Representation and interpretation : textbooks, teachers, and historical culture

This article presents a study of how contemporary Swedish lower secondary school textbooks present the emergence of the Cold War and how 10 active lower secondary school history teachers interpreted a quotation that was ambiguous in relation to the general narrative in the studied Swedish textbooks, seeking to analyse textbooks both from the perspectives of content and reception. Applying a theoretical framework of uses of history, the study finds that the narratives presented in the studied textbooks are what could be called traditional in the sense that they do not acknowledge perspective and representation in history. While the interviewed teachers generally acknowledged that textbook narratives are representations of history and contingent on perspective, few teachers extended this to include how their own views affect their interpretations, suggesting an intermediary appreciation of the contextual contingency of historical narratives.

Vernacular meaning making : Examples of narrative impact in fiction film questioning the 'banal' notion in mediatization of religion theory

The outcome of an audience study supports theories stating that stories are a primary means by which we make sense of our experiences over time. Empirical examples of narrative impact are presented in which specific fiction film scenes condense spectators' lives, identities and beliefs. One conclusion is that spectators test the emotional realism of the narative for greater significance, connecting diegetic fiction experiences with their extra-diegetic world in their quest for meaning, self and identity. The 'banal' notion of the mediatization of religion theory is questioned as unsatisfactory in the theoretical context of individualized meaning-making processes. As a semantically negatively charged concept, it is problematic when analyzing empirical examples of spectators' use of fictional narratives, especially when trying to characterize the idiosyncratic and complex interplay between spectators' fiction emotions and their testing of mediated narratives in an exercise to find moral significance in extra-filmic life. Instead vernacular meaning-making is proposed.

Can France really stop them? : A study grounded on the realist perspective about the French foreign policy towards Syria as the root cause of the Phenomenon of French Foreign Fighters

During the Syrian conflict the number of European Foreign Fighters has increased exponentially and has become an ever-growing concern for European policymakers. This phenomenon presents host of major security challenges for European policymakers and governments. Among European countries, France provides the highest number of citizens who have gone to Syria to fight against Assad´s regime. The French authorities have estimated that by mid-2014, over 700 French citizens have left France and travelled to Syria to fight. Historically France has had a relationship with Syria which started with its role as a border-drawing colonial power. Grounded in a framework of realism, that emphasizes nation-states as the primary actor within the international system, the analysis concentrates on the role of France´s foreign policy on the Syria as push factor for terrorism and radicalization. This paper attempts to determinate a specific correlation between the policy that France has been conducting towards Syria between 2000 and 2015, and the phenomenon of French Foreign Fighters. Findings suggest that France´s foreign policy towards Syria is the main root cause of the French Foreign Fighters phenomenon.

Harold Pinter, cinema e literatura : os limites da realidade

Partindo de duas questões teóricas preliminares, uma, da representação (literária e cinematográfica)do real e do imaginário, tanto no ângulo da produção como no da sua recepção e, a outra, da articulação entre formas de expressão artísticas distintas, ou seja, da interdisciplinaridade, este trabalho examina a presença do tema relativo aos limites entre realidade e fantasia no teatro, no cinema e na literatura, centrando sua atenção na obra de Harold Pinter. Consta de duas partes, cada uma com três capítulos. Na primeira, "Os pressupostos," discute-se as questões que fornecem seu substrato teórico. A segunda é dedicada ao corpus, identificando em seu título o tema investigado: "Os limites da realidade." Quanto à questão da representação, procura-se refutar "a afirmação de que a arte seja uma imitação da realidade. Uma releitura da Poética, de Aristóteles, reforçada pela opinião de diversos estudiosos da mesma, permite afirmar que a mÍmese corresponde, isto sim, a uma representação que envolve uma construção em que elementos da realidade são organizados segundo uma verdade criada pela própria obra, de acordo com critérios inerentes a ela. Além disso, através de uma leitura de Kathryn Hume, procura-se afirmar a interação sinestésica quase que permanente dos impulsos realista e da fantasiana literatura, identificando os tipos com que a fantasia se manifesta e as técnicas usadas para sua criação. A primeira parte encerra-se com um exame do relacionamento da literatura com as artes visuais e dramáticas, relações inter-disciplinares que situam este trabalho na literatura comparada.Dentre vários autores cujas obras contribuem para tal fim, destaca-se Martin Esslin, que estabelece os limitesde cada uma das artes dramáticas, identifica contatos delas com a literatura e permite, através de uma leitura de seu estudo sobre o teatro do absurdo, seja estabelecida a evolução que liga Aristóteles a Pinter. O corpus centra-se na obra de Pinterpara o teatro e para o cinema, sem limitar-se a ela,pois são também analisadas obras de outros escritores e cineastas, estabelendo-se aproximações ou contrastes entre elas. No quarto capítulo estão agrupadas obras nas quais desponta a imposição de verdades pela força fisica ou verbal. A luta pelo poder, a expulsão de elementos estranhos, dúvidas sobre a identidade e a inter-penetrablidade arte-vida caracterizam o capítulo seguinte. A ênfase temática do sexto capítulo recai sobre as limitações impostas pela condição humana. Praticamente todas as obras expressam a impossibilidade da existência de certezas absolutas e de uma perfeita distinção dos limites da realidade. Com isso, é possível afirmar não ser o objetivo da arte reproduzir a realidade. Mesmo que o fosse, tal tentativa resultaria infrutífera devido às limitações humanas.

The Indetermination of Senior

The commitments and working requirements of abstract, applied, and art of, economics are assessed within an analogy with the fields of inert matter and life. Abstract economics is the pure logic of the phenomenon. Applied positive economics presupposes many distinct abstract sciences. Art presupposes applied economics and direct knowledge of the specificities which characterize the time-space individuality of the phenomenon. This is an indetermination clearly formulated by Senior and Mill; its connection with institutionalism is discussed. The Ricardian Vice is the habit of ignoring the indetermination; its prevalence in mainstream economics is exemplified, and its causes analyzed.

The Ricardian vice and the indetermination of senior

The general commitments and working requirements of abstract, applied, and art of science, including economics, are assessed. Pure economics deals with the logic of the phenomenon. Positive socio-economics presupposes pure economics and many distinct sciences. Art presupposes socio-economics and direct knowledge of the specificities which characterize the time-space individuality of the phenomenon. This indetermination was partially formulated by Senior and Mill; graduate education in economics is considered in its light. The habit of ignoring it is the Ricardian Vice, as named by Schumpeter; the prevalence of the vice is exemplified, and its causes analyzed.

Should educational policies be regressive?

In this paper, we show that when the government is able to transfer wealth between generations, regressive policies are no longer optimal. The optimal educational policy can be decentralized through appropriate Pigouvian taxes and credit provision, is not regressive, and provides equality of opportunities in education (in the sense of irrelevance of parental income for the amount of education). Moreover, in the presence of default, the optimal policy can be implemented through income-contingent payments.

Essays on the monetary aspects of the term structure of nominal interest rates

Interest rates are key economic variables to much of finance and macroeconomics, and an enormous amount of work is found in both fields about the topic. Curiously, in spite of their common interest, finance and macro research on the topic have seldom interacted, using different approaches to address its main issues with almost no intersection. Concerned with interest rate contingent claims, finance term structure models relate interest rates to lagged interest rates; concerned with economic relations and macro dynamics, macro models regress a few interest rates on a wide variety of economic variables. If models are true though simplified descriptions of reality, the relevant factors should be captured by both the set of bond yields and that of economic variables. Each approach should be able to address the other field concerns with equal emciency, since the economic variables are revealed by the bond yields and these by the economic variables.

Avaliação de Projetos de Investimento com Opções Reais: Cálculo de Valor de Opção de Espera de uma Unidade Separadora de Propeno

O tema central deste trabalho é a avaliação do valor da opção real de espera do investimento em uma Unidade Separadora de Propeno, em comparação com uma análise estática de Valor Presente Líquido. Para isso, foi exposta a teoria de opções reais, os processos estocásticos para a estimação das suas principais variáveis de incerteza (preço de produto e insumo), bem como a descrição das ferramentas de simulação a serem utilizadas. Com os instrumentos expostos, pretendemos demonstrar aos responsáveis por projetos de investimento que as incertezas podem ser medidas, levando a maior flexibilidade na tomada de decisões. Os resultados obtidos apontam para o exercício imediato da opção pela abordagem de ativos contingentes e resultados divergentes na análise de ativos contingentes em função do diferencial de preços, em função da taxa de dividendos adotada. A influência dos valores da volatilidade e da taxa de dividendos nos resultados também foi avaliada, levando à conclusão de que o primeiro gera impactos maiores no valor da opção do que o segundo.

A superação da pobreza através da distribuição justa das riquezas sociais: uma análise da consistência teórica do Programa Bolsa Família e das perspectivas dos beneficiários de saída autosustentada do programa

Bolsa Família is the major brazilian conditional cash transfer program. It provides money to poor families contingent on investments in human capital, such as sending children to school or bringing them to health centers. This work aims to investigate if this program, in its normative structure, can be considered an appropriate policy of income redistribution and if it is able, appliances of the Welfare State model in the brazilian society and to approach the program in two different ways: as an alternative to more traditional social assistance programs and as a demand-side complement to the supply of other social needs. We will work on the thesis that the program by itself can not provide vulnerable populations with enough means to overcome poverty and to participate effectively on the market. According to this assumption, this paper is going to consider the reasons why tackling income necessary, along with the program, that the Government - in both federal and local spheres shall place major investments in critical areas like education and health.

O Registro civil no Brasil

After having done an accurate analysis of the Registry Office in Brazil it was found out that there are some distortions, as the one which makes possible the existence of significant contingent of population - 'the registeredless' ('os sem-registros' ) - people who live on the margins of society. This system is based on private patterns coming from the extrajudicial registry offices performance and through a government official concession, the registry offices have obtained the legal right to take over registration services.The maintenance of this model has been put in question and debates have been taking place all over Brazil. This process, on the other hand, produces data which are collected, processed and disseminated by IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) and could be the source of very important statistical information if there were not blanks created by the 'subregistration' caused by offical records evasion and/ or by late offical records. The main purpose of this work is to show how deficient is the current system in Brazil, not only by pointing out the problems which still happen nowadays but also by thinking carefully about the difficulties to search for process improvement. In conclusion, there is a latent need to rethink the way the Registry Office system is structured in Brazil. Discussions can act as a stimulus to find out more suitable and definitive solutions for all the Brazilian citizens who are interested in consolidate democracy in Brazil.

Estilo Gerencial no IRD/CNEN: Possibilidades de Contribuição para a Implantação e Implementação do NBR ISO 9000

This study investigates in the National Commission of Nuclear Energy the Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry in terms of perceptions, actions, and posture of the administrative agents which could facilitate the engagement of the employees of that public organization in the TQM implantation, based on NBR ISO 9000. The central question of this research is: which characteristics of the administrative actions and sense of the managerial posture manifested in the implantation, implementation and maintenance for the achievement of objectives and goals of the Quality System-ISO 9000, could contribute to engage the IRD professionals in the process? The research finds prevalence of the Quality technical knowledge over the attention on professionals' managerial posture, identifies a lack in that Norm about how to deal with its administrative requirements in practical terms, driving the researcher to look for support especially in Deming to face the critical reading of that organizational context. The field research was conceived under the paradigm of constructivism, facilitating the description of beliefs, perceptions, feelings and values manifested in the employees discourses, actions and re-actions to establish relations between Quality theory and that concrete reality. A phenomenologic approach, only as a complementary level, was sufficient to favor the researcher insertion in that institution where he is still working, but in the new and contingent role of researcher. To apprehend the organization managerial stile, to comprehend beyond its characteristics and to grasp the orientation of the managerial posture in terms of possibilities for Quality implementation were the core of this study. The TQM theory was interpreted as a living philosophy, an administrative posture the meaning of which is a permanent Quality improvement in the CNEN/IRD management processes in its internal and external organizational relations. The procedural nature of the CNEN/IRD public service legal regime, political implications and performance evaluation which reveals only partially the organizational reality should not obstruct the Institute drive to assume the spirit of serving the public as a Quality management philosophic commitment. Conclusions show some progress reorienting initiatives in organizational management taking place in three different levels: operational, toward the employees' expectations of values and organizational processes integration; HR administration, in search of better communication; strategic, through expectations on a possible visionary leadership". Finally, at the academic level, the perception that future studies in search of the establishment of relationships between TQM and the organization culture can favor new progress."

A participação dos contingentes do Exército Brasileiro na missão de estabilização das Nações Unidas no Haiti (Minustah)

This work aims to study the Brazilian Army as an actor in the process of implementation of public policies. This study evaluates and verifies, in loco, if the actions executed by the Brazilian Army contingent in Haiti (MINUSTAH), especially the Brazilian Battalion, are effectively contributing to satisfactory security conditions for the development and reestablishment of Haiti's institutional normality. The main activities developed by the six Brazilian contingents that had already acted and are still acting in Haiti will be described. This work ratifies the Brazilian Army's contribution to the creation of a favorable environment so that the Haitian State, with the contribution of other countries, international organisms and non-governmental organizations, could work on its reconstruction.

O agir humano como um desvio necessário do equilibrio contigente

O enfoque no agir humano, como um desvio necessário à manutenção do equilíbrio contingente do sistema, deve perpassar pela análise das características e dos fundamentos de diferentes correntes éticas, que servem de "pano de fundo" para o convívio moral dos agentes, nos ambientes organizacionais e sociais (sistemas interagentes). Em outros termos, como essa forma de criação e socialização de um conhecimento organizacional, vista como fundamento para o desenvolvimento das ciências administrativas, ancorada numa fundamentação ou nas diferentes correntes éticas, pode criar um conjunto de valores aceitos e justificados moralmente num ambiente interno de uma organização, e de que forma o agir humano poderá ser exteriorizado numa sociedade, uma vez que os atores que participam de um sistema organizacional são os mesmos que atuam no ambiente social de uma comunidade, estado, país, e no mercado global. Isto é, de que forma o agir humano, com base numa ética justificadora do ato moral, pode contribuir para o equilíbrio dinâmico do sistema contingencial.

Emprego industrial no pólo industrial de Manaus na década de 90: expectativas, resultados e possibilidades

A década de 90 representou significativas mudanças no panorama político econômico brasileiro, especificamente no projeto de desenvolvimento regional denominado Zona Franca de Manaus. Esse projeto foi concebido, primordialmente para integrar essa imensa região Amazônica ao restante do Brasil, em termos de complexa ordem geopolítica dominante nos anos 60. A análise que objetiva essa dissertação trata da evolução do emprego industrial no Pólo Industrial de Manaus na década de 90, com a conotação de expectativas, resultados e possibilidades. A implementação do projeto Zona Franca de Manaus, no que concerne seu Pólo Industrial permitiu que contingentes de mão-de-obra abundante na capital do Estado do Amazonas, tivesse a oportunidade de inserir-se no mercado de trabalho do processo de industrialização moderna. Todavia, essa mão-de-obra abundante não estava preparada para o que as indústrias demandavam, sendo necessários intensivos programas de adequação profissional para que possibilitasse o aproveitamento em processos produtivos de linhas de montagem. o Pólo Industrial de Manaus, apesar de todas as mudanças havidas na economia brasileira no período analisado, obteve significativos alcance de competências na capacitação desse contingente de trabalhadores que foram absorvidos, quando o paradigma da intensividade do fator trabalho imperava no Pólo. Entretanto, o processo de mudança que a globalização econômica e industrial provocou no sistema de produção global, trouxe para o modelo industrial da Zona Franca de Manaus acelerada mudança desse paradigma, resultando variações na demanda por mão-de-obra e acarretando significativo desemprego estrutural. É desse contexto de mudanças que trata o estudo apresentado, analisando a evolução das variáveis que influenciaram no nível de emprego industrial e no mercado de trabalho, as expectativas de novos perfis e as demandas específicas que o novo paradigma de capital intensivo, adotado pelas empresas de classe mundial desse Pólo exigem.