Detecting conflictive cultural factors in complex scenarios of intervention: Military and local actors in interaction

The integration of cultural elements into the operational planning process is a complex task that requires practical and theroretical tools for a wide comprehension of the context to help solve the problem. This article shows the results of an empirical research which presents conflicting cultural factors as the starting point for the construction of mediating structures. The main result of our research is a partial cognitive structure, a system of ideas, represented in a template listing the basic conflictive factors at the tactical level that military could find in the development of their tasks. The template is also a valuable aid to design military training curricula and to be applied to any post-conflict stability operation in complex environments resulting from irregular or asymmetric conflicts.

The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body: Transformation and Transgression

The regulation of the body provides an important concern in law, medical practice and culture. This volume contributes to existing research in the area by encouraging experts from a range of related disciplines to consider the legal, cultural and medical ways in which we regulate the body, further exploring how conceptions of self, liberalism, property and harm inform and influence contentious legal and ethical questions about what we can and cannot do to or with our own bodies.

Balancing cultural diversity and social cohesion in education: The potential of shared education in divided contexts

This article considers how the education systems of divided societies have been shaped in response to the experience of ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis identifies two competing priorities in such contexts – the development of social cohesion and the protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities - and explores how these may be reconciled through a model of ‘shared education’. Drawing on research evidence and recent experience of shared education in relation to Northern Ireland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus, we reflect on the advantages and challenges of this model in areas experiencing conflict and division.

Faulkner revisited : narrating property, race, gender and history in William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Gloria Naylor's Mama Day

My thesis explores the formation of the subject in the novels of Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day. I attach the concept of property in terms of how male protagonists are obsessed with materialistic ownership and with the subordination of women who, as properties, consolidate their manhood. The three novelists despite their racial, gendered, and literary differences share the view that identity and truth are mere social and cultural constructs. I incorporate the work of Judith Butler and other poststructuralist figures, who see identity as a matter of performance rather than a natural entity. My thesis explores the theme of freedom, which I attached to the ways characters use their bodies either to confine or to emancipate themselves from the restricting world of race, class, and gender. The three novelists deconstruct any system of belief that promulgates the objectivity of truth in historical documents. History in the three novels, as with the protagonists, perception of identity, remains a social construct laden with distortions to serve particular political or ideological agendas. My thesis gives voice to African American female characters who are associated with love and racial and gender resistance. They become the reservoirs of the African American legacy in terms of their association with the oral and intuitionist mode of knowing, which subverts the male characters’ obsession with property and with the mainstream empiricist world. In this dissertation, I use the concept of hybridity as a literary and theoretical devise that African-American writers employ. In effect, I embark on the postcolonial studies of Henry Louise Gates, Paul Gilroy, W. E. B Du Bois, James Clifford, and Arjun Appadurai in order to reflect upon the fluidity of Morrison’s and Naylor’s works. I show how these two novelists subvert Faulkner’s essentialist perception of truth, and of racial and gendered identity. They associate the myth of the Flying African with the notion of hybridity by making their male protagonists criss-cross Northern and Southern regions. I refer to Mae Gwendolyn Henderson’s article on “Speaking in Tongues” in my analysis of how Naylor subverts the patriarchal text of both Faulkner and Morrison in embarking on a more feminine version of the flying African, which she relates to an ex-slave, Sapphira Wade, a volatile female character who resists fixed claim over her story and identity. In dealing with the concept of hybridity, I show that Naylor rewrites both authors’ South by making Willow Springs a more fluid space, an assumption that unsettles the scores of critics who associate the island with authenticity and exclusive rootedness.

Evaluating the conservation of graffiti based on cultural significance.

Purpose – Graffiti, both ancient and contemporary, could be argued to be significant and therefore worthy of protection. Attaching value is, however, subjective with no specific method being solely utilised for evaluating these items. The purpose of this paper to help those who are attempting to evaluate the merit of graffiti to do so, by determining “cultural significance”, which is a widely adopted concept for attaching value to the historic built environment. The current Scottish system utilised to assess “cultural significance” is the Scottish Historic Environment Policy (SHEP) which shares many common features with other determinants of cultural significance in different countries. The SHEP document, as with other systems, could however be criticised for being insufficiently sensitive to enable the evaluation of historic graffiti due, in part, to the subjective nature of determination of aesthetic value. Design/methodology/approach – A review of literature is followed by consideration of case studies taken from a variety of historical and geographical contexts. The majority of examples of graffiti included in this paper have been selected for their relative high profile, previous academic study, and breadth of geographic spread. This selection will hopefully enable a relatively comprehensive, rational assessment to be undertaken. That being said, one example has been integrated to reflect commonly occurring graffiti that is typical to all of the built environment. Findings – The determination of aesthetic value is particularly problematic for the evaluator and the use of additional art‐based mechanisms such as “significant form”, “self expression” and “meaning” may aid this process. Regrettably, these determinants are also in themselves subjective, enhancing complexity of evaluation. Almost all graffiti could be said to have artistic merit, using the aforementioned determinants. However, whether it is “good” art is an all together different question. The evaluation of “good” art and graffiti would have traditionally been evaluated by experts. Today, determination of graffiti should be evaluated and value attached by broader society, community groups, and experts alike. Originality/value – This research will assist those responsible for historic building conservation with the evaluation of whether graffiti is worthy of conservation.

The cultural policy in Italy and the innovations of the XXI century

The paper analyzes the development of the first experiences of the sixteenth century cultural policy in Italy until the beginning of the twenty-first century with the institutional reform initiated by the Minister Dario Franceschini. In the pre-unification State it has been many important contributions of several local rulers who imposed conservation policies to prevent the dispersal of works of art. After the unification of Italy (1861) the laws of protection of the national heritage have helped to initiate the first important initiatives that have developed in practice only at the end of the twentieth century. Great institutional innovations and regulatory activated in the twenty-first century and of which this paper provides some important insights and deepening.

Between Bacchus and Dionysus: European Union policies on rural development: the cases of Nemea and Basto wine regions

A actividade vitivinícola possui um conjunto diverso de características presentes no solo, território e comunidade que fazem parte do património cultural de uma determinada região. Quando a tradição se traduz num conceito como terroir que é formado por características territoriais, sociais e culturais de uma região rural, o vinho apresenta uma “assinatura” que se escreve “naturalmente” no paladar regionalmente identificado. Os vinhos da Região de Nemea, na Grécia e de Basto (Região dos Vinhos Verdes) em Portugal, estão ambos sob a proteção dos regulamentos das Denominações de Origem. No entanto, apesar de ambos serem regulados por sistemas institucionais de certificação e controlo de qualidade, afigura-se a necessidade de questionar se o património cultural e a identidade territorial específica, “impressa” em ambos os terroirs, pode ser protegida num sentido mais abrangente do que apenas origem e qualidade. Em Nemea, a discussão entre os produtores diz respeito ao estabelecimento de sub-zonas, isto é incluir na regulação PDO uma diferente categorização territorial com base no terroir. Ou seja, para além de estar presente no rótulo a designação PDO, as garrafas incluirão ainda informação certificada sobre a área específica (dentro do mesmo terroir) onde o vinho foi produzido. A acontecer resultaria em diferentes status de qualidade de acordo com as diferentes aldeias de Nemea onde as vinhas estão localizadas. O que teria possíveis impactos no valor das propriedades e no uso dos solos. Para além disso, a não participação da Cooperativa de Nemea na SON (a associação local de produtores de vinho) e como tal na discussão principal sobre as mudanças e os desafios sobre o terroir de Nemea constitui um problema no sector vitivinícola de Nemea. Em primeiro lugar estabelece uma relação de não-comunicação entre os dois mais importantes agentes desse sector – as companhias vinícolas e a Cooperativa. Em segundo lugar porque constituiu uma possibilidade real, não só para os viticultores ficarem arredados dessa discussão, como também (porque não representados pela cooperativa) ficar impossibilitado um consenso sobre as mudanças discutidas. Isto poderá criar um ‘clima’ de desconfiança levando a discussão para ‘arenas’ deslocalizadas e como tal para decisões ‘desterritorializadas’ Em Basto, há vários produtores que começaram a vender a sua produção para distribuidoras localizadas externamente à sub-região de Basto, mas dentro da Região dos Vinhos Verdes, uma vez que essas companhias tem um melhor estatuto nacional e internacional e uma melhor rede de exportações. Isto está ainda relacionado com uma competição por uma melhor rede de contactos e status mais forte, tornando as discussões sobre estratégias comuns para o desenvolvimento rural e regional de Basto mais difícil de acontecer (sobre isto a palavra impossível foi constantemente usada durante as entrevistas com os produtores de vinho). A relação predominante entre produtores é caracterizada por relações individualistas. Contudo foi observado que essas posições são ainda caracterizadas por uma desconfiança no interior da rede interprofissional local: conflitos para conseguir os mesmos potenciais clientes; comprar uvas a viticultores com melhor rácio qualidade/preço; estratégias individuais para conseguir um melhor status político na relação com a Comissão dos Vinhos Verdes. Para além disso a inexistência de uma activa intermediação institucional (autoridades municipais e a Comissão de Vinho Verde), a inexistência entre os produtores de Basto de uma associação ou mesmo a inexistência de uma cooperativa local tem levado a região de Basto a uma posição de subpromoção nas estratégias de promoção do Vinho Verde em comparação com outras sub-regiões. É também evidente pelos resultados que as mudanças no sector vitivinícolas na região de Basto têm sido estimuladas de fora da região (em resposta também às necessidades dos mercados internacionais) e raramente de dentro – mais uma vez, ‘arenas’ não localizadas e como tal decisões desterritorializadas. Nesse sentido, toda essa discussão e planeamento estratégico, terão um papel vital na preservação da identidade localizada do terroir perante os riscos de descaracterização e desterritorialização. Em suma, para ambos os casos, um dos maiores desafios parece ser como preservar o terroir vitivinícola e como tal o seu carácter e identidade local, quando a rede interprofissional em ambas as regiões se caracteriza, tanto por relações não-consensuais em Nemea como pelo modus operandi de isolamento sem comunicação em Basto. Como tal há uma necessidade de envolvimento entre os diversos agentes e as autoridades locais no sentido de uma rede localizada de governança. Assim sendo, em ambas as regiões, a existência dessa rede é essencial para prevenir os efeitos negativos na identidade do produto e na sua produção. Uma estratégia de planeamento integrado para o sector será vital para preservar essa identidade, prevenindo a sua desterritorialização através de uma restruturação do conhecimento tradicional em simultâneo com a democratização do acesso ao conhecimento das técnicas modernas de produção vitivinícola.

CONCERNS REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT IN THE INTERNET

The advent of the World Network(Net) Internet and the use of the technology in the digital environment raised new challenges to the author's copyright. These worries were considered in the last international agreements, so that the warning is not true of those who postulate that the Internet is a " territory of nobody ", where the works are unprotected completely. To educate on the topic of the protection of the author's copyright and to provide with resources the instances(authorities) in charge of the observance of these rights looks like an ineluctable task.

Faulkner revisited : narrating property, race, gender and history in William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Gloria Naylor's Mama Day

My thesis explores the formation of the subject in the novels of Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day. I attach the concept of property in terms of how male protagonists are obsessed with materialistic ownership and with the subordination of women who, as properties, consolidate their manhood. The three novelists despite their racial, gendered, and literary differences share the view that identity and truth are mere social and cultural constructs. I incorporate the work of Judith Butler and other poststructuralist figures, who see identity as a matter of performance rather than a natural entity. My thesis explores the theme of freedom, which I attached to the ways characters use their bodies either to confine or to emancipate themselves from the restricting world of race, class, and gender. The three novelists deconstruct any system of belief that promulgates the objectivity of truth in historical documents. History in the three novels, as with the protagonists, perception of identity, remains a social construct laden with distortions to serve particular political or ideological agendas. My thesis gives voice to African American female characters who are associated with love and racial and gender resistance. They become the reservoirs of the African American legacy in terms of their association with the oral and intuitionist mode of knowing, which subverts the male characters’ obsession with property and with the mainstream empiricist world. In this dissertation, I use the concept of hybridity as a literary and theoretical devise that African-American writers employ. In effect, I embark on the postcolonial studies of Henry Louise Gates, Paul Gilroy, W. E. B Du Bois, James Clifford, and Arjun Appadurai in order to reflect upon the fluidity of Morrison’s and Naylor’s works. I show how these two novelists subvert Faulkner’s essentialist perception of truth, and of racial and gendered identity. They associate the myth of the Flying African with the notion of hybridity by making their male protagonists criss-cross Northern and Southern regions. I refer to Mae Gwendolyn Henderson’s article on “Speaking in Tongues” in my analysis of how Naylor subverts the patriarchal text of both Faulkner and Morrison in embarking on a more feminine version of the flying African, which she relates to an ex-slave, Sapphira Wade, a volatile female character who resists fixed claim over her story and identity. In dealing with the concept of hybridity, I show that Naylor rewrites both authors’ South by making Willow Springs a more fluid space, an assumption that unsettles the scores of critics who associate the island with authenticity and exclusive rootedness.

Beneath the surface of the heritage enterprise. Governmentality and cultural representation of rural architecture in Portugal

This article focuses on the construction of heritage in rural Portugal. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in the village of Castelo Rodrigo, it analyses the extensive protection and exhibition of domestic architecture in the framework of a State-led local development programme. By bringing in the messiness of daily practices, the article goes beyond neat theoretical formulations in the study of heritage such as Foucault’s theory of “governmentality” and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s notion of “second life as heritage”. It argues that the “conduct of conduct” is actually nowhere near as effective as its theoretical formulation might have us believe, and the second life as heritage suffocates the first life of houses as social habitats for the village population.

Os museus e o património cultural imaterial: Estratégias para o desenvolvimento de boa práticas

omando como referência fundamental o trabalho desenvolvido pela UNESCO em matéria de proteção do Património Cultural Imaterial (PCI), muito particularmente a Convenção para a Salvaguarda do Património Cultural Imaterial (2003), considerou-se oportuno refletir sobre as implicações que este enfoque traz para os museus. São indiscutíveis as repercussões que este instrumento trouxe para o reconhecimento da importância do PCI à escala internacional, motivando um crescendo de iniciativas em tomo da sua salvaguarda. São vários os agentes envolvidos na preservação deste património, no entanto o International Council of Museums (ICOM) reconhece um papel central aos museus nesta matéria. Mas para responder a este repto, os museus terão que repensar as suas estratégias de forma a relacionar-se mais com o PCI, contrariando uma longa tradição profundamente enraizada na cultura material. O presente estudo reflete sobre as possibilidades de actuação dos museus no sentido de dar resposta aos desafios da Convenção 2003, sendo certo que a partir das catividades dos museus é possível encontrar formas de estudar e de dar visibilidade a este património. Em função das especificidades de cada museu, podem ser encontradas estratégias de salvaguarda do PCI, entre as quais se pode incluir o inventário e a documentação (audiovisual, texto, áudio, imagem), a investigação, a divulgação através de exposições e publicações, difusão através da internet, educação não formal, entre outras actividades. Alguns museus começaram já a desenvolver abordagens integradas para a salvaguarda do PCI, cujos exemplos se apresentam. Este tema suscita vários desafios, implicando práticas museológicas inovadoras que possam reflectir o papel dos museus como promotores da diversidade e criatividade cultural. ABSTRACT: Recalling the UNESCO's work towards the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), in particular the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted in 2003, I took this opportunity to reflect upon the implications that this recognition brings to museums. The overwhelming success of this document has raised the importance of ICH at international level, motivating a growing number of initiatives towards its safeguard. Accordingly, to the 2003 Convention, there are many agents involved in the preservation of this heritage, yet the International Council of Museums (ICOM) recognizes a central role for museums. Nevertheless, to face this challenge, museums will have to rethink their relationship with ICH in opposition to their deep rooted tradition in material culture. The present study reflects upon the possibilities that museums have to answer the changeling 2003 Convention, recognizing that it’s possible through museum activities to find ways to study and give visibility to ICH. According to each museum specificities, it seems clear that strategies can be engaged in order to promote the safeguard of ICH, including inventory and documentation (audiovisual, audio, text and image), research, promotion through exhibitions, publications, dissemination trough internet and other means, informal education, among other activities. Many museums have already started exploring integrated approaches towards the safeguard of ICH and some of these examples are presented in this study. This theme is challenging, implying innovative museum practices which reflect on museums role towards the promotion of cultural diversity and creativity.

Convento de S. José da Esperança - Évora: proposta de valorização histórico-arquitectónica

A presente dissertação de mestrado visa a apresentação de uma proposta de valorização para o espaço edificado do Convento de S. José da Esperança, da cidade de Évora. Procurámos traçar a história do Convento de S. José ao longo de um período de cerca de 200 anos, apresentando ainda as várias funções do imóvel, desde a sua extinção até à atualidade. Abordámos a questão da instalação física do cenóbio, relacionando-a com as razões da escolha da Ordem Carmelita Descalça. Contextualizámos este especto com as origens da Ordem do Carmo, a reforma desta Ordem, originando o nascimento da Ordem Carmelita Descalça, e a sua entrada em Portugal. Sublinhámos a importância das fundadoras e o seu legado testamentário para a subsistência desta instituição religiosa e como essa subsistência conheceu vicissitudes e contrariedades várias ao longo da vida da comunidade. Procurámos depois entender o espaço conventual edificado, pelo que procedemos a uma análise histórico-arquitetónica do conjunto conventual, nomeadamente a ampliação dos espaços, e depois da extinção e da mudança de propriedade, a adaptação a novas funções e as necessárias intervenções nele ocorridas. Por fim, atendendo à história do Convento, à riqueza patrimonial que ele representa tanto para a sociedade em geral como para os Eborenses em particular, atendendo à sua inserção no Centro Histórico de Évora - CHE, com a classificação de Património Mundial atribuída pela UNESCO em 1986, e atendendo ao vasto quadro legislativo nacional e internacional relativo à proteção e valorização do património cultural, apresentámos a nossa proposta de valorização do Conjunto Conventual, que nos parece, em conformidade com o exposto, a mais apropriada àquele espaço. ABSTRACT: This master's thesis aims to propose a recovery area for the valorization of the building space of Convento de S. José da Esperança, in Évora. We traced the history of the Convent of S. José over a period of about 200 years, by exploring the various functions of the building, since its extinction as religious community until now. We addressed the question of the physical installation the life of the religious community, linking it with the reasons for the choice of the Ordem Carmelita Descalça's to settle there. This aspect was then contextualized with the origins of the Ordem do Carmo, the reform of the Order, resulting in the birth of the Ordem Carmelita Descalça, and its entry into Portugal. We emphasized the importance of the founders and their legacy to the livelihood of the subsistence of this religious institution. Along the history the Ordem experienced several setbacks and problems over the life of the community. Our study led to an understanding of the conventual space as a physical building. For that we undertook an historical and architectonical analysis of the conventual set, namely the enlargement of spaces, and after the extinction and the property change, the adaptation to new functions and the necessary interventions that it suffered. We presented our proposal of historical and architectonical valorization of the convent, taking into account the history of the Convent, as a rich heritage, not only for the city of Évora, but also to the country, as a whole. We took into account the fact that the convent is inside the historical centre of Évora (World Heritage City- UNESCO- since 1986), and it must comply to national and international legislative framework for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage. Our proposal of recovery of the conventual set is, in line with the above, the most appropriate to that space.

Cultural Heritage and Mobile Robotics Technologies

This paper reviews current research works at the authors’ Institutions to illustrate how mobile robotics and related technologies can be used to enhance economical fruition, control, protection and social impact of the cultural heritage. Robots allow experiencing on-line, from remote locations, tours at museums, archaeological areas and monuments. These solutions avoid travelling costs, increase beyond actual limits the number of simultaneous visitors, and prevent possible damages that can arise by over-exploitation of fragile environments. The same tools can be used for exploration and monitoring of cultural artifacts located in difficult to reach or dangerous areas. Examples are provided by the use of underwater robots in the exploration of deeply submerged archaeological areas. Besides, technologies commonly employed in robotics can be used to help exploring, monitoring and preserving cultural artifacts. Examples are provided by the development of procedures for data acquisition and mapping and by object recognition and monitoring algorithms.

El relativismo cultural y su tutela jurídica en el sistema internacional de protección de los derechos humanos

ResumenEste trabajo pretende abordar desde un enfoque deductivo, el fenómeno del relativismo cultural. Es así como se parten de las premisas teóricas y conceptuales de lo que se entiende por este tipo de relativismo, su contraste con los derechos humanos de alcance universal, hasta llegar a su implementación a través de diferentes normas internacionales. Se analizarán las principales fuentes, consistentes en tratados, conferencias y declaraciones, en las que se visualiza la tutela y defensa del relativismo cultural. Finalmente, se reflexionará en torno a la efectividad de la salvaguarda de esta modalidad de relativismo y las particularidades propias de cada una de las fuentes jurídicas y políticas invocadas. Palabras clave: relativismo cultural, cultura, civilización occidental, libertad cultural, derechos humanos, universalismo, tratados internacionales, pacto internacional de derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, convención internacional de la eliminación de todas las formas de discriminación racial, Conferencia Mundial de Derechos Humanos, Declaración de Durban, Organización internacional del Trabajo, UNESCO.AbstractThis paper attempts to deal with, from a deductive approach, the phenomenon of cultural relativism. This is how it starts from the theoretical and conceptual foundations of what is understood by this kind of relativism, its contrast with the universal human rights reaching, to its implementation through various international standards. It analyzed the major sources,consisting of treaties, conferences and declarations, which displays the protection and defenseof cultural relativism. Finally, it reflects on the effectiveness of safeguarding this kind of relativism and the particularities of each of the legal and political sources cited.Keywords: Cultural relativism, Culture, Western Civilization, Cultural Freedom, Human Rights, Universal, International treaties, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, World Conference on Human Rights, International Labour Organization, UNESCO. 

Assessment and Protection of maritime-vernacular architectural Heritage on the Mediterranean Coasts. Documentation and Preservation Strategies for the Dry Docks on the Island of Formentera.

The importance of vernacular architecture as an integral part of our cultural heritage is often undervalued, and the management of rural constructions of heritage value often requires the application of more flexible and adjusted preservation principles compared to monumental assets. For vernacular architecture, the preservation and consolidation concern not only their physical substance but also their intangible values and purpose in society. More than other heritage values, the vernacular raises the question of prospective functions it can fulfill in contemporary societies without undermining its legacy. This work analyzes the topic by studying the case study of the dry docks on the Balearic Island of Formentera, including abundant documentation of traditional construction techniques and materials realized through a field study, followed by the assessment of threats to and opportunities for vernacular architecture on Formentera, closing with suggestions for the maintenance and potential functions of the dry docks. For this, a comparative case study was introduced: the capanni da pesca at the Adriatic coast of Italy. The suggestions focus on the importance of maintenance for rural heritage, expressed through the creation of a guide for owners of protected dry docks highlighting good and bad practice examples and recurrent works of care. Furthermore, the thesis seeks to raise awareness for the significance of landscape and social factors in the discourse about vernacular heritage sites. Ultimately, different outlines of tourism development are proposed. The idea is to explore rural and sustainable tourism as a tool for territory development and enhancement of the cultural heritage value by helping to prevent the destination's decline through careful evaluation of its limits of acceptable change and identifying beneficial, sustainable scenarios for the future of the heritage asset and the respective community.