The European Union and new dimensions of citizenship

The European integration process raises interesting challenges to the conceptualization and the exercise of citizenship in a multinational cosmopolitan context. Certainly, the current institutional architecture of the European Union (EU) faces tough criticism. On the one hand, anti-European parties and Euro-skeptics, by means of Euro-exit initiatives and on nationalist grounds, challenge the very existence of the European integration project. On the other hand, federalist and pro-European intellectuals often complain that the EU has not gone far enough with respect to the democratic, the civic and/or the social integration of the Union. In spite of such criticism, the European integration process has given rise to a novel and singular form of citizenship: the so-called dual form of citizenship. The European dual form of citizenship entails a combination of national and supranational civic membership. EU citizenship –which is automatically conferred on every EU citizen by the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU–, does not replace, but complements national citizenship. In this regard, it implies the automatic expansion and improvement of citizens’ rights and opportunities –for example, the right to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal and European Parliament elections and the right to move and reside freely within the EU–. Moreover, EU treaties (now including the Chapter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, legally binding on the supranational institutions and on national governments since 1 December 2009) and institutions such as the Court of Justice of the European Union, contribute to the enhancement of the legal and judicial mechanisms for the protection of basic rights. In spite of these benefits and achievements, the democratic shortcomings of the EU’s decision-making architecture encourage citizens’ distrust of the EU. In addition, one basic goal and achievement of the European integration project, which is citizens’ mobility within the EU, is facing serious setbacks. Indeed, the Schengen Agreements allow for exceptions which are too easily employed by the member states in order strengthen their borders controls and restrict intra-European mobility; which has just intensified as a consequence of the economic crisis, and more recently, the “refugees crisis”. The focus of my paper is on the conceptual challenge that the European integration project raises to the modern idea of citizenship. One of the basic conditions for the exercise of the democratic citizenship has traditionally been national membership. Yet, this has just been challenged by the European integration process and the dual form of citizenship that it has guaranteed. In Section 08, of the ECPR General Conference, I would like to address the conceptual implications of EU citizenship.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Blending Technologies and Translation Strategies to Optimise Learning Processes

Ponencia presentada pendiente de que se pida para publicaciónTrainers should accept the growing dependence of learners, especially in the case of beginners, have on the use of translation tools and all kind of automatic resources to save time and also to easily find terminology. However, translation strategies, culture competence and terminology pose challenges that must be faced with the right skills beside web basic aids. We are conducting research on the use of corpora tools by students and their competences, first by using surveys and, later on, giving then the instructions to elaborate their own parallel or comparable corpus ad hoc to work with translation assignments. This research focus on the elaboration of glossaries in the legal field using corpora tools and the feedback of students’ awareness of the benefits of technologies when they are properly managed from the beginning of their training. Paradoxically, although technologies appear to have a widespread use in training and learning activities, we found that an intensive training is often needed to optimize students’ translation skills by using translation program and resources.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Global well-posedness and asymptotic behavior in Besov-Morrey spaces for chemotaxis-Navier-Stokes fluids

In this work we consider the Keller-Segel system coupled with Navier-Stokes equations in $\mathbb{R}^{N}$ for $N\geq2$. We prove the global well-posedness with small initial data in Besov-Morrey spaces. Our initial data class extends previous ones found in the literature such as that obtained by Kozono-Miura-Sugiyama (J. Funct. Anal. 2016). It allows to consider initial cell density and fluid velocity concentrated on smooth curves or at points depending on the spatial dimension. Self-similar solutions are obtained depending on the homogeneity of the initial data and considering the case of chemical attractant without degradation rate. Moreover, we analyze the asymptotic stability of solutions at infinity and obtain a class of asymptotically self-similar ones.Comment: 22 pages. Some typos have been corrected. Some references have been updated/correcte

Barry Smith an sich

Festschrift in Honor of Barry Smith on the occasion of his 65th Birthday. Published as issue 4:4 of the journal Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization. Includes contributions by Wolfgang Grassl, Nicola Guarino, John T. Kearns, Rudolf Lüthe, Luc Schneider, Peter Simons, Wojciech Żełaniec, and Jan Woleński

Radical Fluoroalkylation Reactions

Recent protocols and reactions for catalytic radical perfluoroalkylations will be described. The production of perfluoroalkyl radicals (RF = CnF2n+1, n ≥ 2), which effect both addition and substitution reactions on organic substrates, can be realized through a range of diverse methods such as the well-established visible-light transition-metal-mediated photocatalysis, organic-dye-photocatalyzed reactions, electron donor-acceptor complexes, and more recently frustrated Lewis pairs. Thus, perfluoroalkylation reactions of carbon-carbon multiple bonds, isocyanides, nitrones, hydrazones, β-keto esters, α-cyano arylacetates, sulfides, and (hetero)arenes will be described. Special emphasis will be placed on examples published after 2015, where higher fluorinated series of fluoroalkylating reagents are studied.Fil: Barata Vallejo, Sebastian. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Química Orgánica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cooke, María Victoria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Química Orgánica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Postigo, A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Química Orgánica; Argentin

La inteligencia competitiva en España: una encuesta sobre su utilización por parte de las empresas exportadoras

This article analyses the results of a survey among Spanish exporters, and the experiences of four organisations implementing a formal competitive intelligence programme. The research confirms that a formal approach to competitive intelligence, rather than informal or discontinuous approaches, gives businesses of all sizes competitive advantage, and justifies the value of its implementation by Spanish exporters. However, competitive intelligence as a business discipline remains largely unknown and misunderstood in Spain, and few organisations implement systematic programmes to benefit from the intelligence effort. To reach this conclusion the article offers a view of the information needs of Spanish exporters, the use of different intelligence techniques, and the main obstacles they find when implementing formal intelligence systems

Institutional spillovers from the negotiation and formulation of East Asian free trade agreements: government-business relations in the policymaking of bilateral free trade agreements

East Asian countries have implemented around 60 free trade agreements (FTAs), mostly bilateral, to become one of the most active sites of regionalism. The dominant analyses portray these FTAs as driven primarily by foreign policy motivations and promoted by political leaders with businesses marginally involved or interested. It is contended here that, compared to other forms of liberalization, bilateral FTA negotiations promote new institutional arrangements within government agencies and business associations and unique configurations of government–business relations. Formulation of FTAs imposes greater information demands on government officials, which should compel them to consult business associations. In turn, clearer identification of FTAs' impacts and greater chances to affect their formulation should increase business incentives to lobby for or against FTA liberalization domestically and across borders. Demands on officials and business associations upon successive FTAs should foster institutional change/creation to reduce information and coordination costs. These hypotheses were tested on the bilateral FTAs of Thailand and Malaysia. FTAs in these countries stimulated government–business consultations and lobbying by businesses that, for some key FTAs, took the initiative. Successive negotiations strengthened the technical capacities of officials and business associations and stimulated the emergence of new institutions, which may endure to provide similar functions for multilateral rounds

Liberalisation and protection under overlapping free trade agreements: dynamic interplay between free trade agreements and investment

Two decades into the most recent wave of regionalism many of its implications remain to be fully understood. A vast literature has explored the impacts of free trade agreements (FTAs) on investment flows, but less attention has been given to how existing patterns of investment alter FTA liberalisation. It is contended here that the dynamic interplay between overlapping FTA areas and the investment sunk in them shapes governments' and firms' positions regarding further FTA liberalisation. During trade negotiations, a country may decide to exclude a sector from FTA liberalisation to prevent (concession prevention) future FTA partners from making similar demands. Concession prevention could also occur when a foreign firm, holding a dominant market position in a host country, relinquishes liberalisation demands in an FTA between host and home countries to prevent its current position being eroded if the host country grants similar (or better) concessions to competing firms from other countries in future FTAs. Conversely, investment sunk into a country's sensitive sector in the territory of partners from previous FTAs could pre-empt (concession pre-emption) the protectionist position of that country when it subsequently negotiates FTAs with the investment-source countries. These arguments were tested in the negotiations around the liberalisation of the automotive industry that Thailand and Malaysia had with Japan in their respective bilateral FTAs. The distinct interaction between investment and the FTAs in which these countries participate resulted either in entrenchment of protectionism in the sector or its liberalisation across subsequent FTAs

The Digital Rights Movement

The evolution of activism against the expansion of copyright in the digital domain, with case studies of resistance including eBook and iTunes hacks. The movement against restrictive digital copyright protection arose largely in response to the excesses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. In The Digital Rights Movement, Hector Postigo shows that what began as an assertion of consumer rights to digital content has become something broader: a movement concerned not just with consumers and gadgets but with cultural ownership. Increasingly stringent laws and technological measures are more than incoveniences; they lock up access to our “cultural commons.” Postigo describes the legislative history of the DMCA and how policy “blind spots” produced a law at odds with existing and emerging consumer practices. Yet the DMCA established a political and legal rationale brought to bear on digital media, the Internet, and other new technologies. Drawing on social movement theory and science and technology studies, Postigo presents case studies of resistance to increased control over digital media, describing a host of tactics that range from hacking to lobbying. Postigo discusses the movement's new, user-centered conception of “fair use” that seeks to legitimize noncommercial personal and creative uses such as copying legitimately purchased content and remixing music and video tracks. He introduces the concept of technological resistance—when hackers and users design and deploy technologies that allows access to digital content despite technological protection mechanisms—as the flip side to the technological enforcement represented by digital copy protection and a crucial tactic for the movement