El impacto social desde los movimientos bottom-up: el caso de la Escuela de Personas Adultas La Verneda-Sant Martí

There is a remarkable number of papers on community participation and on the debate about its promotion from the institutional power (top-down) or from the citizens themselves (bottom-up). However, there is a gap in the scientific literature on the key elements that achieve social impact with community participation promoted from below (bottom-up). This article presents a case study of the Adult School La Verneda-Sant Martí, which has been in existence for 44 years. Based on the communicative methodology, 5 in-depth interviews have been conducted with people who have participated in the school project. The main finding is that dialogic leadership has been a key element for the social impact of this school.Existen abundantes investigaciones sobre la participación comunitaria y acerca del debate sobre su promoción desde el poder institucional (top-down) o desde la propia ciudadanía (bottom-up). Sin embargo, hay un vacío en la literatura científica sobre los elementos claves que logran impacto social de la participación comunitaria promovida desde abajo (bottom-up). Este artículo presenta un estudio de caso de la Escuela de Personas Adultas la Verneda-Sant Martí, que lleva 44 años de existencia. Basándose en la metodología comunicativa, se han realizado entrevistas en profundidad a personas que han participado en el proyecto de la escuela. El principal hallazgo es que el liderazgo dialógico ha sido un elemento clave para el impacto social de esta escuela

Qualitative study on dialogic literary gatherings as co-creation intervention and its impact on psychological and social wellbeing in women during the COVID-19 lockdown

Background: Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG) are evidence-based interventions implemented in very diverse educational and health settings. The main elements that make DLG a co-creation intervention and promote health during the COVID-19 crisis lockdown are presented. This study focuses on the case of a DLG that is being promoted by an adult school in the city of Barcelona. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a communicative approach. Seven in-depth interviews with participants in the online DLG have been conducted. Five of them are women without higher education ranging from 56 to 85 years old and two are educators of this school. Results: The main results are 2-fold. First, the factors that make DLG a co-creation intervention, such as egalitarian dialogue and dialogical creation of knowledge in the decision-making process, are found. Second, the results show how DLG is contributing to creating a supportive environment that breaks the social isolation of confinement and improving the participants' psychological and social well-being. Conclusions: The findings from this study contribute to generating knowledge about a co-creation process between adult education participants and educators in education and health promotion during the COVID-19 lockdown, which could be replicated in other contexts

'Tell someone,' to both women and men

Contrary to an understanding of the struggle against gender violence as placing men and women in opposition to one another, victims have always been supported by both women and men. To prevent violence is important to know not only which message should be transmitted but also how the dialogue should unfold, and the characteristics of the people engaging in that dialogue. Because of the existing association between attraction and violence in our society, the unity of the language of ethics and the language of desire in such dialogue has become a key element in the struggle against gender violence. This study identifies the strong presence of communicative acts that unify these languages in the women (feminism) and men (New Alternative Masculinities) who are successful in this struggle. The opposition to violence that they defend guide their own desires, which are transmitted through their communicative acts to the people around them

Building social justice from education: An experience of innovation in higher university studies

En el curso 2016/17, ha iniciado su andadura el Máster oficial de Educación para la Justicia Social en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, una formación que nace como proyecto pionero en nuestro país. Presentamos este Máster como experiencia innovadora y de cambio educativo, considerando que las vivencias de este postgrado suponen un nuevo camino en la formación de profesionales del ámbito educativo hacia el compromiso social. La presente publicación expone las nociones y principios del máster poniendo en relación las ideas de Justicia Social y de escuela. Proyectando una imagen de Justicia Social como redistribución, reconocimiento y representación, la escuela se esboza como un espacio de formación en y desde la Justicia Social. Un postgrado de estas características proporciona una formación de maestros y maestras como intelectuales críticos, dispuestos a luchar por una escuela de calidad, inclusiva y participativa, que se aleje de los cánones tradicionales. Esta comunicación pretende recopilar las reflexiones en torno a la Educación para la Justicia Social, con el fin último de intercambiar conocimientos con profesionales del campo educativo y social. Nuestra visión pretende transformar las escuelas en espacios justos, que trabajen en y desde la Justicia Social, libres de discriminación y opresión, y donde la reflexión y el diálogo tengan un papel protagonistaIn the 2016/17 academic year, the official Masters’ Degree in Education for Social Justice at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, was started as a pioneer project in Spain. We present this Master's Degree as an innovational experience in educational change, considering that the experiences of this postgraduate course represent a new path in the training of professionals in the educational field towards social commitment. This publication presents the ideas and principles of the masters’ programme, linking the ideas of Social Justice and the ideas of what the school means. Projecting an image of Social Justice such as redistribution, recognition and representation, school is outlined as a space of Social Justice. Studies of this nature provides teachers training as critical intellectuals, who are willing to fight for a quality, inclusive and participative school that move away from traditional canons. This communication seeks to gather the reflections in a way of understanding Education for Social Justice, with the ultimate aim being to share knowledge with professionals from the educational and social field. Our vision is to transform schools into fair spaces, working in and from Social Justice, free from discrimination and oppression, and where reflection and dialogue play a main rol

The pulsating nature of large-scale Saharan dust transport as a result of interplays between mid-latitude Rossby waves and the North African Dipole Intensity

It was previously shown that during August the export of Saharan dust to the Atlantic was strongly affected by the difference of the 700-hPa geopotential height anomaly between the subtropics and the tropics over North Africa, which was termed the North African Dipole Intensity (NAFDI). In this work a more comprehensive analysis of the NAFDI is performed, focusing on the entire summer dust season (JuneeSeptember), and examining the interactions between the mid-latitude Rossby waves (MLRWs) and NAFDI. Widespread and notable aerosol optical depth (AOD) monthly anomalies are found for each NAFDI-phase over the dust corridors off the Sahara, indicating that NAFDI presents intra-seasonal variability and drives dust transport over both the Mediterranean basin and the North Atlantic. Those summer months with the same NAFDI-phase show similar AOD-anomaly patterns. Variations in NAFDIphase also control the displacement of the Saharan Heat Low (SHL) westwards or eastwards through horizontal advection of temperature over Morocco-Western Sahara or eastern Algeria-Western Libya, respectively. The connection between the SHL and the NAFDI is quantified statistically by introducing two new daily indexes that account for their respective phases (NAFDI daily index -NAFDIDI-, and SHL longitudinal shift index -SHLLSI-) and explained physically using the energy equation of the atmospheric dynamics. The Pearson's correlation coefficient between the oneeday-lag SHLLSI and the NAFDIDI for an extended summer season (1980e2013) is 0.78. A positive NAFDI is associated with the West-phase of the SHL, dust sources intensification on central Algeria, and positive AOD anomalies over this region and the Subtropical North Atlantic. A negative NAFDI is associated with the East-phase of the SHL, and positive AOD anomalies over central-eastern Sahara and the central-western Mediterranean Sea. The results point out that the phase changes of NAFDI at intra-seasonal time scale are conducted by those MLRWs that penetrate deeply into the low troposphere.This work is part of the research activities developed by the WMO SDS-WAS Regional Centre for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe, held by AEMET and BSC-CNS. This study also contributes to Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Our acknowledgment to ECMWF for providing MACC-dust reanalysis. The authors wish to thank NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project. We acknowledge NASA LADS for providing MODIS data. The University of Granada (Spain) and its “Physics and Space Sciences” PhD Programme are acknowledged by A. J. Gómez-Peláez and E. Cuevas. AEROATLAN project (CGL2015-17 66229-P), co-funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund contributed to this study. Sara Basart acknowledges the CICYT project (CGL2013-46736

Pivotal role of the North African Dipole Intensity (NAFDI) on alternate Saharan dust export over the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and relationship with the Saharan Heat Low and mid-latitude Rossby waves [Discussion paper]

In this study, we revise the index that quantifies the North African Dipole Intensity (NAFDI), and explain its relationship with the Saharan Heat Low (SHL) and mid-latitude Rossby waves. We find outstanding similarities of meteorological patterns associated with the positive NAFDI and the SHL West-phase on the one hand, and with the negative NAFDI and the SHL East-Phase, on the other hand. We introduce the daily NAFDI index and the daily SHL West-East Displacement Index (SHLWEDI). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the daily SHLWEDI 1-day lagged and the daily NAFDI for the period 1980–2013 20 June–17 September is fairly high (r = 0.77). The correlation reduces to 0.69 if the SHLWEDI is not lagged. We observe that the SHL West-phase is significantly more frequent than the SHL East-phase, and that the SHL is more intense during its East-phase.Part of this study was performed in the frame of AEROATLAN (grant 2015-66229), funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain

An empirical relationship to estimate mineral dust concentration from visibility observations

Comunicación presentada en: 2012 European Aerosol Conference (EAC-2012), B-WG01S2P30, celebrada del 2 al 7 de septiembre de 2012 en Granada

Adsorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by natural, synthetic and modified clays

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are of major scientific concern owing to their widespread presence in environmental compartments and their potential toxicological effects on humans and biota. In this study, the adsorption capacity of natural (montmorillonite (Mt)), synthetic (Na-Mica-4), and modified (with octadecylamine and octadecyltrimethylamine (ODA-Mt, ODA-Mica-4, and ODTMA-Mt and ODTMA-Mica-4)) clays were assessed and compared for the removal of 16 PAHs. Materials were synthesized and characterized by X-Ray diffraction, Zeta potential, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed its correct preparation and the incorporation of PAHs in the structure of the clays after the adsorption tests. The proposed materials were effective PAH adsorbents, with adsorption percentages close to 100%, in particular those using Mt. Mt and Na-Mica-4 presented a better adsorption capacity than their organofunctionalized derivatives, indicating that the adsorption of PAHs may occur both in the surface part and in the interlayer. The proposed adsorbents take the advantage of being a low cost and highly effective. They can be an interesting alternative for wastewater treatment and soil remediation to prevent PAH contamination.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness CTM2017-82778-