The kurdish dynamics in the Middle East: Some local, regional and trans-regional factors

Este texto introduce y resume las contribuciones del monográfico que tienen por objetivo reflexionar sobre las diferencias y similitudes de los contextos, proyectos y prácticas político-discursivas de algunos movimientos kurdos en Oriente Próximo, particularmente en Irán, Iraq, Turquía y Siria. Las contribuciones son diversas en objetivos y metodología, pero parten de un eje de análisis común que cohesiona al monográfico que es la paradójica relación existente entre los kurdos y el Estado Nación moderno, en un contexto marcado por el autoritarismo, el militarismo y la intervención extranjera en nuestra región de estudio. A partir del análisis de elementos locales, regionales y transregionales, este texto retoma la existencia de una kurdidad como una categoría analítica que justifica el estudio de nuevas dinámicas transfronterizas en Oriente Próximo y presenta el monográfico como una contribución importante al campo de los Estudios kurdos publicada en lengua españolaThis short paper introduces the special issue and summarizes the papers included here, promoting insights on the differences and similarities of the contexts, projects and political-discursive practices in some Kurdish movements in the Middle East, particulary in Iran, Irak, Turkey and Syria. The academic contributions are diverse in objectives and methodology, but share a common and cohesive framework to study the Kurdish question through the paradoxical relationship between the Kurds and the modern Nation State. Based on the analysis of the local, regional and transregional factors, in a context of authoritarianism, militarism and foreign intervention, this text recover kurdicity as an analytical category to justify the study of new cross-border dynamics in the Middle East, presenting the spetial Issue as an important contribution in Spanish language to the field of Kurdish Studie

The Kurdish question in Iran: Dynamics of a State sectarianism

Este artículo aborda la cuestión kurda en Irán a través del estudio de la relación de poder y resistencia entre algunos liderazgos kurdos y el gobierno central iraní, desde la monarquía Pahleví hasta el Irán posrevolucionario. El texto defiende que dicha relación puede estudiarse a la luz de una consistente política sectaria por parte del Estado iraní, independientemente del régimen secular o jurídico-religioso que ocupe el poder, esto debido al interés que existe por la expansión del discurso oficial de Estado en la esfera pública, por un lado, y la defensa de la integridad territorial por el otro. Este trabajo se realiza a través del estudio de hechos a nivel local, regional y extra regional los cuales, al combinarse, han impactado directamente en las decisiones, escisiones y emergencias de múltiples organizaciones kurdas, siendo el estudio de tres actores el objeto de este trabajo: el Partido Democrático del Kurdistán de Irán (PDK), el Partido de los Trabajadores Revolucionarios del Kurdistán Iraní (Komala) y el Partido por una Vida Libre del Kurdistán (PJAK). El texto se apoya en el estudio de las interacciones que estos actores kurdos han tenido con interlocutores estatales y no estatales, dentro y fuera de Irán, así como con otras organizaciones kurdas que trabajan en Siria, Iraq y Turquía por medio de dinámicas transfronterizas que no sólo han sido usadas para implementar sus operaciones político-militares de resistencia, sino también para explorar caminos formales e informales para mantener su supervivencia políticaThis paper addresses the Kurdish issue in Iran through power-resistance relations between some Kurdish leaders and the central Iranian government, from the Pahlavi monarchy to post-revolutionary Iran. The text defends that this relationship can be studied in the light of sectarianization politics by the Iranian State, both the secular and non-secular regimes, to defend official narratives in public sphere on one side, and territorial integrity, on the other. This work is carried out through the study of the local, regional and extra-regional facts which, when combined, have directly impacted on the decisions, emissions and emergencies of the three main Kurdish organizations in Iran: Democratic Party of the Kurdistan of Iran (PDK), Party of the Revolutionary Workers of the Iranian Kurdistan (Komala) and the Party for the Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Cross-border and transnational dynamics are found in this study when interactions between Iranian Kurds and state and no state actors are underlined. These facts help to understand not only Kurdish political-military resistance operations in these areas, but also formal and informal ways to maintain their political survivalEste artículo ha sido posible gracias al apoyo del PAPIIT IN305119 "Sectarismo y Justicia Social en el Medio Oriente del siglo XXI financiado por la DGAPA" y al apoyo del Grupo Coimbra por el apoyo concedido en el marco de la convocatoria de becas para profesores jóvenes latinoamericanos 201

Design as freedom

Creating a perfect world is most likely impossible; however, it can be generally agreed that the world we live in can be better. Designers can potentially make an important contribution to this quest, given that design is about imagining and achieving better futures. This thesis is primarily concerned with advancing the moral groundings of design and with assessing good design by prioritising what is right, regarding whether it contributes to making the world better. This book introduces Design as Freedom, an alternative driving principle for design, which is based on philosophical elaboration, and it also proposes the Aalto LAB meta-framework as a method of putting it into practice. This research has constantly looped from theory to practice, so that the alternative driving principle and the method have been fundamental in building each other. As a case of constructive design research, where knowledge is generated through design, four different things have been constructed, providing four different lenses to Design as Freedom: an alternative driving principle for design, a design process, a pedagogic programme, and the researcher’s personal journey (setting up and implementing Aalto LAB Mexico). In my view, design is constrained by the idea of progress as coined during the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, where betterment is expressed through a positive exponential curve. In the course of time, economic growth became the unquestioned primary goal of nations, organisations, and individuals; however, this goal has yet to be reasonably justified. Design as Freedom challenges the traditional assumption that design is an economically and technologically driven activity. In contrast, it embraces the diverse ways of life that different people might have reason to value. Design as Freedom is a reasoned alternative, a highly complex practice in which socially committed designers co-design with people who are acknowledged to be living in clear situations of injustice. Within Design as Freedom, co-design becomes a longitudinal process and a mutually enabling activity for designers and for participant end-users. Additionally, with the aim of keeping environmental sustainability at the forefront, I propose making use of assemblage thinking as a framework that explicitly expresses the intricate relationship between humans and non-humans, and simultaneously enables the imagining of new human–non-human relationships. Therefore, this is a Kantian conception of freedom, which is tightly related to the concepts of reason and morality. In this case, Sustainability sets the moral limits that constrain human freedoms. The assemblage also enables the understanding of freedom as a triad (following Gerald MacCallum, 1967), where an agent has an intention and there are no constraints preventing its achievement. In other words, freedom is envisioning a new assemblage, it means being able to identify which new relationships must be created as a means to overcome the barriers that made them unfree. I argue that this type of design practice can be equated with exercising freedom. Mainly due to the conjunction of circumstances, Design as Freedom was put into practice through a project called Aalto LAB Mexico (ALM). ALM is based on a project that took place in 2010, called Aalto LAB Shanghai. ALM takes place in a Mayan community called 20 de Noviembre (El 20), located in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico, a highly marginalised area, which is also highly biologically diverse. An interdisciplinary team of students (labbers) from Aalto University, Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Ciudad de México, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México are mentored by an equally interdisciplinary team of experts who belong to either the public, private, or third sector, or to academia; and all their processes are facilitated by expert designers. The labbers have collaborated with people from El 20, and have generated several Sustainable Product Service System (S.PSS) types of projects, which have reached different phases within the design process (diagnosis, conceptualisation, implementation, evaluation). Each of the projects has the potential to expand people’s freedoms and thus reduce injustice. ALM added a pedagogic dimension to the exploration of Design as Freedom; however, rather than seeing this as a constraint, it is seen as an opportunity. Nearly three decades have passed since the term ‘Sustainability’ was coined, and whilst the world has not changed dramatically, it can be observed that a growing number of young design students, herein called the Children of Brundtland, demand more meaningful professions. When study programmes prepare students to exclusively satisfy the needs of industry and pursue the goal of economic growth, the Children of Brundtland, who do not share the idea that economic growth is the highest end, experience a clear case of injustice. The pedagogic dimension required an extensive focus on the designers’ freedoms, which for its part enabled the observation of what we have called the double-sided mirror perspective. The design team and the people of El 20 learned about a design process that could deliver freedom (the S.PSS). Moreover, they also experienced the design process as a mutually enabling experience. The people of El 20 gain awareness and experience in tackling their own problems. The design team gains the effective opportunity to exercise a type of professional practice that they have reason to value. My own journey constructing ALM is a case of Design as Freedom, which enabled me to experience life in accordance with my own rational plan. The Design as Freedom principle presented in the first part of the book was constructed in response to what was observed in practice throughout the longitudinal journeys of the design team, the people of El 20, and myself. In the second part of the book, throughout these experiences, the Design as Freedom principle is put into practice. If profit-making was left aside, design could possibly do much more; Design as Freedom is just one reasoned alternative. Conceiving an initial situation as an assemblage enables designers to keep environmental considerations at the forefront of the process, and it also inspires desirable and feasible visions of the future. Moreover, by conceiving communities as assemblages, it could be possible to envision a wide array of alternative ways of living, which is probably what is needed before achieving a sustainable world. Many cases developed by designers and design researchers worldwide prove that designers have the skills required to make the world better; which is also the source of a great moral responsibility. Thus, I maintain that designers should not discriminate against any type of potential end-user, and that design should incorporate the most urgent matters of the world into its research agenda, and contribute to global justice

Teacher evaluation in a tight spot: The vision of university administrators

El propósito de este artículo fue identificar las opiniones de los funcionarios universitarios de una institución pública mexicana, acerca de la evaluación docente. A partir de una investigación cualitativa se retomó la propuesta teórico-metodológica de las representaciones sociales, ya que ésta permite detectar esquemas subjetivos de percepción, de valoración y acción de los sujetos. La población participante fueron diez funcionarios: la Rectora de la Universidad y nueve funcionarios de la División de Diseño, a saber: el director de la División de Ciencias y Artes para el Diseño, los cuatro jefes de departamento que la integran y los cuatro coordinadores de las licenciaturas. Se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad con cada uno de los funcionarios. Se sistematizó y analizó la información empírica, para ello se utilizó el análisis de contenido, destinado a formular, a partir de ciertos de los datos, inferencias reproducibles y válidas, Los resultados indican que los funcionarios universitarias no tienen una conceptualización clara sobre la evaluación docente, más bien han logrado identificar los distintos usos que a ésta se le atribuyen entre los cuales señalan: que la evaluación docente es sinónimo de los cuestionarios estudiantiles, una rutina burocrática, parte de una remuneración económica, evaluación que es rechazada por los alumnos. Representaciones que en su gran mayoría los funcionarios están en desacuerdo, a pesar de que son autoridades responsables de dirigir las políticas de evaluación en esta universidadThe purpose of this paper was to identify the opinions of administrators of a Mexican public university about the evaluation of teaching. Based on a qualitative research design Social Representation theoretical-methodological approach was employed. Social representation approach was used in order to pinpoint subjective schemes of perception, value and action of subjects of the study. Participated in this study 10 university administrators as follows: one university president, one dean, four chairpersons, and four major coordinators of the Sciences and Art of Design Division. Empirical data was analyzed through content analysis in order to produced, based on data, valid consistent inferences. Results indicated that university administrators have not a clear conception of what teaching evaluation is. Rather they are inclined to define teaching evaluation associated to their multiple uses: teaching evaluation as student rating questionnaire; as bureaucratic routine, as salary bonus. Administrators stated that students reject teaching evaluation. University administration social representations also indicate that they disagree with teaching evaluation, in spite that they are in charge of implementing it at the institutio

Análisis documental del cómputo forense y su situación en México.

El Cómputo Forense está adquiriendo una gran importancia dentro del área de la información debido a que actualmente la mayoría de las personas almacenan la información en medios digitales, como un disco duro, memorias USB , Ipad , iPod, memorias externas, memorias de cámara, celulares, etc., es decir, todo aquel dispositivo que pueda almacenar información. Esto ha dado auge al desarrollo de nuevos espacios como las telecomunicacione

Sol-gel, One Technology by Produced Nanohybrid with Anticorrosive Properties

AbstractThe evolution of nanotechnology has been allowed modify the material properties since of chemical architecture. In this work, we development nanohybrids sol-gel process, silica particles are incorporated a functionalized polymer resin (type epoxy and/or phenolic) with carboxylic groups. When the metallic plate is coating formed film ceramic glass. The incorporation this particles into to polymeric matrix, allowed to obtain performance corrosive properties. The structural characteristics of the different materials prepared, phenolic resin (RF), the resin functionalized (RFF) and its corresponding hybrids (RF-SiO2 and RFF- SiO2), were studied by infrared spectroscopy and morphological changes were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Then cooper plates were coated with these materials to evaluate their corrosion performance. The corrosion performance evaluation for each of these coatings RF, RFF, RE- SiO2 and RFF- SiO2 were determined by the following tests: a misty saline chamber operated under accelerated corrosive conditions for corrosion advance measurement, abrasion and adhesion

Los criterios que emplean los estudiantes universitarios para evaluar la in-eficacia docente de sus profesores

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue investigar de manera exploratoria los criterios que los estudiantes emplean para evaluar la eficacia e ineficacia docente a través de los cuestionarios de evaluación en una universidad pública mexicana. Participaron 163 estudiantes de siete carreras de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de una universidad pública de la región central de México que cursaban del séptimo al noveno semestre en siete licenciaturas. La población participante se seleccionó por medio de muestreo aleatorio por cuotas, con base en grupos intactos. Las respuestas que dieron los estudiantes se analizaron conforme al modelo de investigación docente propuesto por Dunkin y Biddle (1974). Los resultados indican que las variables o criterios para determinar la eficacia de sus profesores están relacionados con el proceso, presagio y escasamente con los resultados o productos del aprendizaje. Para determinar la ineficacia los estudiantes emplean principalmente criterios de presagio y proceso.The aim of this study —performed in a public university in México— was to carry out an exploratory investigation, through the use of question-naires, with regard to the criteria used by students to assess the effectiveness of teaching staff. The participants of the study were 163 students from seven Social Sciences and Humanities Degree courses at a public university in central Mexico; all the students were in their seventh, eighth, or ninth semester. Participants in the study were selected through random sampling procedures and based on intact groups. The students’ answers were analyzed under the teaching research model proposed by Dunkin and Biddle (1974) and the results of the study indicate that the variables, or criteria, used to determine the efficiency of their teachers are basically related to process and prognostication and rarely to the results or learning products. To determine the ineffectiveness of the teaching staff, students used mainly presage and process criteria

Design as freedom in practice

This book is produced in cooperation with the Research Centre for Industrial Design of the School of Architecture in the National Autonomous University of Mexico.This work explores freedom as an alternative driving principle for design. Based on philosophical discussions, freedom is seen as tightly linked to morality, leaving room for sustainability, which for its part, is understood as a moral ideal that implies justice in the environmental and social spheres. The model of assemblage is introduced as a unit of study, which enables the treatment of users and their environments to be the initial situation for a design intervention. By generating new relationships among elements, a better assemblage is achieved. The Design as Freedom principle is observed in practice through a project called Aalto LAB Mexico (ALM). ALM is developed in a marginalised, rural, indigenous community in the municipality of Calakmul, in the state of Campeche, Mexico. ALM identified the emergence of a double-sided mirror perspective, in which the design team and the participant end-users reciprocally inspire each other to reflect deeply, and assess and even change their own ways of life. Design as Freedom is a longitudinal co-design process that aims for the mutual empowerment of participant end-users and designers