Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa���s history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa���s history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.

Typical reggaeton in Morocco: forms of female political affirmation throught dance

Through an ethnographic account, this text analyses how social dance may become a discourse involving the cultural affirmation of a subordinate group. It describes how a group of girls faced with a complex of outlooks that construed them as Moroccan, Muslim or unattractive ���or as objects of education and intervention��� responded by affirming their own culture with an unanticipated corporal discourse. The way in which looking construes bodies is explored through metaphors: a hand that touches, a chisel that sculpts, a whip that lashes and a cobweb that controls and traps bodies. Owing to this political dimension of dance, workshops can also be an oppressive and silencing tool; to prevent this, the article concludes with a series of recommendations to implement dance in social intervention processes.

El apoyo a la investigaci��n en las bibliotecas universitarias espa��olas

Los cambios sufridos por los modelos de comunicaci��n cient��fica hacen que las bibliotecas universitarias se vean obligadas a dar nuevos servicios. Para adecuarse al investigador los bibliotecarios est��n desarrollando habilidades, colaborando con cada vez m��s estamentos y sustentando el acceso abierto. Apoy��ndose en una lista de posibles servicios, basada en la literatura especializada, este trabajo pretende cuantificar y evaluar el apoyo a la investigaci��n desde las bibliotecas universitarias espa��olas. El sondeo demuestra la aparici��n de nuevos servicios e infraestructuras. Pero estas asistencias no suelen sistematizarse, difundirse ni evaluarse. Y, por otra parte, las consecuentes inversiones en personal y TIC han generado una brecha entre universidades

The first chronicle of Miguel Hernandez: The New Journalism (1936-1939)

This paper presents and analyzes the first literary-journalistic chronicle writen and published by Miguel Hern��ndez: ���Defensa de Madrid. Madrid y las ciudades de Retaguardia���, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This chronicle is the first one of a series establishing a new and personal type of journalism: literary chronicles ���poetical and political-. Miguel Hernandez published his masterpieces in different newspapers as a war reporter, with his own name and with a pen-name, playing roles of director and political commissar in different newspapers in the war-trenches. Thematically, this first article shows his personal and political engagement, as well as his desire and strategy to protect the capital city of Spain: Madrid. Methodologically, the analysis is an approached to linguistics in social sciences, which presents some of the personal characteristics and style of the chronist Miguel Hern��ndez. Thus, it becomes patent that the so-called New Journalism (narrative and literary), which flourished in the 70s, had already been deeply and efficiently practiced by Miguel Hern��ndez 40 years before. That is the reason why Miguel Hern��ndez deserves to be added to the well-known collective of chronicle writers that have already been rescued to this moment. His literary style and quality are installing him in a outstanding position as well as pioneer of the genre nowadays known as New Journalism that in his case, it is politically engaged

La otra Ley de Foucault. Una lectura cr��tica

Few studies have addressed the relationship between law and power in the works of Michel Foucault. Some authors emphasize that law performs a completely secondary role in the diagram of power of modernity, while others argue that there is a close link between power relations and the law. Foucault's Law by Golden and Fitzpatrick aims to renew these discussions and reconstruct another law of Foucault. In this paper I make a critical reading of this work, highlighting the faulty presentation that the authors carried out of the works of Foucault.

The proposal of democratic citizenship in Hannah Arendt

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze Hannah Arendt���s citizenship proposal. The central thesis is that this proposal is possible in contemporary democracies, and it is adequate for developing and strengthening of political action. The work is divided in five sections. In the first, we develop a brief introduction on the studied issue. In the second and third section, we analyze, respec-tively, political and moral conditions that enable democratic citizenship, and the conditions that hinder the exercise of the same, according to Arendt. Then, we reflect critically on Arendt���s citizenship proposal. Finally, we conclude and we propose a set of civic challenges relate to current democracies in light of the above proposal.

The (in)visible scar. Representation of the body in blogs by women with breast cancer

In this paper we analyze the representation of the body in blogs by women with breast cancer. Taking into account both texts and images, we study the representation of the body on the basis of the body problems proposed by Frank (1995): control, body-relatedness, other-relatedness and desire. In the blogs studied we find a desiring and dyadic body, which is understood as part of a network of affection and care. The diagnosis of cancer can generate both dissociation, when the body is experienced as a threat, and association, a wish to be connected to it. In relation to control, a clear will of predictability is observed but traces of assumption of contingency also appear.

The reform of Welfare Regimes in Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay

The aim of this article is to analyze the social policy in Latin America in a context of emerging welfare states. To understand the changes one takes into consideration the theories about institutional reform and the transformations produced in the XX century and the beginning of the XXI to substitute a social security regime mainly based on segmentation of benefi ts and on programs to fi ght poverty by another with an institutional and redistributive nature. The paper pays attention in particular to the path of the most developed welfare states of Latin America: Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay.

Welfare Effort and Poverty from the Monetary and Capabilities Approach: A Cross-Country Analysis in Latin American and the Caribbean (1990-2010)

There is abundant empirical evidence on the negative relationship between welfare effort and poverty. However, poverty indicators traditionally used have been representative of the monetary approach, excluding its multidimensional reality from the analysis. Using three regression techniques for the period 1990-2010 and controlling for demographic and cyclical factors, this paper examines the relationship between social spending per capita ���as the indicator of welfare effort��� and poverty in up to 21 countries of the region. The proportion of the population with an income below its national basic basket of goods and services (PM1) and the proportion of population with an income below 50% of the median income per capita (PM2) were the two poverty indicators considered from the monetarist approach to measure poverty. From the capability approach the proportion of the population with food inadequacy (PC1) and the proportion of the population without access to improved water sources or sanitation facilities (PC2) were used. The fi ndings confi rm that social spending is actually useful to explain changes in poverty (PM1, PC1 and PC2), as there is a high negative and signifi cant correlation between the variables before and after controlling for demographic and cyclical factors. In two regression techniques, social spending per capita did not show a negative relationship with the PM2. Countries with greater welfare effort for the period 1990-2010 were not necessarily those with the lowest level of poverty. Ultimately social spending per capita was more useful to explain changes in poverty from the capability approach.

Places making: participatory construction of scientifi c culture cities

In the framework of the European project Platform of Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science (PLACES), we analyse the articulations between scientifi c communication, public perception of science, processes of citizen participation and apropiation of space, based on a case study of the inhabitants of Teruel city, Autonomous Community of Aragon, Spain. On the interrelationships between these issues, there are a number of contradictions, such as the difference between a high interest for information about science and technology and a low level of recognition and interaction with local institutions involved in those activities, the complex conceptualization of scientifi c space in relation to the ���public-private��� pair, or an articulation of a claiming civic rethoric and an insuffi cient co-responsibility. We conclude that, in a local context, the dimension of territoriality and, in particular, the identifi cation with the town, is a central mediation for activating citizen participation as part of processes of appropriation of space for setting up cities of scientifi c culture.

Unraveling EU Policies: the �����Common Basic Principles����� and the �����European Integration Fund����� as a technology of government

this paper is about EU ���soft policies��� on immigrant integration. It analyzes the ���Common Basic Principles��� (CBPs) and the ���European Integration Fund��� (EIF), two devices that have been recently established within this framework. It adopts the theoretical perspective of the ���anthropology of policy��� and ���governmentality studies���. It shows the context of birth of the aforementioned devices, as well as their functioning and the assessment done by the actors implied in the elaboration/implementation/evaluation of the related policies. It is based both on documentary research as well as direct observation and interviews done to the actors implied. It concludes that the PBC and the EIF should be considered as a ���technology of government���, that strives to align the conduct of the actors with the governmental aims, as well as it produces specific practices and knowledge. It also underlines an intrinsic feature of many policies: their ���congenital failure���, since they are (often) disputed and resignified by situated actors, who are embedded in asymmetrical power relations.

Factores explicativos de las actitudes hacia el castigo juvenil. Evidencias de un dise��o factorial

El rol desempe��ado por la opini��n p��blica en el desarrollo de la pol��tica criminal actual justifica el incremento de investigaciones destinadas a evaluar las actitudes de los ciudadanos hacia el castigo. No obstante, los avances en este ��mbito han sido limitados debido a la utilizaci��n de rudimentarios instrumentos de medida. Por ello, el presente trabajo tiene como prop��sito explorar el efecto que generan en la opini��n ciudadana ciertas variables referidas al hecho delictivo y al infractor, precisando su contribuci��n relativa y la interacci��n existente entre ellas. Para satisfacer este objetivo se recurri�� a un dise��o factorial de la encuesta, creando una poblaci��n de 256 casos-escenario fruto de la combinaci��n de cuatro factores: la edad del joven, su historial delictivo, el grado de implicaci��n en el hecho y el tipo de delito cometido. Los mismos fueron distribuidos en grupos de ocho casos ordenados aleatoriamente y fueron suministrados a 32 sujetos. Posteriormente se aplicaron an��lisis de regresi��n log��stica binaria. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que la naturaleza violenta de los hechos, la implicaci��n activa de los j��venes y el historial delictivo son predictores importantes de las condenas punitivas. Sin embargo la edad, una variable fundamental en la configuraci��n de la justicia juvenil, no resulta significativa. De este modo, el trabajo muestra el potencial explicativo de este conjunto de factores y debate sus implicaciones te��ricas y metodol��gicas para la investigaci��n futura en este terreno.

De la cooperativa agroalimentaria a la "learning netchain". Hacia un planteamiento teorico interorganizativo e interpersonal

Se propone un planteamiento te��rico/conceptual para determinar si las relaciones interorganizativas e interpersonales de la netchain de las cooperativas agroalimentarias evolucionan hacia una learning netchain. Las propuestas del trabajo muestran que el mayor grado de asociacionismo y la mayor cooperaci��n/colaboraci��n vertical a lo largo de la cadena est��n positivamente relacionados con la posici��n horizontal de la empresa focal m��s cercana del consumidor final. Esto requiere una planificaci��n y una resoluci��n de problemas de manera conjunta, lo que est�� positivamente relacionado con el mayor flujo y diversidad de la informaci��n/conocimiento obtenido y diseminado a lo largo de la netchain. Al mismo tiempo se necesita desarrollar un contexto social en el que fluya la informaci��n/conocimiento y las nuevas ideas de manera informal y esto se logra con redes personales y, principalmente, profesionales y con redes internas y, principalmente, externas. Todo esto permitir�� una mayor satisfacci��n de los socios de la cooperativa agroalimentaria y de sus distribuidores y una mayor intensidad en I+D, convirti��ndose la netchain de la cooperativa agroalimentaria, as��, en una learning netchain.

Calibration of assessment instruments ��� classification in mathematics at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano

Item Response Theory, IRT, is a valuable methodology for analyzing the quality of the instruments utilized in assessment of academic achievement. This article presents an implementation of the mentioned theory, particularly of the Rasch model, in order to calibrate items and the instrument used in the classification test for the Basic Mathematics subject at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano. 509 responses chains of students, obtained in the june 2011 application, were analyzed with a set of 45 items, through eight case studies that are showing progressive steps of calibration. Criteria of validity of items and of whole instrument were defined and utilized, to select groups of responses chains and items that were finally used in the determination of parameters which then allowed the classification of assessed students by the test.

Blogs as virtual environments for teaching and learning in Higher Education

The transformation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into knowledge and learning technologies is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Teaching settings associated with the use of blogs in Higher Education are presented in this paper, proceeding from an innovative learning experience of projects carried out by a group of professors between 2009 and 2013. Both, teachers and students who took part in the subjects that implemented the blog, considered it as helpful resource to create a virtual and learning-teaching environment due to the multiple potentialities it offers. Among some of these potentialities, some stand out: it makes easier the access to knowledge, promotes a more active and reflective learning, expands the social experience of learning, provides evidence about the students��� progress which helps to reorient the teaching-learning process, and encourages the critical judgment. Nevertheless, several problems related with the students��� participation and the teacher���s blog management have been identified.