Knowledge exchange with Sistema Scotland

This paper reports on a knowledge exchange project, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and with the aim of improving the ‘two-way flow of people and ideas between the research environment and wider economy, thereby contributing to national prosperity, the quality of life of citizens, and cultural enrichment of our society’ (Scottish Funding Council, n.d). The project was undertaken by a group of researchers from three higher education institutions with a combined knowledge of education, music and psychology which has guided their knowledge exchange activities with the project partner and among themselves. The project partner was Sistema Scotland, a charity which is attempting to implement a major programme of social change, originating in Venezuela, within a disadvantaged area of Scotland, and therefore a highly appropriate focus for knowledge exchange. The paper outlines the development of Sistema Scotland and the programme, El Sistema, on which it is based. It details the knowledge exchange activities undertaken, which used Derrida’s (1993) notion of aporia to try to engage Sistema Scotland with different perspectives and understandings, and a practical method for conducting meetings based on Open Space Technology. The various ‘encounters’ with children, service providers and stakeholders are reported and this is followed by a critique of the processes of knowledge exchange which were both permitted and prohibited. The paper ends with a discussion of the conditions that are necessary for knowledge exchange to be successful

Newtoning financial development with heterogeneous firms

Abstract: This article theoretically and empirically tests the link between financial constraints and the extensive (proportion of exporters) and intensive (volume of exports) margins of international trade. The article's main contribution is its macroeconomic analysis of this relationship, which is further reaching than the sector-based focus found in the current literature. It also presents new information on firm behavior under financial constraints. The paper develops a trade model with heterogeneous firms and shows that countries with a high level of financial development have a lower productivity cut-off above which firms export and a higher proportion of exporting firms. Nevertheless, financial development is not correlated with firms' export volumes once they become exporters. An empirical analysis is developed on the basis of an international trade database on 135 countries between 1994 and 2007. The empirical analysis estimates a two-step gravity equation using panel data and confirms the first theoretical proposition that finance has a positive impact on the extensive margin. However, the intensive margin results are striking. They find a negative relationship between financial development and trade flows, confirmed by all the sensitivity tests. Despite the positive effect of financial development found by the literature in some economic sectors, the macroeconomic impact on overall exports was negative during the analyzed period

« Olympe de Gouges : la Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791) »

International audienc

Le discours de présentation du projet de loi ouvrant le mariage aux couples de même sexe prononcé par Christiane Taubira le 29 janvier 2013

National audienceCe discours est-il bien un « grand discours »? Car à la première lecture il n’apparaît guère receler qu’une histoire du droit de la famille que tout étudiant de Master en droit privé doit connaître; un discours qui s’accorde en outre bien des libertés avec la rigueur du vocabulaire juridique. Pour percevoir la grandeur de ce discours « politique », il faut précisément l’appréhender comme tel, et sous l'éclairage des écrits de Christiane Taubira. Alors seulement le fil rouge de ce discours et son déroulement d’une grande cohérence apparaissent. Le fil rouge, ce sont la laïcité et les promesses républicaines, dans le sens où Christiane Taubira l’expose dans ses écrits. C’est bien au nom de la laïcité, condition d’une citoyenneté égale, que la ministre de la Justice affirme que le mariage et l’adoption ouverts aux couples de même sexe parachèvent une évolution vers l’égalité et répondent aux injonctions de la devise républicaine, en élevant le mariage au rang d’institution universelle. Mais s’agit-il d’un simple parachèvement d’une évolution vers l’égalité ou d’une révolution ? Car pour élever le mariage au rang d’institution universelle la réforme procède au détachement pluriséculaire du mariage de son enracinement organique