Reading history through constructivist eyes

Desde el final de la Guerra Fría, se ha producido un resurgir del interés por la historia por parte de los estudiosos de Relaciones Internacionales. Los constructivistas han estado a la cabeza de este redescubrimiento, recurriendo a la investigación histórica para destacar el significado contingente y la evolución de una miríada de prácticas internacionales, procesos y estructuras sociales. Sin embargo, ¿en qué medida está este trabajo guiado por una filosofía de la historia distinta, sea explícita o implícita?, ¿leen los constructivistas la historia de una manera particular? Y si así fuera, ¿cuáles son los contornos de su enfoque? Este artículo aborda estas cuestiones, argumentando que la historia constructivista es esencialmente “skinneriana” en naturaleza, excluyéndola por una parte de la historia realista-materialista y, por otra, de la historia de las ideas. Para ilustrar este enfoque, terminaré con una breve lectura constructivista de la crisis constitucional que asoló al Imperio español tras la invasión napoleónica de 1808Since the end of the Cold War there has been a renaissance in the study of history by International Relations scholars. Constructivists have been at the forefront of this rediscovery, turning to historical inquiry to highlight the contingent meaning and evolution of a myriad of international practices, processes, and social structures. To what extent, however, is this work informed by a distinctive philosophy of history, explicit or implicit? Do constructivists read history in a particular way? If so, what are the contours of their approach? This article takes up these questions, arguing that constructivist history is essentially ‘Skinnerian’ in nature, marking it off from realist-materialist histories, on the one hand, and histories of ideas, on the other. To illustrate this approach I end with a brief constructivist reading of the constitutional crisis that beset the Spanish Empire in the aftermath of the Napoleonic invasion and usurpation in 180

Process of stop-motion and motion graphics animation for The Amazing European Bison Journey clip

The Amazing European Bison Journey prototype clip shows an extract of the timeline of this species coming back from their near disappearance. It starts in the Białowieża Forest in Poland in 1919, when they went extinct in the wild. And runs up to 2013 in Zuid-Kennemerland in the Nether-lands, where an initial herd of 6 European bison, translocated in 2007 from Poland, had quadrupled to 24 individuals living in the Dutch dunes. The process of production of this animated documentary is de-scribed starting with the ecological research required. Review of literature, contact with specialist scientists and visitation of Poland and the Netherlands are some of the starting points of the process. Subsequently, the preparation for the animation is described. The initial storyboard was constructed out of the preceding ecological research. Afterwards, the development of the script and its respective narration was recorded. The construction of the sets, props and characters is described; specific emphasis is given to the construction of the European bison. Finally, the assemblage of all the elements is explained and the final results of the animation prototype are revealed. This animation forms part of a broader project, which has research into the effectiveness of a set of visual communication formats at its core, and uses rewilding as its ecological platform. A range of animations, infographics and virtual reality pieces will be eventually compared for their effectiveness using several communication research tools

Process of stop-motion and motion graphics animation for The Amazing European Bison Journey clip

The Amazing European Bison Journey prototype clip shows an extract of the timeline of this species coming back from their near disappearance. It starts in the Białowieża Forest in Poland in 1919, when they went extinct in the wild. And runs up to 2013 in Zuid-Kennemerland in the Nether-lands, where an initial herd of 6 European bison, translocated in 2007 from Poland, had quadrupled to 24 individuals living in the Dutch dunes. The process of production of this animated documentary is de-scribed starting with the ecological research required. Review of literature, contact with specialist scientists and visitation of Poland and the Netherlands are some of the starting points of the process. Subsequently, the preparation for the animation is described. The initial storyboard was constructed out of the preceding ecological research. Afterwards, the development of the script and its respective narration was recorded. The construction of the sets, props and characters is described; specific emphasis is given to the construction of the European bison. Finally, the assemblage of all the elements is explained and the final results of the animation prototype are revealed. This animation forms part of a broader project, which has research into the effectiveness of a set of visual communication formats at its core, and uses rewilding as its ecological platform. A range of animations, infographics and virtual reality pieces will be eventually compared for their effectiveness using several communication research tools

Process of stop-motion and motion graphics animation for The Amazing European Bison Journey clip

The Amazing European Bison Journey prototype clip shows an extract of the timeline of this species coming back from their near disappearance. It starts in the Białowieża Forest in Poland in 1919, when they went extinct in the wild. And runs up to 2013 in Zuid-Kennemerland in the Nether-lands, where an initial herd of 6 European bison, translocated in 2007 from Poland, had quadrupled to 24 individuals living in the Dutch dunes. The process of production of this animated documentary is de-scribed starting with the ecological research required. Review of literature, contact with specialist scientists and visitation of Poland and the Netherlands are some of the starting points of the process. Subsequently, the preparation for the animation is described. The initial storyboard was constructed out of the preceding ecological research. Afterwards, the development of the script and its respective narration was recorded. The construction of the sets, props and characters is described; specific emphasis is given to the construction of the European bison. Finally, the assemblage of all the elements is explained and the final results of the animation prototype are revealed. This animation forms part of a broader project, which has research into the effectiveness of a set of visual communication formats at its core, and uses rewilding as its ecological platform. A range of animations, infographics and virtual reality pieces will be eventually compared for their effectiveness using several communication research tools

Small herbivores and abiotic heterogeneity promote trait variation of a saltmarsh plant in local communities

Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) enables plants to respond to global changes. However, causes for ITV, especially from biotic components such as herbivory, are not well understood. We explored whether small vertebrate herbivores (hares and geese) impact ITV of a dominant clonal plant (Elytrigia atherica) in local communities. Moreover, we looked at the relative importance of their direct (e.g., selective grazing) and indirect effects (altering genotypic richness/diversity and abiotic environment) on ITV. We used exclosures at two successional stages in a Dutch saltmarsh, where grazing pressure at the early successional stage was ca. 1.5 times higher than that of the intermediate successional stage. We measured key functional traits of E. atherica including height, aboveground biomass, flowering (flower or not), specific leaf area, and leaf dry matter content in local communities (1 m × 1 m plots) inside and outside the exclosures. We determined genotypic richness and diversity of each plant using molecular markers. We further measured abiotic variations in topography and clay thickness (a proxy for soil total nitrogen). Structural equation models revealed that small herbivores significantly promoted ITV in height and flowering at the early successional stage, while they marginally promoted ITV in height at the intermediate successional stage. Moreover, the direct effects of herbivores played a major role in promoting ITV. Small herbivores decreased genotypic diversity at the intermediate successional stage, but genotypic richness and diversity did not impact ITV. Small herbivores did not alter topographic variation and variation in clay thickness, but these variations increased ITV in all traits at the early successional stage. Small herbivores may not only impact trait means in plants as studies have shown but also their ITV

Long-term management is needed for conserving plant diversity in a Wadden Sea salt marsh

Evaluation of long-term management regimes is important for guiding biodiversity conservation in salt marshes. However, such long-term experiments are sparse. Using a 46-year experiment in a salt marsh, we evaluated long-term effects of eight different management regimes (treatments; control, grazing, mowing, and their combinations) on the expansion of a late successional plant species (Elytrigia atherica), plant species richness and diversity, and community composition (species identities and dominance structure). Results show that E. atherica expanded strongly over time in the control treatment (without grazing or mowing) while plant species richness and diversity declined substantially. By contrast, E. atherica was greatly suppressed while plant species richness and diversity remained relatively unchanged in all other treatments except for the mowing, where species richness declined in the late season mowing treatment and plant diversity declined after 17 years in the both early and late season mowing treatment. Therefore, all management types except for the mowing were effective in conserving plant diversity. The trends for change in species identities reversed: change in species identities accumulated in the control treatment and exceeded that of other treatments 15 years after the start of the experiment. This suggests that results based on shorter-term (< 15 years) experiments may provide misleading conservation recommendations. Also, trends for change in dominance structure (taking abundance into account) were substantially different from those for species identities. Our results highlight the importance of long-term monitoring for guiding conservation management, and that monitoring should not only focus on the number of species but also community composition, to fully identify critical changes.Fil: Chen, Qingqing. University of Groningen; Países BajosFil: Bakker, Jan P.. University of Groningen; Países BajosFil: Alberti, Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Smit, Christian. University of Groningen; Países Bajo