Relocalizing the judicial space: Place, access and mobilization in judicial practice in post-crisis Argentina

This article presents an image of the judicial space that seeks to challenge ubiquitous representations and scholarly metaphors of legal settings that recreate judicial practice as constrained within a delimited site. The article draws on ethnographic work conducted at the Argentine Supreme Court between August 2005 and March 2007, and focuses on the direct observation of the Argentine Supreme Court's daily dynamic articulated by concrete senses of mobility and access. Additionally, it builds upon the aesthetics of restoration, prompted by the scene of the restoration of the Court's building, to suggest the tensions that arise out of the efforts to reconstruct the judicial order in post 2001-2-crisis Argentina, constantly disrupted by the institution's own routine.Fil: Barrera Lopez, Leticia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Representations of Spatial Transformations: Industrial Agriculture and Informal Settlements in Mercedes, Uruguay

This study focuses on the social construction of abstract space in the city of Mercedes (Uruguay), which implies social relations of production, representations of space, and spatial practices and their physical manifestations. Through elements of Lefebvre’s triad (1991), this study explores spatial changes and challenges of Mercedes related to the development of industrial agriculture, and the growth of informal settlements. Secondary data and resulting analytical maps are utilized to understand recent changes produced in the urban-rural space of Mercedes. Informal conversations with local and national government staff discussed regional and local plans and policies. Interactions between plans, policies, and foreign investments related to industrial agriculture and social mobility have transformed public spaces and existing neighborhoods. Despite economic growth, the social-spatial fragmentation has increased between the inner city and the periphery and/or informal settlements

The right to the city in informal settlements:: two case studies of post-disaster adaptation in Latin America

Today small-towns in western Uruguay are facing challenges related to informal settlements development, intensification of industrial agriculture, and climate change. In the last decade, different strategic plans and policies carried out by governments at multiple levels have attempted to regularize and/or resettle informal settlements in different towns and cities. Despite governmental efforts, informal settlements continue to grow in areas that are at high environmental risk, and where social-spatial fragmentation has increased between the formal and informal fabric. Lefebvre's concept "right to the city” is a response to social-spatial inequalities and it emphasizes the idea that disenfranchised communities have the right to occupy and transform urban space. Using Lefebvre's "right to the city” and "the production of space”, this paper studies informal housing and informal settlements in two neighborhoods in a small-town in western Uruguay and how they adapt to climate change consequences. It reveals how local residents occupy and transform space in two informal neighborhoods to solve their housing needs and to access to resources and infrastructure after an extreme weather event. Based on two case studies, this article reveals spatial patterns of informal settlements, the relationship between formal and informal fabric, and the ways post-disaster informal settlements and environments are represented. Field- work was conducted in 2018 and methods included spatial mapping analysis, semi-structured interviews with key actors, participant observation, and analyses of secondary data. Findings suggest that top-down bureaucratic decision-making process during post-disaster reconstruction limited residents' agency and their right to participate and transform the urbanization process and the places they inhabit. This decision-making process was guided by restricted representations of space determining whether or not residents would qualify for subsidized housing programs. This study aims to encourage communities to develop community-based initiatives that could allow them not only to anticipate and react to environmental stresses but to thrive in the long-term future

On judgment: managing emotions in trials of crimes against humanity in Argentina

For over a decade, judicial accountability of mass human rights violations committed during the last civil-military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983) has been carried out in federal courts by regular judges, following the rules of the National Code of Criminal Procedure. Research on these trials has focused mainly on the victims and the accused. This article opens a different path by exploring the affective experiences of the judges presiding over and leading the trials. Based on interviews with 18 federal court judges and some participant observation, in this article we present a descriptive exploration of the judges’ experiences and sensemaking processes. We examine the complex interaction between the professional requirement to separate emotions from judgment and the emotional toll that these trials produce in the personal and professional lives of the judges. We end with short reflections on these crimes against humanity trials in the post-Transitional Justice context.Fil: Vaisman, Noa. University Aarhus; DinamarcaFil: Barrera Lopez, Leticia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales; Argentin

Materiales provenientes del reciclamiento de envases de Tetra Pak y su uso en concreto

Son escasos los estudios que involucran el uso de los materiales de reciclo de envases de Tetra Pak. No obstante, se ha estudiado la viabilidad del uso de polietleno de baja densidad (LDPE) y el aluminio reciclados de envases Tetra Pak para la fabricación de tableros rígidos utlizando una prensa caliente. En este capítulo se evaluó el efecto de las partículas de Tetra Pak en concretos poliméricos. Se realizaron ensayos de compresión y fexión, así como el cálculo del módulo de Young; con la finalidad de conocer el efecto de las partículas en la deformación

“It’s in the law”: An ethnographic account of the effects of the introduction of lay participation on judicial bureaucracies in Greater Buenos Aires

En el año 2013 se estableció el juicio por jurados en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Este artículo provee una reflexión basada en el diseño y los primeros hallazgos de un proyecto de investigación etnográfica de largo plazo que indaga en los efectos de la incorporación al sistema de justicia penal de nuevos actores (no profesionales del derecho) con sus prácticas, saberes y experiencias, y que integra a su análisis la consideración de las normas, los espacios, las temporalidades y las personas que este fenómeno amalgama. Poniendo el foco en las etapas iniciales del juicio por jurado —las citaciones de candidatos a jurados y la audiencia de selección —buscamos discutir cómo ciertos roles y posiciones dentro de la estructura burocrática se redefinen y (re)crean a partir de condicionamientos materiales y temporales que se presentan al dar cumplimiento a la obligación legal de incorporar la participación ciudadana al proceso judicial. Nuestro argumento es que el jurado se ha vuelto una presencia inmaterial, etérea, que afecta y modifica una variedad de prácticas, piezas y responsabilidades dentro de la justicia penal de Buenos Aires, más allá de su función concreta de alcanzar un veredicto.The province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) introduced its first criminal jury system in 2013. This article discusses the design and initial findings of an ethnographic research project looking at this legal innovation with particular attention to the effects of the introduction of new (lay) actors – and their practices, knowledges, experiences – to the criminal justice system, bringing to the analysis rules, spaces, temporalities and people that are bound by this phenomenon. Focusing on the initial stages of the process – the draw and summoning of prospective jurors and jury selection hearings –, we discuss how material and temporal constraints to fulfill the legal mandate of incorporating lay decision-makers give place to the reshaping and (re)creation of certain roles and positions within the bureaucratic structure. We argue that the jury has become a spectral presence that alters a myriad of existing practices, characters and responsibilities in the criminal justice of Buenos Aires that goes well beyond their verdicts.Fil: Amietta, Santiago Abel. Keele University.; Reino UnidoFil: Barrera Lopez, Leticia. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Derecho; Argentin

Waste and recycling materials used in concrete

Materials with higher strength and high performanceprovide excellent benefits. But after a very short useful-life become waste and contribute to environmental degradation. Some investigations are focused on recycling by using innovative and clean technologies. In this work, waste and recycled materials as well as gamma radiation are proposed as tools for improving mechanical properties of concrete; polyethylene terephthalate of bottles, automotive tire rubber as well as cellulose of Tetra Pak packages are studied as materials.Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM), Grant 3886/2015F

Waste materials from Tetra Pak packages as reinforcement of polymer concrete

In this work, different concentrations (from 1 to 6 wt%) and sizes (0.85, 1.40 and 2.36 mm) of waste Tetra Pak particles replaced partially silica sand in polymer concrete. As is well known Tetra Pak packages are made up of three raw materials: cellulose (75%), low-density polyethylene (20%) and aluminum (5%). The polymer concrete specimens were elaborated with unsaturated polyester resin (20%) and silica sand (80%), and irradiated by using gamma rays at 100 and 200 kGy. The obtained results shown that compressive and flexural strength as well as modulus of elasticity decrease gradually, when either Tetra Pak particle concentration or particle size is increased, as regularly occurs in composite materials. Nevertheless, improvements of 14% on both compressive strength and flexural strength, as well as 5% for modulus of elasticity were obtained when polymer concrete is irradiated