JORNALISMO DIVERSIONAL: função, contornos e práticas na imprensa brasileira

Há, dentre os gêneros jornalísticos, especialmente os praticados na imprensa brasileira, um agrupamento a que José Marques de Melo atribui o nome de jornalismo diversional. Diferenciado por sua finalidade afeita à diversão e por abranger matérias reveladoras de histórias interessantes, a estrutura de seus formatos assimila elementos da literatura e da antropologia. Mas que motivações levam repórteres a desenvolver tal gênero e em quais circunstâncias? Quais métodos são adotados para sua feitura? Que forças agem aí? O estudo apresentado nesta tese buscou compreender como se dá esse processo, observando e comparando os modos de fazer adotados por nove jornalistas brasileiros, escolhidos por se submeterem a dois critérios inter-relacionados: 1) serem reconhecidos pelo meio jornalístico e/ou pelo mercado editorial como figuras que se destacam nesse exercício; e 2) terem produzido textos com as características mencionadas para jornais e/ou revistas e que, posteriormente, foram compilados em livro. A metodologia empregada tem vínculo estreito com a perspectiva teórica do newsmaking, valendo-se da técnica apropriada para uma observação que considera diferentes momentos da história (década de 1950 para cá): a entrevista, no seu tipo semiestruturado. O quadro de jornalistas entrevistados é formado por Audálio Dantas, Carlos Wagner, Consuelo Dieguez, Daniela Pinheiro, Eliane Brum, João Moreira Salles, José Hamilton Ribeiro, Ricardo Kotscho e Zuenir Ventura. Como resultado, defendemos que o gênero aqui posto como tema de pesquisa é cultivado por um seleto grupo de profissionais, capazes de direcionar olhares sensíveis sobre a realidade, para dela extrair detalhes e enredos que toquem nos sentimentos dos leitores, divertindo-os, ao propiciar gratificação estética, em contraponto à alienação que se costuma presumir. Trata-se de produção dependente de criatividade e curiosidade, de talento para redigir textos agradáveis e de métodos de apuração e de escrita altamente subjetivos, mas que aparecem como questão bem resolvida no agir profissional desses sujeitos. Essa capacidade também é que os possibilita conquistar espaço, em meio a embates com editores e diretores de redação, para elaborar matérias em que a autoria se sobressai. Por fim, a função de divertir, atribuída ao gênero, é confirmada pelos profissionais, ainda que de modo implícito.

The politics of the new Germany

The Politics of the New Germany takes a new approach to understanding politics in the post-unification Federal Republic. Assuming only elementary knowledge, it focuses on debates and issues in order to help students understand both the workings of Germany's key institutions and some of the key policy challenges facing German politicians. Written in a straightforward style by four experts, each of the chapters draws on a rich variety of real-world examples. Packed with boxed summaries of key points, a guide to further reading and a range of seminar questions for discussion at the end of each chapter, this book highlights both the challenges and opportunities facing policy-makers in such areas as foreign affairs, economic policy, immigration, identity politics and institutional reforms. The book also takes a bird's-eye view of the big debates that define German politics over time, regardless of which party happens to be in power. It pinpoints three key themes that have characterised German politics over the last sixty years; reconciliation, consensus and transformation. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. Germany and the Burden of History 2. Germany’s Post-War Development, 1945-1989 3. Towards German Unity? 4. A Blockaded System of Government? 5. The Party System and Electoral Behaviour: The Path to Stable Instability? 6. Economic Management: The End of the German Model? 7. Citizenship and Demographics: A Country of Immigration? 8. The Reform of the Welfare State? 9. Germany and the European Union: A European Germany or a German Europe? 10. Foreign and Security Policy: A New Role for the Twenty-First Century? 11. Conclusion

Evaluation of research in efficiency and productivity:a survey and analysis of the first 30 years of scholarly literature in DEA

Since the original Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) study by Charnes et al. [Measuring the efficiency of decision-making units. European Journal of Operational Research 1978;2(6):429–44], there has been rapid and continuous growth in the field. As a result, a considerable amount of published research has appeared, with a significant portion focused on DEA applications of efficiency and productivity in both public and private sector activities. While several bibliographic collections have been reported, a comprehensive listing and analysis of DEA research covering its first 30 years of history is not available. This paper thus presents an extensive, if not nearly complete, listing of DEA research covering theoretical developments as well as “real-world” applications from inception to the year 2007. A listing of the most utilized/relevant journals, a keyword analysis, and selected statistics are presented.

Le prix de l'individualité. Maine de Brian, Samuel Taylor Coleridge et la volonté: Deux postétités distinctes

This thesis is concerned with Maine de Biran’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s conceptions of will, and the way in which both thinkers’ posterities have been affected by the central role of these very conceptions in their respective bodies of thought. The research question that animates this work can therefore be divided into two main parts, one of which deals with will, while the other deals with its effects on posterity. In the first pages of the Introduction, I make the case for a comparison between two philosophers, and show how this comparison can bring one closer to truth, understood not in objective, but in subjective terms. I then justify my choice by underlining that, in spite of their many differences, Maine de Biran and Samuel Taylor Coleridge followed comparable paths, intellectually and spiritually, and came to similar conclusions concerning the essential activity of the human mind. Finally, I ask whether it is possible that this very focus on the human will may have contributed to the state of both thinkers’ works and of the reception of those works. This prologue is followed by five parts. In the first part, the similarities and differences between the two thinkers are explored further. In the second part, the connections between philosophy and singularity are examined, in order to show the ambivalence of the will as a foundation for truth. The third part is dedicated to the traditional division between subject and object in psychology, and its relevance in history and in moral philosophy. The fourth part tackles the complexity of the question of influence, with respect to both Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s cases, both thinkers being indebted to many philosophers of all times and places, and having to rely heavily on others for the publication, or the interpretation of their own works. The fifth part is concerned with the different aspects of the faculty of will, and primarily its relationship with interiority, as incommensurability, and actual, conditioned existence in a certain historical and spatial context. It ends with a return to the question of will and posterity and an announcement of what will be covered in the main body of the thesis. The main body is divided into three parts:‘L’émancipation’, ‘L’affirmation, and ‘La projection’. The first part is devoted to the way Maine de Biran and Samuel Taylor Coleridge extricated themselves from one epistemological paradigm to contribute to the foundation of another. It is divided in four chapters. The first chapter deals with the aforementioned change of paradigm, as corresponding to the emergence of two separate but associated movements, Romanticism and what the French philosopher refers to as ‘The Age of History’. The second chapter concerns the movement that preceded them, i.e. the Enlightenment, its main features according to both of our thinkers, and the two epistemological models that prevailed under it and influenced them heavily in their early years: Sensationism (Maine de Biran) and Associationism (Coleridge). The third chapter is about the probable influence of Immanuel Kant and his followers on Maine de Biran and Coleridge, and the various facts that allow us to claim originality for both thinkers’ works. In the fourth chapter, I contrast Maine de Biran and Coleridge with other movements and thinkers of their time, showing that, contrary to their respective thoughts, Maine de Biran and Coleridge could not but break free from the then prevailing systematic approach to truth. The second part of the thesis is concerned with the first part of its research question, namely, Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s conceptions of the will. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is a reflection on the will as a paradox: on the one hand, the will cannot be caused by any other phenomenon, or it is no longer a will; but it cannot be left purely undetermined, as if it is, it is then not different from chance. It thus needs, in order to be, to be contradictorily already moral. The second chapter is a comparison between Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s accounts of the origin of the will, where it is found that the French philosopher only observes that he has a will, whereas the English philosopher postulates the existence of this will. The comparison between Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s conceptions of the will is pursued in the third chapter, which tackles the question of the coincidence between the will and the self, in both thinkers’ works. It ends with the fourth chapter, which deals with the question of the relationship between the will and what is other to it, i.e. bodily sensations, passions and desires. The third part of the thesis focuses on the second part of its research question, namely the posterity of Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s works. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter constitutes a continuation of the last chapter of the preceding part, in that that it deals with Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s relations to the ‘other’, and particularly their potential and actual audience, and with the way these relations may have affected their writing and publishing practices. The second chapter is a survey of both thinkers’ general reception, where it is found that, while Maine de Biran has been claimed by two important movements of thoughts as their initiator, Coleridge has been neglected by the only real movement he could have, or may indeed have pioneered. The third chapter is more directly concerned with the posterities of Maine de Biran’s and Coleridge’s conceptions of will, and attempts to show that the approach to, and the meaning of the will have evolved throughout the nineteenth century, and in the French Spiritualist and the British Idealist movements, from an essentially personal one to a more impersonal one. The fourth chapter is a partial conclusion, whose aim is to give a precise idea of where Maine de Biran and Coleridge stand, in relation to their century and to the philosophical movements and matters we are concerned with. The conclusion is a recapitulation of what has been found, with a particular emphasis on the dialogue initiated between Maine de Biran and Coleridge on the will, and the relation between will and posterity. It suggests that both thinkers have to pay the price of a problematic reception for the individuality that pervades their respective works, and goes further in suggesting that s/he who chooses to found his individuality on the will is bound to feel this incompleteness in his/her own personal life more acutely than s/he who does not. It ends with a reflection on fixedness and movement, as the two antagonistic states that the theoretician of the will paradoxically aspires to.

Intellectual alienation in a fragmented society and universe, as illustrated in the work of Wolfgang Koeppen (1906- )

This text is concerned with the intellectual and social alienation experienced by a twentieth century German writer (1906 - ).·the alienation begins in the context of German society, but this context is later globalised. The thesis first discusses the social and· intellectual origins and the salient features of this alienated stance, before proceeding to a detailed analysis of its recurring symptoms and later intensification in each of the author's main works, chronologically surveyed, supported by reference to minor writings. From the novels of the thirties' showing the burgher-artist conflict, and its symbolic dichotomies, the renunciation of traditional German values, and the ambiguous confrontation with new disruptive socio-political forces, we move to the post-war trilogy (1951-54), with its roots in the German social and political experience of the thirties' onwards. The latter, however, is merely a background for the presentation of a much more comprehensive view of the human condition:- a pessimistic vision of the repetitiveness and incorrigibility of this condition, the possibility of the apocalypse, the bankruptcy and ineffectiveness of European religion and culture, the 'absurd' meaninglessness of history, the intellectual artist's position and role(s) in mass-culture and an abstract, technologised mass-society, the central theme of fragmentation - of the structure of reality, society and personality, the artist's relation to this fragmentation, intensified in the twentieth,century. Style and language are consonant with this world-picture. Many of these features recur in the travel-books (1958-61); diachronic as well as synchronic approaches characterise the presentation of various modes of contemporary society in America, Russia, France and other European countries. Important features of intellectual alienation are:- the changelessness of historical motifs (e.g. tyranny, aggression), the conventions of burgher society, both old and new forms, the qualitative depreciation and standardisation of living, industrialisation and technology in complex, vulnerable and concemtrated urban societies, ambiguities of fragmented pluralism. Reference is made .to other travel-writers.

Mask-less lithography for fabrication of optical waveguides

A flexible method for fabricating shallow optical waveguides by using femtosecond laser writing of patterns on a metal coated glass substrate followed by ion-exchange is described. This overcomes the drawbacks of low index contrast and high induced stress in waveguides directly written using low-repetition rate ultrafast laser systems. When compared to conventional lithography, the technique is simpler and has advantages in terms of flexibility in the types of structures which can be fabricated.

Mask-less lithography for fabrication of optical waveguides

A flexible method for fabricating shallow optical waveguides by using femtosecond laser writing of patterns on a metal coated glass substrate followed by ion-exchange is described. This overcomes the drawbacks of low index contrast and high induced stress in waveguides directly written using low-repetition rate ultrafast laser systems. When compared to conventional lithography, the technique is simpler and has advantages in terms of flexibility in the types of structures which can be fabricated.

Virtual Reconstruction of the Ancient Russian Fortress Koporye

One of the major strategic tasks in Russia’s northwest of the past centuries was the defense of the country’s territories from enemy incursions coming from the West. In order to solve this task, a robust shield in the form of a system of fortresses was created between the 13th and 15th centuries. The system included such fortresses as Koporye, Yam, Korela, Oreshek, and others. In our age, these monuments have become an essential part of Russia’s historic and cultural heritage and an important element of the tourism cluster “The Silver Ring of Russia.” The Centre of Design and Multimedia at St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, jointly with the Department of History and the Faculty of Arts at St. Petersburg State University, working under a three-year grant from the Russian Foundation for Humanities Research (#12-01-12041), is implementing a multimedia information system “Ancient Fortresses of Russia’s Northwest”. Historically accurate virtual reconstruction of several fortresses as they existed during certain historic periods, done in such a way as to allow the future creation of virtual tours of these sites, has become the focus of this project’s research. In the present paper, we describe the main phases and results of virtual reconstruction of the best-preserved fortress, Koporye.

Women in Europe between the wars:politics, culture and society

The central aim of this interdisciplinary book is to make visible the intentionality behind the 'forgetting' of European women's contributions during the period between the two world wars in the context of politics, culture and society. It also seeks to record and analyse women's agency in the construction and reconstruction of Europe and its nation states after the First World War, and thus to articulate ways in which the writing of women's history necessarily entails the rewriting of everyone's history. By showing that the erasure of women's texts from literary and cultural history was not accidental but was ideologically motivated, the essays explicitly and implicitly contribute to debates surrounding canon formation. Other important topics are women's political activism during the period, antifascism, the contributions made by female journalists, the politics of literary production, genre, women's relationship with and contributions to the avant-garde, women's professional lives, and women's involvement in voluntary associations. In bringing together the work of scholars whose fields of expertise are diverse but whose interests converge on the inter-war period, the volume invites readers to make connections and comparisons across the whole spectrum of women's political, social, and cultural activities throughout Europe.

Eden in the age of the fifth sun: The narrative work of Homero Aridjis

Homero Aridjis (b. 1940) is a major Mexican poet, novelist, essayist and ecological activist whose prolific body of work, ranging over forty years and including more than eleven volumes of poetry and thirteen novels, has yet to be studied as a coherent literary corpus in the context of recent Latin American fiction. The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the narrative works of this author as both illustrative of the changes that have occurred in Latin American fiction since the 1960s when it first burst onto the world scene, as well as to study the uniqueness of this particular author's view of literature as it relates to historical discourse, apocalypticism. and social commitment. ^ Research showed that in the case of the narrative style of Aridjis, major trends in the contemporary Latin American novel were present in such a profuse and model manner as to confirm this author's importance as a prime example of what is commonly known as “Post-Boom” fiction. However, beyond the mere presence of literary elements, this study showed that the author's unique approach to narrative style has altered and expanded the aesthetic and thematic possibilities of the contemporary novel. The area where this is most clearly seen is in his experimentation with the historical genre. By manipulating the referential techniques of what has lately come to be known as the “new historical novel,” Aridjis has written both a cycle of purely historical novels and a cycle of futuristic ones that attempt to transcend the temporal limits traditionally imposed by these narrative forms, fusing them into one constant questioning of the nature of love, hate and identity. In this manner, he has developed a “simultaneist” narrative approach where distinct historical and imagined periods, places, people, things, and texts coexist and interact, widening almost to delirium the interpretative possibilities of the work. ^ This unique view of time and narrative, together with the author's political activism and millenarian view of history, make the novels of Homero Aridjis an important element in understanding the continuing development and evolution of Latin American fiction at the turn of the century. ^

Armenia's foreign policy, 1991–2004: Between history and geopolitics

This dissertation is the first systematic study of Armenia’s foreign policy during the post-independence period, between 1991 and 2004. It argues that a small state’s foreign policy is best understood when looking at the regional level. Armenia’s geographic proximity to Iran, Russia and Turkey, places it in an area of heightened geopolitical interest by various great powers. This dissertation explores four sets of relationships with Armenia’s major historical ‘partners’: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West (Europe and the United States). Each relationship reveals a complex reality of a continuous negotiation between ideas of history, collective memory, nationalism and geopolitics. A detailed study of Armenia’s relations with these powers demonstrates how actors’ relations of amity and enmity are formed to constitute a regional security complex. Turkey represents the ultimate “other”, while both Europe and Iran are seen as ideational “others”, whose role in Armenia’s foreign policy, aside from pragmatic policy considerations, reflects a normative quest. Russia and the United States, on the other hand, represent the powerful structural forces that define the regional security complex, in which Armenia operates. This dissertation argues that although Armenia has been severely constrained in certain foreign policy choices, it was adept at carving a space for action that privileged the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh over other geopolitical imperatives.

Diversity and knowledge in the age of nation-building: Space and time in the thought of Yanagita Kunio

The study examines the thought of Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962), an influential Japanese nationalist thinker and a founder of an academic discipline named minzokugaku. The purpose of the study is to bring into light an unredeemed potential of his intellectual and political project as a critique of the way in which modern politics and knowledge systematically suppresses global diversity. The study reads his texts against the backdrop of the modern understanding of space and time and its political and moral implications and traces the historical evolution of his thought that culminates in the establishment of minzokugaku. My reading of Yanagita’s texts draws on three interpretive hypotheses. First, his thought can be interpreted as a critical engagement with John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of history, as he turns Mill’s defense of diversity against Mill’s justification of enlightened despotism in non-Western societies. Second, to counter Mill’s individualistic notion of progressive agency, he turns to a Marxian notion of anthropological space, in which a laboring class makes history by continuously transforming nature, and rehabilitates the common people (jomin) as progressive agents. Third, in addition to the common people, Yanagita integrates wandering people as a countervailing force to the innate parochialism and conservatism of agrarian civilization. To excavate the unrecorded history of ordinary farmers and wandering people and promote the formation of national consciousness, his minzokugaku adopts travel as an alternative method for knowledge production and political education. In light of this interpretation, the aim of Yanagita’s intellectual and political project can be understood as defense and critique of the Enlightenment tradition. Intellectually, he attempts to navigate between spurious universalism and reactionary particularism by revaluing diversity as a necessary condition for universal knowledge and human progress. Politically, his minzokugaku aims at nation-building/globalization from below by tracing back the history of a migratory process cutting across the existing boundaries. His project is opposed to nation-building from above that aims to integrate the world population into international society at the expense of global diversity.

The Battle for National History Standards

The Common Core State Standards has revived the discourse of voluntary national standards, which in the discipline of history has been extremely contentious. What is the relationship between the federal government and the formulation of national history standards? National standards could be the key to raising student achievement.

The words of God: Religious texts and the Counter -Reformation in the Spanish world

This dissertation analyzes a variety of religious texts such as catechisms, confession manuals, ecclesiastical legislation, saints' lives, and sermons to determine the definitions of orthodoxy held by the Spanish clergy and the origins of such visions. The conclusion posited by this research was that there was a definite continuity between the process of Catholic reform in Spain and the process of Catholic expansion into the New World in that the objectives and concerns of the Spanish clergy in Europe and the New World were very similar. This dissertation also analyzes sources that predated the Council of Trent and demonstrates that within the Iberian context the Council of Trent cannot be used as a starting date for the attempts at Catholic reform. In essence, this work concludes the Spanish clergy's activities were influenced by humanist concepts of models and model behaviour which is reflected in their attempt to form model Catholics in Spain and the New World and in their impulse to produce written texts as standards. ^