less theoretical mathematics than in the past. The problem has historical roots. In this research an analysis of the phenomenon of \u201cscientific education\u201d (teaching geometry, arithmetic, mathematics only) with respect the methods used from the late Middle Ages by \u201cmaestri d\u2019abaco\u201d to the Renaissance humanists, and with respect to mathematics education nowadays is discussed. Particularly the ways through which mathematical knowledge was spread in Italy between late Middle ages and early Modern age is shown. At that time, the term \u201cscientific education\u201d corresponded to \u201cteaching of mathematics, physics\u201d; hence something different from what nowadays is called science education, NoS, etc. Moreover, the relationships between mathematics education and civilization in Italy between the 12th and the 16th century is also popularized within the Abacus schools and Niccol\uf2 Tartaglia. These are significant cases because the events connected to them are strictly interrelated. The knowledge of such significant relationships between society, mathematics education, advanced mathematics and scientific knowledge can be useful for the scholars who are nowadays engaged in mathematics education research

Analysis Of The Press Coverage Environmental Risk Of Mozambique: The Mozal Bypass case and newspaper “Notícias” and “O País”

This article aims at verifying the way in which the Mozambican press covered the environmental risk caused by the activity of the multinational Mozal (Mozambique Aluminium). This company worked without filters, for 137 days, between 2010 and 2011, emitting polluting gases directly into the air (“Bypass”). The investigation intends to understand how the two main Mozambican daily newspapers, “Notícias” and “O País”, approached this issue. The methodology used has been quantitative (i.e. the number of articles edited and the sources used) as well as qualitative (i.e. content analysis, with the help of conceptual semantic maps) in nature. The theoretical basis of the research was the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF). The investigation showed that the coverage, instead of clarifying the real environmental risks arising from the Bypass, was used for political leverage either in favour of or against the decisions of the Government.O artigo pretende verificar o tipo de cobertura feito pela imprensa moçambicana relativamente ao risco ambiental derivante da actividade da multinacional Mozal (Mozambique Alluminium). Esta empresa trabalhou sem filtros, durante 137 dias, entre 2010 e 2011, emitindo para o ar de forma directa os seus gases poluentes (“Bypass). A pesquisa visa perceber como os dois diários moçambicanos de maior difusão, “Notícias” e “O País”, abordaram tal questão. As técnicas usadas foram quantitativas (números de artigos publicados e das fontes usadas) e qualitativas (análise do conteúdo, com o auxílio de mapas semântico-conceituais), usando a teoria da Amplificação Social do Risco (SARF) A investigação mostrou que a cobertura foi orientada não tanto para esclarecer o efectivo risco ambiental derivante do Bypass junto às populações locais, quanto como alavanca polémica de tipo político, em favor ou contra as decisões tomadas pelo Governo

The management of linguistic and cultural minorities in a national state

This short reflection aims to present how Italy has managed the linguistic and cultural differences inside its national territories, considering three fundamental historical steps: the first period of unification; the Fascism; the period after the end of the Second World War, culminating in the approval of the first organic law that protects its historical linguistic minorities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa's history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa's history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio