Review of Lyotard, J.–F. (2010) Discourse, Figure Minnesota, Minneapolis

We survey different models, techniques, and some recent results to tackle machine scheduling problems within a distributed setting. In traditional optimization, a central authority is asked to solve a (computationally hard) optimization problem. In contrast, in distributed settings there are several agents, possibly equipped with private information that is not publicly known, and these agents must interact to derive a solution to the problem. Usually the agents have their individual preferences, which induces them to behave strategically to manipulate the resulting solution. Nevertheless, one is often interested in the global performance of such systems. The analysis of such distributed settings requires techniques from classical optimization, game theory, and economic theory. The paper therefore briefly introduces the most important of the underlying concepts and gives a selection of typical research questions and recent results, focusing on applications to machine scheduling problems. This includes the study of the so-called price of anarchy for settings where the agents do not possess private information, as well as the design and analysis of (truthful) mechanisms in settings where the agents do possess private information

Indigenous fire management in the cerrado of Brazil: the case of the Kraho of Tocantٍins

Indigenous peoples have been using fire in the cerrado (savannas) of Brazil as a form of management for thousands of years, yet we have little information on why, when and how these fire practices take place. The aim of this paper was to explore the traditional use of fire as a management tool by the Krahô indigenous group living in the north-eastern region of Tocantíns state, Brazil. The results indicate that the Krahô burn for a variety of reasons throughout the dry season, thereby producing a mosaic of burned and unburned patches in the landscape. The paper discusses this burning regime in the context of contemporary issues regarding fire management, and in the face of changing perceptions to fire by the Krahô themselves

Beyond Fortress ‘EU’rope? Bordering and Cross-bordering along the European External Frontiers

This introductory chapter gives an overview of debates about the contents and limits of the European Neighbourhood Policy, and of how the book intends to contribute to them. It focuses, in particular, on how the European Neighbourhood Policy impacts the ongoing construction of the European Union’s external frontiers, and introduces the wide variety of ways through which such re-bordering is pursued. The Neighbourhood Policy is the result of an attempt by European institutions to define the proper balance between openness and closure towards its neighbourhood, regionalization and bordering, cross-border coopera-tion and the securitization of the EU external borders, the idea of a “fortress Europe” on the one hand and the imaginary of a “wider Europe” with “concentric circles” of integration on the other. These bordering and cross-bordering proc-esses, it is argued, are not contradictory but proceed side-by-side in an explicit at-tempt to construct a selective and fragmented border regime, and for the recon-figuration of ‘EU’rope as a post-Westphalian and normative global actor