Projecto X: a journey inside ourselves and what we found when we arrived

This article analyses and reflects upon a community music project that occurred in 2016 in Portugal. It involved a community of people with disabilities and a group of artists from different fields. The project’s promotors aimed to create a space in which differences were abated, social well-being was nourished and individual desires were fostered. This article endeavours to understand how artistic performance may provide opportunities for empowering less advantaged people and how it might have been achieved during this project. The reflections present in this article are based on the current literature on community music and are informed by other similar analysis of these kinds of projects. The article starts with a brief description of the project and then elaborates on the term ‘community music’ and its relationship to this project. The project made use of a mix between an art installation and an experimental instrument called Pianoscópio. This article describes this instrument in detail and analyses how it enabled the participants to express themselves to their fullest abilities. A characterisation of the participating community members follows, focusing on the core tenets of the association they were part of. After that, the article examines how the workshops took place and what transpired in the final performance, focusing specifically on the steps taken to accommodate the different disabilities of the participants. The article ends with a reflection upon these kinds of projects and the impact this one project might have had on its participants.publishe

Órgãos de governo da família empresária Governing bodies of family business

RESUMO A importância das empresas familiares nas economias modernas exige que sejam melhor conhecidos os processos de tomada de decisão nas mesmas, nomeadamente, aqueles que têm origem no seio das famílias que as detêm ou controlam. A separação do património da família e do património afecto ao negócio é uma condição necessária para um bom relacionamento entre estes dois subsistemas. À semelhança dos órgãos de administração da empresa familiar também a família empresária tem os seus órgãos de governo: reunião de família, assembleia de família, conselho familiar, comissões familiares ad-hoc, protocolo familiar e family office. São estes órgãos que vão ser apresentados. ABSTRACT The importance that family firms have in today’s economy requires that one understands the decision making process in these types of firms, particularly the decision making process that stem from within the family circle that controls the firm. In order to understand these processes and the relationship between the two “subsystems of decision-making” one must separate the family’s resources from the family’s resources that has been engaged in the business. The family businesses, likewise the family firm, also have its own bodies of administration, such as family assemblies, family councils, family commissions and meetings, family’ protocols, as well as family office

FAMILY FIRMS AND FAMILY BUSINESS: A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH ABOUT THE AMBIGUITIES, PARADOXES AND UNIQUENESS OF FAMILY BUSINESSES

Family businesses are and have been vital in the European’s socioeconomic contexts. Notwithstanding their relevance and growing interest in academy, as well as in the institutional rationale, the study of family businesses is still a field that lacks autonomy and finds itself embedded in ambiguities, paradoxes and inconsistencies. This lack of systematisation not only compromises the process of data collection and research but consequently a better understanding of this phenomenon. Our purpose here is to discuss the constructs of family firm and family business. Based on the assumption that family firms are usually conceptualised as owned, totally or partially, by members of a family and are potentially intergenerational systems, with a perimeter of variable geometry, but usually rooted in a location, we aim to distinguish between the constructs of family firm and family business. We do this by discussing the concept(s) of family and then move on to the family businesses. Methodologically we carried out a literature analysis or review, based on Bourdieu’s (1972) “Theory of Practice”, understood as an approach that aims to overcome dichotomies in social theory, such as micro/macro, material/symbolic, empirical/theoretical, objective/subjective, public/private, structure/agency, and focuses on the understanding the practical logic of everyday life and understand relations of power. Enabling us to overcome the ambiguities and paradoxes that academically and institutionally surround the use of these constructs – family firms and family business. Our findings allowed us to sustain that the family business emerges as conceptual “leap forward”, i.e., the family firm becomes a family business when it becomes more strategically business-oriented. As an open system, the firm has a flow of inputs and outputs of members, which generate its unique configurations over time and potentiates intra and inter-clan conflicts and political and power struggles between family members and or among family members and their relatives and tends to create formal organisational structures (boards of directors) to assure its continuity and growth. In this context, when the above-mentioned criterion is met, the family business only exists from the second generation onwards.  Article visualizations

Digital technologies and learning outcomes of students from low socio-economic background: An Analysis of PISA 2015

The use of digital technologies for learning is high on the policy agenda and is believed to benefit disadvantaged groups of students especially. This study assesses the extent to which the association between learning outcomes and the use of digital technologies differs systematically between students with different socio-economic statuses. We start by summarizing the existing evidence on the causal effects of digital technologies on learning outcomes. We highlight the relative lack of evidence on the pedagogical use of digital technologies on disadvantaged students when compared to the general student population. The overall consensus emerging from the literature is that the causal effect of digital technologies is mixed. While it is unclear whether disadvantaged students are differently affected by them, the available evidence does not suggest that digital technologies contribute to further disparities in students' learning outcomes. Using data from PISA 2015, we document that students from low socio-economic backgrounds start using digital devices later in life, have slightly less access to ICT at home and tend to use ICT less intensively especially in out-of-school activities than their counterparts. In the multivariate analysis, we find a positive association between disadvantaged students' achievement and the use of ICT for some purposes, but only among those students who use ICT less intensively. However, we find no evidence that this association is systematically different from that of students from higher socio-economic backgrounds. The exception is the use of ICT outside of school for general purposes by low-intensity users: in this case, disadvantaged students would particularly benefit from using ICT more intensively. Furthermore, we also find that - among low-intensity users of ICT - the probability of being a resilient student is positively correlated with the use of ICT at school for educational purposes and at home for schoolwork and general purposes. More generally, our research suggests that low-intensity users of ICT are likely to be using ICT sub-optimally, both at home and at school, and would benefit (in terms of PISA scores) from using ICT more intensively. However, the fact that medium and high-intensity users of ICT typically would not gain from additional ICT use is consistent with the hypothesis that the relationship between use of ICT and learning outcomes is inversely U-shaped.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

The employability of young graduates in Europe

The Education Council has adopted in May 2012 a new benchmark on the employability of graduates from education and training that aims at measuring the contribution of education and training to the transition from education to employment. This new benchmark is defined as the share of young people employed among the 20-34 years old, who graduated 1, 2 or 3 years before, and are not currently in education or training. It is computed using the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) microdata. This report aims at analyzing the determinants of the employability of the individuals targeted by the benchmark. It starts with a short presentation of the benchmark indicator. It then estimates the probability of being employed for the 20-34 years old cohort that graduated one to three years before and is not currently enrolled in any further education or training activity, controlling for individual characteristics and institutional factors. In addition to the annual LFS data, we also make use of the LFS ad-hoc module of 2009 to identify more specifically, at country level, the role played by the orientation of the degree and the acquisition of a professional experience during the time of studies. Among those who are employed, we then analyze the nature of that employment by estimating the probability of having a permanent vs. temporary contract and the probability of working full-time vs. part-time. Regarding the probability of being employed, we find that the contribution of education attainment is significant and constant, even after controlling for labour market contextual variables. Whereas education attainment is an important determinant for working full-time, it does not play a role in explaining the probability of having a permanent contract. We find that, overall, having a vocational oriented degree and/or working during studies does not affect significantly the probability of having a job. On the other hand, for a few countries, these two factors are important and our analysis shows that among the two, working during studies proves to be a more significant factor than the sole orientation of the degree.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic

A note on the impact evaluation of public policies: The counterfactual analysis

This report describes concisely, and in an intuitive way, the policy evaluation framework and the different counterfactual analysis evaluation strategies: propensity score matching, regression discontinuity design, differences-in-differences and instrumental variables. For each method we present the main assumptions it relies on and the data requirements. These methodologies apply to any type of policy and, in general, to any type of intervention. A selection of papers applying this approach in the context of labour market interventions is also included.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic

Corporate management in the eighteenth century in the Company of Commerce of Pernambuco and Paraiba

Artigo publicado em revista científica internacionalThis study is based on the management model carried out by Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba — CGCPP (General Company of Commerce of Pernambuco and Paraiba), founded in 1759 by the government of the Marquis of Pombal, for the exclusive trade rights in Brazil between the kingdom of Portugal and the captaincies of Pernambuco and Paraíba. The results of this research revealed that CGCPP’s management adopted policies and practices of governance structure similars to the current ones, focused on ethics and transparency, aiming at the security of shareholders and the well-being of Captaincies. This survey also brought to light that the monitoring of CGCPP’s internal control system was carried out through accounting reports issued by its “Contadoria” (Accounting department), and were subject to systematic review by its Inspection of Accounts unit, whose the assignments in the Company were similar to those of an internal audit. The main objectives of this accounting review were to ensure the safety of internal controls of the GCPP and to detect possible irregularities for immediate correction and adjustments, thus allowing the regular flow of operations of the Company.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Decision support system for accessing costs and risks of connected and autonomous vehicles as mobility service in urban contexts

A predicted increase of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in our roads paved the way for new opportunities and challenges towards the promotion of sustainable mobility. However, the impacts of CAVs on the road environment and its implications are widely dependent on technological choices and public policy [1,2]. Therefore, this research (PhD Workplan) intends to assess whether CAVs could be effective mobility solutions for improving social, economic and environmental efficiency [4]. This question will be addressed by developing a decision support tool driven by comprehensive data analysis and modelling processes. The outputs achieved will integrate a tool that will support transport system’s planning and the implementation of urban strategies to introduce CAVs [3,5]. Thus, the research’s main focus encompasses the development of a model-driven decision support system (DSS) that allows assessing the costs and risks of implementing CAVs in urban context [3,4]. Three specific research objectives are assumed: I) Predicting impacts of CAVs operation in urban contexts, by analyzing cost-efficiency, transportation demand and mobility patterns considering market penetration scenarios of CAVs in Portugal; II) Conceiving a hybrid transport planning tool to assess possible restrictions to CAVs on different types of links through field data testing and simulating scenarios using a microscopic traffic model. Data will support the development of a macroscopic model for a full network assessment performance; III) Developing a multidimensional decision tool directed to a wide range of stakeholders, both from public or private sectors, to compute the benefits, costs, constraints and risks of implementing CAVs on urban mobility systems. Preliminary results from different urban arterials indicate that CAVs can have negative or negligible impacts in some urban contexts. However, if the impact on the traffic flow’s energy performance is considered into the internal car following algorithm, global energy savings of up to 12% can be achieved.publishe

ePortfolio as a learning and assessment tool

This paper falls within the ERASMUS+ KA2 project Empowering Eportfolio Process (EEP). This project aims to promote the development of best practices in Higher Education, by encouraging cooperation and sharing between teachers and researchers from several European countries using digital portfolios. The work so far has allowed us to systematize some reflections on the students’ perspective related to the use of digital portfolios as learning and evaluation tools. Among the conclusions of the project, we highlight the opinion students have built on the role of portfolios as a transforming element of evaluation processes, giving it a character of greater integration in learning. The students suggest that evaluation should be run more frequently and should meet their needs. This analysis was carried out by the Portuguese working group that promoted three collective interviews with students of several courses of the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (ESE-IPS). The analysis of the collected data allowed us to perceive the evaluation that the students attribute to the feedback and to the monitoring of their work by the teacher. We advocate that these aspects should be appropriated by teachers, thus promoting the quality of the process of learning and teaching in higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Narrador como pilar da estrutura narrativa na curta-metragem Bégan

Trabalho de projetoA escrita deste ensaio é o resultado de uma análise ao papel que um narrador ocupa na narrativa cinematográfica. Desenvolvendo teoricamente conceitos de narratologia e linguagem cinematográfica, a primeira parte argumenta como a personagem-narrador pode ser a base que sustenta uma narrativa e consolida pesquisa que sustenta a curta-metragem Bégan. Nesse sentido, a segunda parte caracteriza as etapas de desenvolvimento do projeto, desde a conceção da ideia à escrita do argumento, explicando como pode uma estrutura narrativa circunscrever-se a um narrador heterodiegético. A conclusão atingida apresenta como o projeto comprova a premissa do ensaio.The writing of this essay is the result of an analysis of the role that a narrator occupies in the cinematic narrative. By theoretically developing concepts of narratology and cinematic language, the first part argues how the narrator-character can be the basis that sustains a narrative and consolidates research that sustains the short film Bégan. In this sense, the second part characterizes the stages of development of the project, from the conception of the idea to the writing of the argument, explaining how a narrative structure can be limited to a heterodiegetic narrator. The conclusion reached shows how the project proves the premise of the essay