The European Union Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and Central Asia: The Limitations of the Opening towards the East

This article intends to study the evolution of the European Union foreign policy in the Southern Caucasus and Central Area throughout the Post-Cold War era. The aim is to analyze Brussels’ fundamental interests and limitations in the area, the strategies it has implemented in the last few years, and the extent to which the EU has been able to undermine the regional hegemons’ traditional supremacy. As will be highlighted, the Community’s chronic weaknesses, the local determination to preserve sovereignty and an increasing international geopolitical competition undermine any European aspiration to become a pre-eminent actor at the heart of the Eurasian continent in the near future.

Social networks applied to training

In this article, we address the importance and relevance that social networks exhibit in their use as an educational resource.  This relevance relies in the possibility of implementing new learning resources or increasing the level of the participant's connectivity, as well as developing learning communities.  Also, the risk entailed from their use is discussed, especially for the students that have a low technological education or those having excessive confidence on the media.  It is important to highlight that the educational use of social networks is not a simple extension or translation of the student's habitual, recreational use, but that it implies an important change in the roles given to teachers as well as learners; from accommodative learning environments that only encourage memorization to other environments that demand an active, reflective, collaborative and proactive attitude, that require the development/acquisition of technological as well as social abilities, aptitudes and values.  It is also important to highlight that a correct implementation and adequate use will not only foment formal learning, but also informal and non-formal learning.

Contribution to the knowlegde of Galician xenoflora (NW Iberian Peninsula, Spain).

Information on 12 exotic plants of diverse interest for the Galician flora are presented. All of them were collected in Ribeira council (SW of the A Coruña province). The total includes 8 novelties at a regional level (Aeonium haworthii, Aloe mitriformis, Brugmansia × candida, Nephrolepis cordifolia, Osteospermum ecklonis, Pelargonium capitatum, Sedum mexicanum, Sparaxis tricolor), and 2 provincial novelties. In addition, information on two taxa hardly mentioned in the literature on Galician vascular flora is also included. All the cited specimens are deposited at the SANT Herbarium.

Diversity of functional groups in the vegetation sandy seashore of the Grande, Anclitas and Caguamas Cays (Jardines de la Reina Archipelago, Cuba)

Sandy shores are known to be extreme ecosystems where the vegetation has evolved many morphological and physiological adaptations for its survival. With the aim of identify possible relationships between the vegetation´s functional diversity with abiotic factors and its corresponding quantification, we collected data on the abundance and richness of the sandy coast vegetation complex in Grande, Anclitas and Caguamas keys. Its flora is largely characterized by the dominance of hemicryptophytes and chamaephytes plants with nanophyllous leaves and displaying dispersal syndromes such as zoochory and anemochory. However, the functional groups´ richness, in the present study, varies from one key to another. Functional diversity is similar between the wet and dry seasons, and its spatial variation is influenced by the interplay of the set of abiotic factors herein studied.

Los nuevos territorios de la gráfica: imagen, proceso y distribución

La gráfica se encuentra en un proceso de simbiosis con la cultura visual en el que la tecnología de la imagen, la descentralización de la matriz y la adaptación del formato expositivo se funden con el resto de las actividades artísticas. El análisis de las comunidades formadas alrededor de esta práctica configura un puzzle, aparentemente bien encajado, que se divide entre el formalismo y el conceptualismo y entre la idea y el proceso. Las bienales y trienales, a la vanguardia del discurso, cuestionan cualquier concepto que se haya podido asentar con solidez: ante la decadencia del proceso artesanal el mensaje se profundiza nutriéndose de la invectiva provocada por las contradicciones sociales, territoriales y medioambientales para convertirse en un reflejo de la sociedad contemporánea. Comprender la gráfica actual pasa por un ejercicio de aperturismo y un proceso de adaptación al cambio técnico e iconográfico de los sectores implicados. El grabado es ahora un territorio en el que la integración de todas las artes permite cruzar sus fronteras con fluidez.

La recuperación mutua en personas con trastornos psicológicos o diversidad funcional a través de la práctica creativa

En el presente artículo introducimos el concepto de “recuperación mutua” y proponemos las prácticas creativas como herramientas eficientesde recuperación de personas tanto con problemas de salud mental como con algún tipo de diversidad funcional. Frente al concepto clásico de “arte-terapia” nosotros proponemos el concepto de “práctica creativa” como más compatible con el modelo de “recuperación mutua”. Para ello, en primer lugar realizamos un breve repaso crítico a la relación del arte con la locura. Seguidamente, presentamos los conceptos hermanos de “recuperación” y “recuperación mutua” en el marco de lo que se ha venido a denominar las “health humanities”. Para finalizar, describimos dos prácticas creativas que en la actualidad están siendo evaluadas en España en el contexto de un proyecto de investigacióninternacional en recuperación mutua: Los seminarios creativos con personas con trastorno mental grave en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla y el grupo de teatro con personas con diversidad funcional de la Asociación Síndrome de Down-Sevilla