Strategy in/for progressive transformation: A pluri-scalar war of position

This chapter addresses the strategic-processual question of how collective action may generate an alternative, counter-hegemonic structure or counter-spatiality within the constraints of the prevailing historical structure, against the accumulated power of global capital. In the context of a resurgent interest among the global left in the question of strategy, this chapter develops the concept of “pluri-scalar war of position”. The concept is grounded in earlier socio-spatial ethnographic research into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP) and Petrocaribe. As a geographical relational approach to transformative praxis, the pluri-scalar war of position integrates neo-Gramscian concepts with critical human geography. Thus, the chapter argues for the importance of capturing state power on the one hand, and for a politics of place-space-scale to transform the existing power geometries on the other. The chapter underscores that a transformative politics needs to gain from greater engagement with place-space-scale as objects of inquiry, while aiming to increase the visibility of pluri-scalar war of position for progressive academia and activism.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Política de Estado, cooperação Sul-Sul e transformação estrutural: o caso (ignorado) da cooperação Brasil-Venezuela para a promoção da equidade na educação superior (2003-2016)

Este artigo revisita a cooperação oficial Brasil-Venezuela no período 2003-2016, durante o qual as políticas intervencionistas estaduais aprimoraram a justiça social e educacional. Partindo de uma abordagem de governança educacional, é realizada uma análise pluriescalar da equidade de acesso ao ensino universitário, que integra um relato de justiça distributiva no acesso ao ensino universitário no Brasil e na Venezuela com uma abordagem estrutural relacionada à cooperação Sul-Sul (CSS) entre as duas nações e também dentro do Mercado Comum do Sul (MERCOSUL). Dois argumentos inter-relacionados são desenvolvidos: primeiro, apesar das persistentes desigualdades no acesso à educação universitária em ambos os territórios, as políticas estatais intervencionistas aumentaram a igualdade de acesso diretamente em relação à disponibilidade e acessibilidade. Em segundo lugar, o caso do Régimen Especial Fronterizo Brasil / Venezuela ilustra que a CSS pode transformar as condições de fundo para a justiça educacional, produzindo uma estrutura alternativa à governança global neoliberal da educação. Empiricamente, a discussão recorre à análise de conteúdo e discurso de 81 documentos de cooperação assinados entre atores estatais e não-estatais brasileiros e venezuelanos, complementados por planos de desenvolvimento e relatórios de comissões municipais, nacionais e regionais, e 1 mês de pesquisa de campo no Régimen Especial Fronterizo em 2012. A observação participante e 13 entrevistas semi-estruturadas e abertas foram conduzidas com funcionários em diferentes níveis dos processos de formulação de políticas, acadêmicos, bem como atores de escala local em diferentes iniciativas de cooperação e integração em ambos os lados da fronteira Brasil / Venezuela. This article re-visits Brazil-Venezuela official cooperation in the period 2003-2016, during which state interventionist policies improved social and educational justice. By drawing from an education governance approach, a pluriscalar analysis of equity of access to university education is conducted, which integrates an account of distributional justice in access to university education in Brazil and Venezuela with a structural approach related to South– South cooperation (SSC) among the two nations as well as within the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). Two interrelated arguments are developed: first, despite persistent inequities in access to university education in both territories, state-interventionist policies enhanced equity of access directly with respect to availability and accessibility. Second, the case of the Brazil/Venezuela Régimen Especial Fronterizo illustrates that SSC can transform the background conditions for educational justice by producing an alternative structure to the neoliberal global governance of education. Empirically, the discussion draws from contents and discourse analysis of 81 cooperation documents signed among Brazilian and Venezuelan state and non-state actors, complemented by municipal, national and regional development plans and commission reports, and 1 month of field research in the Régimen Especial Fronterizo in 2012. Participant observation and 13 semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with officials at different levels of the policymaking processes, academics, as well as local scale actors in distinct cooperation and integration initiatives on both sides of the Brazil/Venezuela border.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reclaiming the politics of South-South cooperation

Framed by the North–South conflict, this article conducts a historico-conceptual analysis of the politics of South-South cooperation (SSC) from a decolonial Global South perspective. Based on documentary analysis and a review of academic SSC literature, three distinct periods of SSC post-1945 are identified: Concertation (1945–1981); Containment (1981–1995); and Cooptation vs Confrontation (1995–present). This periodization complements previous endeavours of its kind, whereby the rationale here is that a historical understanding of SSC politics and neo-colonial/imperialist counter-politics is indispensable for emancipatory social praxis. With co-optation of SSC backed by coercion as the Global North’s contemporary tactic within the strategy of re-Westernisation, I argue for the Global South to reclaim SSC as a strategy to move from delinking as de-Westernisation towards delinking as decoloniality in the context of crisis of the capitalist world order.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

South-South education relations

While scholarly interest in South–South cooperation (SSC) has substantially grown over the past decade, South–South education relations have received only scant attention in the Anglophone academic literatures on SSC, international development and international and comparative education. This chapter adopts an historical and global approach to this topic in an effort to contribute to closing this research gap. The chapter unfolds as follows: the first section introduces the concepts of ‘the South’ and ‘South–South cooperation’, counter-posed with practices of ‘triangular collaboration’ and ‘best practice transfer’. On this basis, the second section conducts a critical review of existing South–South education cooperation literatures. Framed by these discussions, two case studies of contemporary South–South education relations are presented: the ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! (Sure, I Can!) global literacy campaign promoted by the governments of the Republic of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; and the education cooperation agenda of the so-called BRICS. The conclusion resumes the question of whether South–South education cooperation simply represents ‘best practice transfer’ or Third World solidarity for global transformation, while proposals for a future research agenda are developed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Line Arrester Application on a 110 kV High Alpine Overhead Line to reduce Lightning-Caused Outages

This contribution discusses a project, which aims to increase the reliability in an existing 110 kV overhead transmission network by taking measures addressing lightning and grounding issues. Due to the fault statistic in the past, a single overhead line was identified as a main reason for the lightning-caused outages in the area. In this work a number of possibilities for the reduction of lightning-caused outages are discussed and the measures taken in the network are described. All considerations took the special geographical situation of 2300 meter above sea level, the grounding resistance of up to 1200 Ohm and the local lightning activity of more than 6 lightning strikes per km² and year into account (4 to 5 times higher than in other Austrian regions). An analytical process was carried out to evaluate relevant parameters and to develop a concept of practical measures. Within these evaluations, the footing resistance, the effectiveness of the shielding angle of the shielding wires and the line arrester locations were analyzed. A multiplicity of numerical calculations were performed to assess the application of surge arresters regarding the insulation coordination for the system. To improve the line performance and to decrease the line outage rate, a number of practical measures were applied to the 110 kV line. In the past, the double three phase systems of the 110 kV overhead line was constructional converted into one active single three phase system with two additional earth wires. According to the numerical results, 18 surge arresters have been installed in a line section of 9 towers, located in a high alpine part and in an area of high lightning activity. Three years of field experiences have shown that the theoretical investigations and the practical measures led to a significant decrease of lightning caused outages. In the year 2007 a new project was started to evaluate a reconstruction of the line into the original double three phase system. New numerical calculation routines were made to apply line arresters at this important 110 kV system in an Austrian extreme mountain region. Based on this results, a new application of line arresters and the constructional change of the system is planned

ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF PRESSBOARD AND THE INFLUENCE OF MOISTURE CONTENT

The electrical conductivity σ is an important parameter for material condition evaluation at AC applications and is responsible for electrical field distribution in DC equipment. With a focus on HVDC equipment design, the influence of moisture content in oil-impregnated pressboard is determined in this preliminary investigation. The electrical conductivity of pressboard samples, which have been wetted artificially in the laboratory, is investigated within this work. Moisture contents between <0,3% and 5,5% could be achieved artificially through increasing pressboard moisture content levels in a climate chamber. The electrical conductivity was determined by voltage-current measurements at 20°C in the style of IEC 60093 with measurement times up to and longer than 24 hours. For these investigations, the pressboard samples with a thickness of 1 mm have been placed in an (mineral) oil-filled test vessel and stressed by a DC field with E = 3 kV/mm. It could be demonstrated that the moisture content of pressboard has a strong influence onto the electrical conductivity: An increase of electrical conductivity by a factor of around 10 for each percentage point of moisture increase up to moisture levels of around 3,5% was observed. At higher moisture contents (>5%), other mechanisms seem to govern the electrical current and the conductivity respectively, which is also discussed within the work

Bayesian calibration of a soil organic carbon model using Δ¹⁴C measurements of soil organic carbon and heterotrophic respiration as joint constraints

Soils of temperate forests store significant amounts of organic matter and are considered to be net sinks of atmospheric CO₂. Soil organic carbon (SOC) turnover has been studied using the Δ¹⁴C values of bulk SOC or different SOC fractions as observational constraints in SOC models. Further, the Δ¹⁴C values of CO₂ that evolved during the incubation of soil and roots have been widely used together with Δ¹⁴C of total soil respiration to partition soil respiration into heterotrophic respiration (HR) and rhizosphere respiration. However, these data have not been used as joint observational constraints to determine SOC turnover times. Thus, we focus on (1) how different combinations of observational constraints help to narrow estimates of turnover times and other parameters of a simple two-pool model, the Introductory Carbon Balance Model (ICBM); (2) whether relaxing the steady-state assumption in a multiple constraints approach allows the source/sink strength of the soil to be determined while estimating turnover times at the same time. To this end ICBM was adapted to model SOC and SO¹⁴C in parallel with litterfall and the Δ¹⁴C of litterfall as driving variables. The Δ¹⁴C of the atmosphere with its prominent bomb peak was used as a proxy for the Δ¹⁴C of litterfall. Data from three spruce-dominated temperate forests in Germany and the USA (Coulissenhieb II, Solling D0 and Howland Tower site) were used to estimate the parameters of ICBM via Bayesian calibration. Key findings are as follows: (1) the joint use of all four observational constraints (SOC stock and its Δ¹⁴C, HR flux and its Δ¹⁴C) helped to considerably narrow turnover times of the young pool (primarily by Δ¹⁴C of HR) and the old pool (primarily by Δ¹⁴C of SOC). Furthermore, the joint use of all observational constraints made it possible to constrain the humification factor in ICBM, which describes the fraction of the annual outflux from the young pool that enters the old pool. The Bayesian parameter estimation yielded the following turnover times (mean ± standard deviation) for SOC in the young pool: Coulissenhieb II 1.1 ± 0.5 years, Solling D0 5.7 ± 0.8 years and Howland Tower 0.8 ± 0.4 years. Turnover times for the old pool were 377 ± 61 years (Coulissenhieb II), 313 ± 66 years (Solling D0) and 184 ± 42 years (Howland Tower), respectively. (2) At all three sites the multiple constraints approach was not able to determine if the soil has been losing or storing carbon. Nevertheless, the relaxed steady-state assumption hardly introduced any additional uncertainty for the other parameter estimates. Overall the results suggest that using Δ¹⁴C data from more than one carbon pool or flux helps to better constrain SOC models

Theorising work–life balance endeavours as a gendered project of the self: the case of senior executives in Denmark

Recent work–life balance (WLB) studies offer considerable insight into the challenges and strategies of achieving WLB for senior managers. This study shifts the focus from asking how to asking why individuals are so invested in pursuing a particular kind of WLB. Through analysing 62 life history interviews with male and female senior executives in Denmark, we develop the concept of the gendered project of the self to theorise WLB. We show how for the executives, WLB was not simply an instrumental process of time or role management; instead, pursuing WLB in a certain way was a key part of acquiring and maintaining a particular desired subjectivity or a sense of self as a better person, better worker and better parent. We argue that theorising WLB as the gendered project of the self allows us to explicate the mechanisms through which gendered social and cultural expectations translate into how male and female executives can and want to pursue their WLB goals – first by driving one’s desire for WLB and, second, by shaping and restricting what is desired. In doing so, we highlight the importance of scrutinising the role of broader WLB discourses in shaping the experience and uptake of organisational WLB policies