The Decision on Turkish EU accession in December 2002: The logic of anarchy, collective action problems and rhetorical action

Studies of the EU accession of the East and Central European Countries have stressed the importance of neo-liberal institutionalism as an explanation for Member State preferences. In this paper it is argued that Member States’ preferences over Turkish EU accession are better explained by power politics and neo-realism. It seems therefore that Turkey’s way to the EU follows another path than the East and Central Countries. Turkish accession raises the question of the EU’s role in a uni-polar world order – whether the EU should develop into an independent actor on the world stage or not. However, when it comes to the interaction among the Member States in order to decide on when to open accession negotiations with Turkey the constitutive values of the EU seriously modify the outcome that pure power politics would have let to.

The choice of the form of representation in multinational banking: Evidence from Spain

This paper investigates foreign direct investment in the bankingsector. The attention has been addressed to test the importanceof OLI advantages as the determinants of the bank's decisionto invest in foreign locations. Nevertheless, since banks canexpand their activities abroad through different organizationalforms that imply different levels of foreign involvement, theissue of the form of representation has been tackled. Theresults show the importance of OLI advantages in the form ofrepresentation in multinational banking.

Weak systems of Gandy, Jensen and Devlin

In Part I, we formulate and examine some systems that have arisen in the study of the constructible hierarchy; we find numerous transitive models for them, among which are supertransitive models containing all ordinals that show that Devlin's system BS lies strictly between Gandy's systems PZ and BST'; and we use our models to show that BS fails to handle even the simplest rudimentary functions, and is thus inadequate for the use intended for it in Devlin's treatise. In Part II we propose and study an enhancement of the underlying logic of these systems, build further models to show where the previous hierarchy of systems is preserved by our enhancement; and consider three systems that might serve for Devlin's purposes: one the enhancement of a version of BS, one a formulation of Gandy-Jensen set theory, and the third a subsystem common to those two. In Part III we give new proofs of results of Boffa by constructing three models in which, respectively, TCo, AxPair and AxSing fail; we give some sufficient conditions for a set not to belong to the rudimentary closure of another set, and thus answer a question of McAloon; and we comment on Gandy's numerals and correct and sharpen other of his observations.

On the origin and scope of the second language speech production disadvatage

Los hablantes bilingües tienen un acceso al léxico más lento y menos robusto que los monolingües, incluso cuando hablan en su lengua materna y dominante. Este fenómeno, comúnmente llamado “la desventaja bilingüe” también se observa en hablantes de una segunda lengua en comparación con hablantes de una primera lengua. Una causa que posiblemente contribuya a estas desventajas es el uso de control inhibitorio durante la producción del lenguaje: la inhibición de palabras coactivadas de la lengua actualmente no en uso puede prevenir intrusiones de dicha lengua, pero al mismo tiempo ralentizar la producción del lenguaje. El primer objetivo de los estudios descritos en este informe era testear esta hipótesis mediante diferentes predicciones generadas por teorías de control inhibitorio del lenguaje. Un segundo objetivo era investigar la extensión de la desventaja bilingüe dentro y fuera de la producción de palabras aisladas, así como avanzar en el conocimiento de las variables que la modulan. En lo atingente al primer objetivo, la evidencia obtenida es incompatible con un control inhibitorio global, desafiando la idea de mecanismos específicos en el hablante bilingüe utilizados para la selección léxica. Esto implica que una explicación común para el control de lenguaje y la desventaja bilingüe en el acceso al léxico es poco plausible. En cuanto al segundo objetivo, los resultados muestran que (a) la desventaja bilingüe no tiene un impacto al acceso a la memoria; (b) la desventaja bilingüe extiende a la producción del habla conectada; y (c) similitudes entre lenguas a diferentes niveles de representación así como la frecuencia de uso son factores que modulan la desventaja bilingüe.   

Market and institutional determinants in the regulation of conveyancers

Demand for law professionals in the conveyancing of property is decreasing because of market and institutional changes. On the market side, many transactions feature large, well-known parties and standardized transactions, which make professionals less effective or necessary for protecting the parties to private contracts. On the institutional side, public titling makes it possible to dispense with a broadening set of their former functions. Recording of deeds made professionals redundant as depositories of deeds and reduced demand for them to design title guarantees. Effective registration of rights increasingly substitutes professionals for detecting title conflicts with third parties and gathering their consent. Market changes undermine the information asymmetry rationale for regulating conveyancing, while institutional changes facilitate liberalizing not only conduct but also license regulations. These arguments are supported here by disentangling the logic of titling systems and presenting empirical evidence from the European and USA markets.

Cultural Planning and community sustainability: The case of the Cultural Facilities Plan of Catalonia (PECCAT 2010-20)

The government of Catalonia has developed a planning framework that seeks to establish the provision of cultural facilities throughout the country. The Cultural Facilities Plan of Catalonia (PECCAT) is based on an analysis of historical gaps and establishes a minimum spatial scheme. The plan responds to problems associated with the absence of a former similar instrument, which has led to an inconsistent and inappropriate cultural infrastructure that fails to fulfill its fundamental mission of securing the cultural rights of the population. The paper sets forth the aims of this policy and describes the objectives and basic characteristics of the plan and the expected outcomes. With the plan, the government of Catalonia seeks to rebalance the infrastructure within the territory and to ensure universal access to basic cultural services, while avoiding a logic of standardization and taking local communities into account. With the development of local plans in the municipalities, local governments encourage community participation processes to adapt and decide on priorities for action based on needs assessments and cultural opportunities for local sustainable development. The local plans focus on local cultural strengths, take advantage of opportunities, and aim to realize the cultural dynamics of a place through establishing an infrastructure that can best respond to the needs and cultural demands of the local communities, taking into account economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Why did London become the main money market? Monetary Policy, Arbitrage and European Money Market Integration in 18th century

How did the leading capital market start to attract international bullion? Why did London become the main money market? Monetary regulations, including the charges for minting money and the restrictions on bullion exchange, have played the key role in defining the direction of the flow of international bullion. Countries that abolished minting charges and permitted the free movement of bullion were able to attract international bullion, and countries that applied minting taxes suffered an outflow of bullion. In these cases monetary authorities tried to limit bullion movement through prohibitions on domestic bullion exchange at a free price, and tariffs and quantitative restrictions on bullion exports. The paper illustrates the logic of international monetary flow in the 18th century, using empirical evidence for England, France and Spain. The first section defines and measures monetary policy, and the second section introduces minting charges into the arbitrage equation in order to explain the logic of bullion flow between the pairs of nations England-France, England-Spain and France-Spain. The conclusion emphasises the importance of monetary policy in the creation of leading money markets.

EU foreign policy towards Georgia: just for energy?

The paper analyses how the EU foreign policy towards Georgia changed after the Rose Revolution, reaching greater levels of involvement and assistance. It is argued that the pro-western and reformist new government in Georgia triggered a new orientation in the EU foreign policy towards the country based on a logic of appropriateness, that is EU´s values, in addition to energy interests. Comparative analysis in the Southern-Caucasus and other Eastern-European countries shows how reformist and pro-EU governments receive more EU support and assistance. This does not mean that material interest do not play an important role. However, the EU seems to be coherent with its values when regarding the European neighbourhood.

The Monetary policy rules and the inflation process in open emerging

This paper has three objectives. First, it aims at revealing the logic of interest rate setting pursued by monetary authorities of 12 new EU members. Using estimation of an augmented Taylor rule, we find that this setting was not always consistent with the official monetary policy. Second, we seek to shed light on the inflation process of these countries. To this end, we carry out an estimation of an open economy Philips curve (PC). Our main finding is that inflation rates were not only driven by backward persistency but also held a forward-looking component. Finally, we assess the viability of existing monetary arrangements for price stability. The analysis of the conditional inflation variance obtained from GARCH estimation of PC is used for this purpose. We conclude that inflation targeting is preferable to an exchange rate peg because it allowed decreasing the inflation rate and anchored its volatility.

Desenvolupament d'un videojoc en 3D

La industria de los videojuegos crece exponencialmente y está ya superando a otras industrias punteras del ocio. En este proyecto, nos hemos planteado la realización de un videojuego con visualización en el espacio real 3D. Para la realización del videojuego se ha usado el siguiente software: Blender para diseñar los modelos 3D, C++ como lenguaje de programación para desarrollar el código y un conjunto de librerías básicas para desarrollar un videojuego llamadas Ogre3d (Motor Gráfico). La lógica del movimiento 3D y los choques entre las partículas del juego ha sido diseñada enteramente en este proyecto acorde con las necesidades del videojuego, y de forma compatible a los ficheros de Blender y a las librerías OGRE3D.

Les communautés bulu contre la plantation industrielle HEVECAM au Cameroun

In 1975 the Kribi region (Southern Cameroon) became host of the rubber plantation HEVECAM, the third largest employer in Cameroon. The establishment of the plantation has been preceded by the expropriation of customary land and by the destruction of the rainforest used by local populations. As a result, conflicts – mostly latent – pitting neighbouring Bulu communities against the plantation have occurred, especially during the last few years. Drawing on fieldwork data as well as on anthropological, economic and historical materials, I try to explore a new way of looking at such environmental conflicts by arguing that they reflect the struggle between two distinct institutional logics with different impacts on the environment, i.e. the logic of property versus the one of possession. In short, the logic of possession corresponds to a multi-functional community-based forest management, while the logic of property gave birth to the commercial monoculture model, the highest stage of the transformation of an ecosystem in order to match the requirements of property. It is argued that the conflict between the logic of possession and the logic of property is at the heart of many cases of “environmentalisms of the poor” that arise in reaction to “development”.

Las Imágenes del malestar. Representaciones del yo y la construcción de subjetividad en la producción audiovisual contemporánea y en los nuevos dispositivos tecnológicos

El tema de la investigación propuesto aquí, se centra en el malestar social, y la representación de éste desde un punto de vista personal y autobiográfico, algo que en estas página denomino Autorepresentación del malestar social. ¿Cómo se autorepresenta el malestar y qué prácticas artísticas se emplean para ello? ¿Cuáles son la transformaciones que provocan estas prácticas artísticas en el terreno audiovisual? En este sentido, exploraremos dos vías de análisis: por un lado nos interesa observar cuales han sido las modificaciones que el poder ha desarrollado para establecer nuevas formas de explotación, y por otro lado, veremos como estas modificaciones están generando una nueva praxis social donde las prácticas artísticas cobran un nuevo y reforzado sentido, así como una nueva capacidad política, individual y colectiva a un mismo tiempo, cargada de una fuerza transformadora capaz de componer nuevos espacios de sujeto. Analizaremos, desde la representación del yo en la vida cotidiana, el género y las relaciones interpersonales, hasta las transformaciones contemporáneas del trabajo, y los cambios en la construcción de la subjetividad. El principal elemento en el que se apoyaran nuestras investigaciones será el anàlisis de producciones audiovisuales contemporáneas y la distribución de estas en algunas de las redes de comunicación contemporáneas, intentando mostrar, de esta manera, la interacción y los efectos directos que provocan en la realidad social.

BD:XML natives per a documents MPEG-7

Aquest projecte avalua diferents BD:XML natives per a desar i recuperar documents XML basats en l'estàndard MPEG-7. Es tracta d'un estàndard que proposa un llenguatge per descriure el contingut (metadades) de documents multimèdia, és a dir, àudio i vídeo. El seu format de representació és XML i es basa en un esquema ja predefinit (XMLSchema d'MPEG-7).

Mètodes empírics en lingüística cognitiva

Peer-reviewed

Comparing correspondence analysis and the log-ratio alternative for representing categorical data

We compare correspondance análisis to the logratio approach based on compositional data. We also compare correspondance análisis and an alternative approach using Hellinger distance, for representing categorical data in a contingency table. We propose a coefficient which globally measures the similarity between these approaches. This coefficient can be decomposed into several components, one component for each principal dimension, indicating the contribution of the dimensions to the difference between the two representations. These three methods of representation can produce quite similar results. One illustrative example is given