Mobilizing Discomfort for Water Security as a Human Right: A Newspaper Analysis of Social Conflict in South Africa

There are 884 million people globally that do not have access to improved drinking water, while 2.5 billion do not have improved access to sanitation (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2010). Those living in informal settlements and slums—what I call the ‘solidaric disaffiliated’ zones—represent one such location where individuals around the world have found themselves in a situation of neglected crisis as their geographic, economic, and social expulsion pushes them beyond the reach of opportunity and access to basic human rights such as water and sanitation. As individuals feel their dignity deteriorating due to the extreme precarity they are forced to live in, they have resorted to collective action that causes discomfort in public spaces of appearance through protest action to gain recognition from other, often more economically and politically privileged (‘prosperous core’), members of society. This research focuses on social conflict in the form of protests, riots, strikes, and mass mobilizations in the Western Cape of South Africa. The failure of the government to ensure basic water rights prompts protests in which the solidaric disaffiliated impose discomfort on the prosperous core to force visibility of their struggle in an attempt to gain a broader solidarity base. After several years of low winter rainfall, however, the ‘Day Zero’ water crisis caused precarity and uncomfortable standards of living across all parts of society, regardless of socio-economic status. This then led to the prosperous core participating in collective protest action with the solidaric disaffiliated, reshaping the nature of protest events. In this study, I develop a qualitative analysis of 1,066 newspaper articles covering the Western Cape from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2019. My contributions are two-fold, both methodologically—through the creation of a unique query, coding structure, and dataset—and theoretically, by characterizing the role of discomfort in social conflict. I identify two types of protests characterized by different levels and types of solidarity in the Western Cape. Through my newspaper analysis, I argue that discomfort is a mechanism that is connected to social conflict events

QUANDO O PROVISÓRIO SE TORNA PERMANENTE: A OPERAÇÃO ACOLHIDA COMO POLÍTICA MIGRATÓRIA NO BRASIL

O Brasil é o quinto país receptor do fluxo de venezuelanos na região e o segundo com mais venezuelanos refugiados. À medida que essa situação ganhou ímpeto, os governos municipal e estadual se viram despreparados para responder às necessidades básicas decorrentes do aumento do fluxo de refugiados e imigrantes venezuelanos. Em 2018, na tentativa de administrar o fluxo venezuelano, o Estado brasileiro implementou a Operação Acolhida, uma força-tarefa militar-humanitária para controle, acolhimento e integração dos imigrantes que entravam pela fronteira norte no estado de Roraima. Com base na premissa de que a política pública não é uma ação governamental programada para responder a uma demanda pontual, mas, que contempla ações intencionais que fazem uso de instrumentos e recursos para oferecer “soluções duradouras” e alcançar benefícios públicos, este artigo analisou a “Operação Acolhida” como uma política pública de caráter migratório a partir da perspectiva de ciclo político. Dentre as conclusões, pode-se citar a fragilidade do sistema e das políticas de acolhimento e assistência aos imigrantes no âmbito municipal, especialmente em relação ao orçamento e financiamento. Ainda a intenção do governo brasileiro em resolver a questão do fluxo migratório venezuelano de maneira provisória, sem a necessidade de trazer ao debate público o que rege o artigo 120 da Lei de Migrações: criação de uma “Política Nacional de Migrações, Refúgio e Apatridia”

Effects of Social Technology on Older Adults in a Residential Living Facility

Personal connection and social interaction are vital components of health throughout the lifespan. Loneliness and social isolation among the older adult population impacts both physical and mental health negatively. Analysis of published research demonstrates the importance of considering the use of different social technology platforms to foster opportunities for social support among family and friends. Researchers noted an increased relevance of the need for social technology in residential living facilities with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing. The study aims to investigate the impact of social technology, via Sherish℠ Connect on older adults’ reported levels of loneliness and social isolation within a residential living facility. The seven participants used Sherish℠ Connect, a television-based photo-sharing application, for a minimum of one month prior to data collection. Data was collected via survey responses and medical records review to determine the effect of the Sherish℠ Connect intervention on participants’ perceived loneliness. Six participants reported using Sherish℠ Connect weekly or daily. All participants reported Sherish℠ Connect provided comfort. Social technology platforms offer an opportunity for social support among family and friends. Sherish℠ Connect, given a larger sample and increased duration of use, has the potential to combat loneliness and social isolation and provide comfort for older adults. Researchers hope this study provides baseline research that inspires additional studies investigating Sherish℠ Connect. The utilization of social technology adds value to occupational therapy intervention for mental health and social participation, particularly during the unprecedented time of COVID-19

Diagnóstico sobre la situación de los Derechos Humanos de las personas migrantes y refugiadas venezolanas en la república Argentina

Fil: Debandi, Natalia. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigación en Políticas Publicas y Gobierno (IIPPyG). Río Negro, Argentina.Fil: Penchaszadeh, Ana Paula. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigación Gino Germani, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Nicolao, Julieta. Redes Institucionales Orientadas a la Solución de Problemas. CONICET. Argentina.Fil: Moro, Agustín. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Sander, Joanna Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Morzilli, Melina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Hendler, Verónica. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Gonzalez, Madison. Becaria. Brasil.El informe contiene un diagnóstico sobre la situación de los Derechos Humanos de las personas migrantes y refugiadas venezolanas en Argentina basado en el análisis de los datos arrojados por la Encuesta Nacional Migrante de Argentina 2020 (ENMA). La información se estructura en dos bloques. El BLOQUE I describe la metodología de trabajo y el protocolo de investigación definidos por el equipo responsable, y se detallan aspectos tales como el diseño, la revisión y el ajuste del instrumento de recolección de datos de la ENMA; el sobremuestreo del colectivo venezolano y las definiciones metodológicas asociadas; el diálogo e intercambio con la Plataforma Regional de Coordinación Interagencial para Refugiados y Migrantes de Venezuela (R4V, por su acrónimo en inglés) durante dicho proceso; y una caracterización sobre la etapa de procesamiento, limpieza y ponderación de los datos. El BLOQUE II presenta los resultados que arrojó la ENMA sobre la situación de la población venezolana en la Argentina en cuanto a los siguientes ejes temáticos: características sociodemográficas y situación familiar; trayectoria y proyecto migratorio; situación documentaria, naturalización y protección internacional; acceso a la educación de hijos/as de personas migrantes; salud; hábitat y vivienda; trabajo; acceso a la educación de la población joven y adulta; discriminación y violencias; acceso a programas sociales y asistencia no estatal; participación política, social y comunitaria

The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set:Noise Budget for Pulsar Arrival Times on Intraday Timescales

The use of pulsars as astrophysical clocks for gravitational wave (GW) experiments demands the highest possible timing precision. Pulse times of arrival (TOAs) are limited by stochastic processes that occur in the pulsar itself, along the line of sight through the interstellar medium, and in the measurement process. On timescales of seconds to hours, the TOA variance exceeds that from template-fitting errors due to additive noise. We assess contributions to the total variance from two additional effects: amplitude and phase jitter intrinsic to single pulses and changes in the interstellar impulse response from scattering. The three effects have different dependencies on time, frequency, and pulse signal-to-noise ratio. We use data on 37 pulsars from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for GWs to assess the individual contributions to the overall intraday noise budget for each pulsar. We detect jitter in 22 pulsars and estimate the average value of rms jitter in our pulsars to be $\sim 1\%$ of pulse phase. We examine how jitter evolves as a function of frequency and find evidence for evolution. Finally, we compare our measurements with previous noise parameter estimates and discuss methods to improve GW detection pipelines

Hidalgo Comprehensive Plan 2015-2035

In the fall of 2014, the City of Hidalgo and Texas Target Communities partnered to create a task force to represent the community. The task force was integral to the planning process, contributing the thoughts, desires, and opinions of community members—as well as their enthusiasm about Hidalgo’s future. This eleven-month planning process ended in August 2015. The result of this collaboration is the City of Hidalgo Comprehensive Plan, which is the ofϐicial policy guide for the community’s growth over the next twenty years.Hidalgo Comprehensive Plan 2035 provides a guide for the future growth of the city. This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the City of Hidalgo.Texas Target Communitie