Creative Commons: a convergence model between the ideal of commons and the possibilities of creation in contemporary times, opposed to copyright impediments

The contemporary individual finds on the Internet and especially on the Web facilitating conditions to build a basic infrastructure based on the concept of commons. He also finds favorable conditions which allow him to collaborate and share resources for the creation, use, reuse, access and dissemination of information. However, he also faces obstacles such as Copyright (Law 9610/98 in Brazil). An alternative is Creative Commons which not only allows the elaboration, use and dissemination of information under legal conditions but also function as a facilitator for the development of informational commons. This paper deals with this scenario.

Influence of genotype-environment interaction on the classification of Nellore bulls in Southern Brazil

The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of genotype-environment interaction, as well as its effects on the magnitude of genetic parameters and the classification of Nellore breeding bulls for the trait adjusted weight at 205 days (W205) on Southern Brazil. The components of (co)variance were estimated by Bayesian inference, using a linear-linear animal model in a bi-trait analysis. The proposed model for the analyses considers as random the direct additive genetic and maternal effects and residual effects, and as fixed effects the contemporary groups, sex, season of birth and weighing, and calving age as covariable (linear and quadratic effects). The a posteriori mean estimates of the direct heritabilities for W205 in the three States varied from 0.24 in Paraná (PR) to 0.34 in Santa Catarina (SC). The estimates of maternal heritability varied from 0.23 in SC and Rio Grande do Sul (RS) to 0.28 in PR. The a posteriori mean distributions of the genetic correlation varied from 0.52 between SC and RS, to 0.84 between PR and RS, suggesting that the best breeding bulls in SC are not the same as in RS.

Gender in Theology and Religion: a Success Story?! Report from a Conference

In January 2011 some fifty scholars from different parts of Europe met in Groningen, the Netherlands for an expert meeting entitled Gender in theology and religion: a success story?! to analyze the factors that contribute to the successful mainstreaming of gender in a theological discipline and to reflect on the future of gender studies in theology and religious studies. Different speakers highlighted the many successes of gender studies in theology and religious studies: its power to 'trouble' the disciplines and their heuristic categories; its contribution to the development of other disciplines such as queer studies and postcolonial studies; the many PhD studies produced; the number of significant publications that had appeared over the last years. All indicate that gender studies in theology and religious studies have matured. But the participants also pointed towards the ambiguity of the success of gender studies in the academy: the indeterminacy of the institutional position and positions of gender studies in the theological disciplines in seminaries, departments faculties and universities; the lack of male scholars’ engagement in gender studies, which is expressed by their absence in these studies and/or the low reception of gender studies publications in their disciplines. Both ambiguities represent a danger for the future of gender studies, according to the participants in the meeting. In order to further the success of gender in theology and religion they formulated the following recommendations: to analyze the position of these studies in their institutions from the perspective of the implied audience (church, academy, ordinary theologians); engage men in gender studies; embrace the cultural turn in religious studies; develop interdisciplinary cooperations with gender studies in the humanities; engage creatively with the changing role of religion in contemporary society; analyze whose perspective one follows and authorizes in the perception of theology, religious studies and gender studies themselves; record the history of women’s and gender studies in theology and religion, and honor and celebrate the successes.

An Undisclosed Story of Roses: Church, State and Nation in Contemporary Georgia

I will attempt to problematize the typologies of nationalism when applied to the Georgian context, particularly in relationship to nationalism of President Mikheil Saakashvili. I will argue that the state-driven nationalism of post-Rose Revolution government was a hybrid form of ethno-cultural and civic which had elements of ethnic particularism towards the Orthodox Church. By reflecting on the growing assistance of Western institutions to Georgia, I will problematize the extent to which the rise of American and European involvement in the region reinforced the perceptions of the “self” and the “other” among the religious elites since the Rose Revolution. By presenting field research data (interviews) gathered in 23 eparchies and perishes with religious clerics in 7 regions of Georgia, I will argue that religious nationalism in Georgia strengthened not in response to but as an outcome of President Saakashvili’s policies towards the church, and partially as a reaction to the growing dissatisfaction with Western institutions working in Georgia and Western governments’ response to the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. By reflecting on empirical material, the paper attempts to problematize an understanding of religious nationalism as a social movement, an instance of cultural autonomy and a source of identity (Friedland 2001). In response, I suggest viewing religious nationalism in post-communist Georgia as medium of material and political interests

The Catholic Question in Contemporary Portuguese Civil Society: A Case of Muted Vibrancy? CES Papers - Open Forum #14, 2012

The ‘Catholic question’ in contemporary Portugal obliges us to consider whether Catholicism will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the next century, or whether it faces a future of slow and steady decline. On the one hand, an overall statistical drop of church membership, and the lack of religious practice by almost half of self-identified Roman Catholics, suggests that the future of the Catholic Church in Portugal will probably be very different than the past. On the other hand, the church’s support for democratic processes, the important social services it provides, and its educational establishment, have certainly been a positive factor in Portuguese associational life, and helped the larger process of democratic-regime consolidation since the Carnation Revolution of 1974. This paper suggests that social scientists need to move beyond the lens normally applied to the question of Catholicism in contemporary Europe (i.e. it is a dying, anti-modern, anti-rational, conservative institution), and instead consider the complex interplay of its demographic challenges combined with the popular sources of its theological and spiritual strength, as well as its vital societal contributions, to assess whether or not it will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the future.

Religion in Latin America

This issue, edited by LACC Director of Research and Colombian Studies Institute Director, Ana Maria Bidegain, presents today’s Latin American and Caribbean religious landscape through different lenses: country profiles (Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia); sub-regional monographs (River Plate and the Caribbean); vignettes on the evolution of particular religious denominations (Christian, Islamic, and Judaic), communities (indige- nous Pentecostals) and practices (New World African religion). The feature article, authored by leading US expert on Latin American religion, Daniel Levine, examines the relationship between religion and politics in the region after thirty years of democratic rule. Different perspectives are represented: from the North and South of the Americas, as well as Europe.

Genetic structure and mating type analysis of the Pyricularia oryzae population causing widespread epidemics in southern Brazil.

Blast is a major disease of rice in Brazil, the largest rice-producing country outside Asia. This study aimed to assess the genetic structure and mating-type frequency in a contemporary Pyricularia oryzae population, which caused widespread epidemics during the 2012/13 season in the Brazilian lowland subtropical region. Symptomatic leaves and panicles were sampled at flooded rice fields in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (RS, 34 fields) and Santa Catarina (SC, 21 fields). The polymorphism at ten simple sequence repeats (SSR or microsatellite) loci and the presence of MAT1-1 or MAT1-2 idiomorphs were assessed in a population comprised of 187 isolates. Only the MAT1-2 idiomorph was found and 162 genotypes were identified by the SSR analysis. A discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) of SSR data resolved four genetic groups, which were strongly associated with the cultivar of origin of the isolates. There was high level of genotypic diversity and moderate level of gene diversity regardless whether isolates were grouped in subpopulations based on geographic region, cultivar host or cultivar within region. While regional subpopulations were weakly differentiated, high genetic differentiation was found among subpopulations comprised of isolates from different cultivars. The data suggest that the rice blast pathogen population in southern Brazil is comprised of clonal lineages that are adapting to specific cultivar hosts. Farmers should avoid the use of susceptible cultivars over large areas and breeders should focus at enlarging the genetic basis of new cultivars.

‘Beijing bling’: creative details and consumer choices in contemporary China : an interview with Hung Huang

This edited interview with Hung Huang, CEO of China Interactive Media Group (CIMG), was conducted by Lucy Montgomery in Beijing on 12 August 2005. It was done as part of the ARC Discovery research project, Internationalising Creative Industries: China, the WTO and the Knowledge Economy, led by John Hartley. That project is investigating the development of creative industries in China by focusing on a number of creative services including fashion magazines. Huang’s group publishes five fashion magazines in China, including i-Look, Youth International (Qingnian Yizu), which is the Chinese edition of Seventeen (originally founded by TV-Guide mogul Walter Annenberg), and the Beijing and Shanghai versions of London’s Time Out. It also produces TV programs under the same media brands. The company is based in the stylish Bauhaus-designed former factory 798-Space in the district of Dashanzi, Beijing (see www.798space.com). Huang went to school in Greenwich Village and graduated from Vassar College in New York. She is the daughter of Zhang Hanzhi, who was Mao Zedong’s personal English teacher, and stepdaughter of Qiao Guanhua, Foreign Minister of China during the 1970s at the time of the Nixon visit. Her book My Abnormal Life sold 200,000 copies in China.