Avengers Reluctantly Assemble: A Post-racial and Xenophobic Criticism of The Avengers

This study endeavors to rhetorically criticize the ideological underpinnings found in the Marvel comic book film adaptation Marvel’s The Avengers (2012). Specifically this study involves multiple viewings of the movie along with analysis of the ideological themes of postracism and xenophobia as evident in the film’s dialogue, plot, character interactions and various other narrative devices and details. Adaptations of comic books have a long history within film and will continue to have a significant box-office presence for the foreseeable future. The Marvel Cinematic Universe alone, which began its present continuity in 2008 with Iron Man, will have produced twenty-one films by 2019. Additionally, The Avengers serves as a valuable artifact for examination for three reasons. The first is that the film acts as a cornerstone of building the narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in that it is the first time the other main characters (established within their own respective movies) are brought together to interact and also serves as a reference point for future events. For example, within Iron Man 3 the psychological trauma suffered by the movie’s titular character results from the events of The Avengers and functions as a significant plot detail. Similarly, Thor: The Dark World which immediately followed the release of The Avengers also advances the storylines for two of the main characters from The Avengers, Thor and Loki, as well as references events that occur in that film. The second purpose for studying this film is that it is currently ranked as the third highest grossing film worldwide, having made over $1.5 billion (Dirks, 2014). It is reasonable to conclude from that figure that this movie has reached a significant number of people and therefore has a significant cultural impact. For example, according to comic book historian Jackson Miller (2014) comic book sales (not counting comic book themed merchandise) rose from approximately$250 million in 2000 to $780 in 2013. This sudden resurgence of comic books into the mainstream means that the industry’s representations of race are reaching an expansive audience and are thus worth critiquing. The third reason for studying the film is the plot of the film itself. The entire plot hinges on the group of heroes, each from very different backgrounds and demographic groups, confronting an external force. The resulting conflict forces the group to set aside, not resolve, interpersonal problems in order to defeat the external force. Essentially the team indulges in post-racist form of group cohesion by glossing over internal strife during the conflict with the external force; unity in the face of opposition, yet unity is not cemented and exists only so long as the opposition. In fact, as evident in the film, these internal struggles still manifest during the conflict. Xenophobic attitudes are further evident in the interpersonal relationships enacted by the characters and will be examined in detail in the study. It is for these reasons that I have elected to examine this movie for its ideological messages. Ultimately this study seeks to add to the growing body of research that critiques comic books and other fantasy/science fiction themed forms of entertainment for messages concerning race, xenophobic attitudes, and the treatment of articulated “others”

Analysis of factors which affect the environment to make a manufacturing auto parts project in Colombia

Este artículo plantea una perspectiva sencilla y concisa de la situación actual del entorno de la industria nacional de autopartes con el fin de establecer y analizar los aspectos que podrían considerarse determinantes e influyentes dentro de este mercado al evaluar la viabilidad de poner en marcha un proyecto de producción de piezas automotores en Colombia, teniendo en cuenta también los criterios de desarrollo empresarial, político y social que han repercutido notoriamente en los resultados eficientes implementados por compañías y gobiernos de otros lugares del mundo, y reflejados en sus aportes al crecimiento del mercado y la alta calidad de sus productos, de los cuales también se pueden obtener valiosas enseñanzas.This article sets out a simple and concise overview about the current situation of the environment of national parts industry in order to establish and analyze the issues that could be considered crucial and influential in this market to assess the feasibility of implementing a production of automotive parts project in Colombia, also taking into account the criteria of business, political and social development that have affected efficient results notoriously implemented by companies and governments in other places of the world, and reflected in their contributions to the growth of the market and the high quality of its products which can be obtained valuable lessons too

Manual práctico y competencias para la organización de los recursos bibliográficos : de la biblioteca comunitaria La Fuerza de las Palabras

Para cualquier tipo de biblioteca es muy importante que la colección se encuentre dispuesta de tal manera que los usuarios y los administradores de la unidad de información puedan recuperar los recursos de acuerdo a los modelos y normas propuestos disciplinariamente. En consecuencia para la organización bibliográfica es importante aplicar procesos técnicos bibliotecológicos básicos establecidos para tal fin, los cuales son: el inventario, la clasificación y organización. Estos procesos han sido fundamentales para el diseño de un manual práctico como producto final a este trabajo de grado, aplicado a la biblioteca comunitaria La Fuerza de las Palabras, que sirva para formar en competencias que permitan procesar los recursos bibliográficos con los que cuenta esta unidad de información. Para el desarrollo del manual fue necesario hacer un levantamiento de información como método de contextualización frente al propósito de la biblioteca, conocer los objetivos y la visión que tiene su creador, tener una entrevista al señor José, el creador de la biblioteca y así poder identificar algunas necesidades para ayudar en la mejora de los servicios y el desarrollo de la unidad de información.Profesional en Ciencia de la Información - Bibliotecólogo (a)Pregrad

The pursuit of peace and the character of modern state : a critical revision of Michael Oakeshott’s philosophy of history and its application to the study of international political thought

The argument of this thesis intends to show how the philosophy of Michael Oakeshott can be used for the study of intellectual history. In order to do so, I will first approach Oakeshott’s philosophy as an epistemology, and argue that there is a movement detectable in his works, from an earlier metaphysical idealism detectable in the works of the 1920’s, which was substantially modified in Experience and its Modes but retained most of the identity characteristics of the British idealism, towards the final formulation as a form of post-metaphysical, non-foundational contextualism that characterises On Human Conduct, published in the 1970’s. The common thread uniting Oakeshott’s successive philosophical formulations is the search for a viable philosophical “platform of understanding”, capable of safeguarding the autonomy of the theoretical idioms of understanding and of surmounting several important difficulties that have plagued most post-foundational philosophies, namely philosophical scepticism, a search that I will argue reached a successful culmination in On Human Conduct. I will then argue that Oakeshott’s philosophy contains a valuable contribution to the understanding of the practice of historiography, which may be characterised as a form of historicism that simultaneously rejects naturalism and narrativism as unhistorical forms of explanation. However, Oakeshott’s historicism is “uneven”, in the sense that his satisfactory treatment of the questions of historical interpretation contrasts with the relative neglect of the questions of historical representation: as instruments for an historical understanding of the existing and complex human associations, Oakeshott’s ideal characters of civil association, or societas, and enterprise association, or universitas, describing two opposing modes of political association, are overly schematic. This insufficiency will be addressed through the construction of an extended version of the ideal modes of societas and universitas, which will be transformed into a richer base of ideal characters by recourse to the narrative archetypes of Romance, Satire, Comedy and Tragedy, thus creating four “micromodes” of political association. These ideal characters are intended to be particularly suited to capture stylistic differences in written utterances, and are therefore apt to be use in the historical study of political thought; accordingly, their usefulness will be illustrated through their application to the study of a set of writings by Benjamin Constant, Jeremy Bentham, Leonard Woolf and Hans Morgenthau, united by their common theme, which is a moral dimension of world politics: the pursuit of peace and its connection with the character of the activity of government. The study presents a fresh interpretation of Oakeshott’s philosophy and innovates in the use of modality as an “open-ended” structure, illustrating its possibilities for the historical study of political thought.Nesta tese pretende-se mostrar de que modo a filosofia de Michael Oakeshott pode ser utilizada para o estudo da história das ideias. Para esse efeito, começarei por abordar a filosofia de Oakeshott em perspectiva epistemológica e argumentarei que existe um movimento detectável ao longo da obra do autor, de uma forma de idealismo metafísico nos escritos datados da década de 1920, um discurso filosófico que foi substancialmente revisto em Experience and its Modes mas que preservou características identitárias típicas do idealismo filosófico britânico, até à formulação final em On Human Conduct, caracterizável como uma abordagem contextual, pósmetafísica e não-fundacional. O traço comum às sucessivas reformulações da filosofia de Oakeshott é a busca de uma “plataforma filosófica de entendimento”, susceptível de salvaguardar a autonomia epistemológica dos diversos idiomas teóricos de conhecimento e capaz de evitar algumas dificuldades importantes que afectam a maioria das abordagens filosóficas não-fundacionais, quer estruturalistas, quer pósestruturalistas, designadamente o problema do cepticismo. Seguidamente argumentarei que a filosofia de Oakeshott contém uma contribuição valiosa para a compreensão da prática historiográfica, uma contribuição que pode ser caracterizada como uma forma de historicismo, rejeitando simultaneamente abordagens científicas ou literárias como inadequadas à teorização histórica. No entanto, o historicismo de Oakeshott é “desequilibrado” no sentido em que privilegia o tratamento de questões relativas à interpretação histórica em detrimento das questões relativas à representação histórica: enquanto instrumentos para o estudo histórico das associações políticas existentes e complexas, os tipos ideais da “associação civil”, ou societas, e da “associação empresarial”, ou universitas, que descrevem os dois pólos opostos de associação política teorizados por Oakeshott, são excessivamente esquemáticos. Esta insuficiência será corrigida através da construção de uma variante deste modelo dualista de tipos ideais, com recurso aos arquétipos narrativos do Romance, Sátira, Comédia e Tragédia, por forma a criar quatro “micro-modos” de associação política. Estes novos tipos ideais são construídos por forma a serem particularmente adequados à identificação de variações estilísticas na expressão escrita, sendo portanto instrumentos úteis para o estudo da história do pensamento político; uma utilidade que será ilustrada através da respectiva aplicação ao estudo de um conjunto de textos de Benjamin Constant, Jeremy Bentham, Leonard Woolf e Hans Morgenthau, cujo tema comum consiste na reflexão sobre uma dimensão moral da política internacional: a prossecução da paz perpétua e a sua ligação com o carácter da actividade governamental. O estudo apresenta uma nova interpretação da filosofia de Michael Oakeshott e propõe uma utilização construtiva e inovadora das identidades modais de associação política, demonstrando que estas podem ser utilizadas como uma estrutura “aberta”, com possíveis aplicações interessantes para o estudo histórico do pensamento político