Vitalism, europeanism and intellectuality

En una investigación bibliografica y biográfica de las primeras bases teóricas de El tema de nuestro tiempo, nos encontramos ya alrededor de 1905, en la estancia de José Ortega y Gasset en Alemania, con dos referentes fundamentales: Dilthey y Simmel. Pero el libro no se publicó antes de 1923 y será resultado de un afianzamiento del pensador como líder cultural en España y filósofo de talla europea. Bajo el signo de una correlación de un europeísmo español heredado y el vitalismo europeo, trataremos de someter las primeras obras a un relectura para interpretarlas como base de una autojustificación del grupo de intelectuales que se está formando alrededor de la figura de OrtegaIn a bibliographical and biographical research of the main theoretical topics of El tema de nuestro tiempo (The Theme of Our Time), we already find around 1905, during José Ortega y Gassets stay in Germany, two main references: Dithey and Simmel. But the book won't be published until 1923 as a result of cultural responsibilities in Spain and a consolidation of his person in the european philosophical panorama. In this context of a correlation of an inherited spanish europeanism and a european vitalism, we will again discuss the early works of Ortega to interpret them as a base of a self-justification of a group of intellectuals which is forming itself around the figure of Orteg

Three Essays on the Dynamics of Commodity Markets

This thesis examines the effect of weather events, monetary policy, and financialization on changes in global inventory, futures prices, spot prices, futures returns, and producers’ equity returns of exchange-traded commodities. First, I investigate the relationship between temperature and precipitation anomalies on aluminium futures returns. Prior research only examines the effects of weather anomalies on soft commodities, although flooding, drought and temperature are also identified as disrupters to mining operations in both regulatory filings and media reports. However, I find no evidence of weather effects on aluminium futures returns. Instead, the evidence suggests that inventories provide enough buffer for weather events and that trading around such events is unlikely to yield abnormal returns. Second, I investigate the relationships between metal futures returns and global monetary policy and demonstrate that a multiplier ratio created to proxy for market liquidity and the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy is positively related to the price of industrial metals. Contrary to prior research, there is little evidence of a relationship between real interest rates and industrial metals futures returns. These findings will enhance the ability of policymakers and other agents to determine whether the intended effects of quantitative easing are being transmitted to the markets. Third, I investigate the role of financialization in shaping the relationship between non-commercial speculation (hereinafter, speculation), trader concentration, and commodity futures returns. While prior studies variously find evidence of stabilising, reinforcing and destabilising effects of speculation upon returns, I show that speculation does not Granger-cause futures returns but that there is evidence of reverse causality from futures returns to speculation. Additionally, commodity futures returns respond to the publication of open interest information. Overall, financialization reduces the power of individual traders to set futures prices in a concentrated commodity market. These findings support a policy approach aimed at enhancing transparency rather than adding regulatory controls

Addressing Supply-Side Hurdles to Gender-Equal Representation in Germany

One hundred years after being granted the right to active suffrage, German women remain underrepresented in elective office. Quotas have partially addressed demand-side barriers to gender parity in descriptive representation, but significant supply-side gaps remain. Men comprise over 70% of political party members in the Federal Republic, dominating the bodies that provide candidates for elective office. Solutions to this supply-side problem have often focused on “fixing” women to fit into gendered party institutions, rather than altering these structures to be more welcoming to women. In contrast, drawing on interviews with (potential) party members in Germany, this article identifies informal institutions that deter gender-balanced involvement in political parties and suggests ways in which these norms might be changed.100 Jahre nach der Einführung des Frauenstimmrechts sind Frauen in Deutschland immer noch unterrepräsentiert in der Politik. Geschlechterquoten konnten teilweise die Hindernisse für Geschlechtergleichheit in der deskriptiven Repräsentation auf der Nachfrageseite beeinflussen. Es bestehen jedoch weiterhin bedeutende Lücken auf der Angebotsseite. Männer stellen mehr als 70% der Parteimitglieder in Deutschland und dominieren damit die Gremien, die die Kandidat_innen für die Wahlen aufstellen. Um dem Problem der Angebotsseite entgegenzuwirken, wird häufig versucht, Frauen für die vergeschlechtlichen parteilichen Institutionen passend zu machen, anstatt diese Strukturen zu verändern, um sie für Frauen einladender zu machen. Im Gegensatz dazu identifiziert dieser Artikel unter Rückgriff auf Interviews mit (potenziellen) Parteimitgliedern in Deutschland informelle Institutionen, die auf eine geschlechtergerechte Beteiligung in politischen Parteien abschreckend wirken und schlägt Wege vor, wie diese Normen verändert werden könnten

The gendered political ambition cycle in mixed member electoral systems

This article introduces a theoretical model that shows how four mechanisms (work–life balance, psychological, gatekeeper bias and diversity mechanisms) explain why pursuing a nomination as list Members of Parliament is the more attractive option for women in mixed-member electoral systems. It also demonstrates how women’s resulting greater likelihood of being list Members of Parliament creates what we call a gendered cycle, further reducing women’s interest in the single-member district tier. To empirically test our model, we present quantitative data for the case of New Zealand and Germany, as well as qualitative interview data collected from members of German parties’ women’s auxiliary organisations

Adaptive Finite Element Methods for Computing Nonstationary Incompressible Flows

Subject of this work is the development of numerical methods for efficiently solving nonstationary incompressible flow problems. In contrast to stationary flow problems, here errors due to discretization in time and space occur. Furthermore, especially three-dimensional simulations lead to huge computational costs. Thus, adaptive discretization methods have to be used in order to reduce the computational costs while still maintaining a certain accuracy. The main focus of this thesis is the development of an a posteriori error estimator which is computable and able to assess both discretization errors separately. Thereby, the error is measured in an arbitrary quantity of interest (such as the drag-coefficient, for example) because measuring errors in global norms is often of minor importance in practical applications. The basis for this is a finite element discretization in time and space. The techniques presented here also provide local error indicators which are used to adaptively refine the temporal and spatial discretization. A key ingredient in setting up an efficient discretization method is balancing the error contributions due to temporal and spatial discretization. To this end, a quantitative assessment of the individual discretization errors is required. The described methods are validated by several numerical tests. These also include established Navier-Stokes benchmarks as well as a two-phase flow problem with complex three-dimensional geometry

Public Pedagogy and Conflict Pedagogy: Sites of Possibility for Anti-Oppressive Teacher Education

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students, students of color, and students with disabilities are failing school and being pushed out at much higher rates that majority populations students while also experiencing high rates of bullying, harassment, and physical violence in school. This study explores efforts to reduce the violent experiences and academic disparities for these students through teacher practice at the classroom level. It examines public pedagogy and conflict pedagogy as curricular strategies in a preservice teacher education course over 5 years. The course aims to develop and support an advocate/activist teacher identity, a teacher identity that is not neutral and can challenge and disrupt the ideas and practices that have become normalized in our schools. This research draws on three theoretical frameworks to inform the design and analysis of this study on teacher identity: poststructuralism, feminist pragmatism, and queer theory. These theories provide a conceptual vocabulary for critically examining anti-oppressive teacher education curricula. Specifically, this work looks at the way public and conflict pedagogy can be used to achieve anti-oppressive curricular ends through the potential impact on preservice teacher identity