Critique féministe matérialiste du droit civil québécois : le travail « domestique » et les violences sexuées, les « impensés » du droit du logement.

Cette recherche constitue un essai de théorie critique féministe matérialiste et radicale. Elle poursuit principalement un objectif de dénonciation de la structure actuelle du droit du logement. À partir d’un cadre conceptuel fondé sur le féminisme matérialiste et radical, elle souhaite faire ressortir le point de vue de la classe des femmes dans l’habitation. Le droit du logement est ici utilisé dans un sens large, puisqu’il se réfère à la fois au logement comme phénomène juridique, mais aussi sociologique. À l’intérieur de la discipline juridique, il renvoie à l’ensemble des législations actuellement en vigueur au Québec en ce qui concerne la vie à domicile. Notre étude se concentre sur deux modes d’occupation des lieux, à travers le droit de propriété et le système locatif. Le droit au logement fait l’objet d’une reconnaissance internationale dans les textes portant sur les droits humains. Il est reconnu comme le « droit à un logement suffisant ». Au Canada et au Québec, il ne fait pas l’objet d’une reconnaissance explicite, malgré les engagements pris sur la scène internationale. Un portrait statistique, appuyé sur le critère du sexe, permet de mettre en évidence qu’il existe des écarts entre les hommes et les femmes en ce qui concerne la mise en application du droit du logement. Les femmes accèdent plus difficilement à un logement; elles y effectuent la majorité du travail domestique, de service et de « care » et elles sont les principales victimes des violences commises à domicile. Dans le système d’habitation, l’expérience des femmes se comprend comme une appropriation à la fois privée et collective par la classe des hommes, telle que réfléchie par Colette Guillaumin, qui se concentre autour de la division sexuelle du travail et des violences sexuées. Le droit du logement, dans sa forme actuelle, repose sur l’appropriation de la force de travail des femmes et de leur corps. Ces deux critères permettent de construire une grille d’analyse féministe matérialiste et radicale pour analyser la structure du droit du logement, tel que conçu en droit civil. Cette analyse féministe permet également de situer le droit étatique comme une pratique patriarcale. Cette dernière contribue à assurer le maintien du système d’habitation, qui est assimilable à un système hégémonique, au sens développé par Gramsci. Cette étude réfléchit sur le droit du logement dans le climat politique néolibéral. Le néolibéralisme est développé comme une idéologie qui impose une rationalité marchande à l’ensemble des politiques étatiques. À partir d’une méthode décrite comme métathéorique externe radicalement réflexive, puisqu’elle propose l’importation d’outils conceptuels étrangers à la discipline du droit moderne, nous réfléchissons de manière radicale la construction du droit civil et des institutions qui encadrent le droit du logement. La collecte des données s’effectue à partir de la recherche documentaire. Quatre institutions du droit civil seront examinées dans le détail, soit le sujet du droit, la dichotomie privé/public, la médiation du droit du logement par les biens immeubles, à travers le rapport contractuel et le droit de propriété, et finalement les notaires. L’analyse féministe du sujet du droit insiste sur un paradoxe. D’une part, l’universalité présumée de ce sujet, laquelle permet de poser l’égalité et la liberté pour toutes les personnes juridiques. Or, plutôt que d’être neutre sexuellement comme le prétend le droit positif, nous démontrons comment ce sujet est constamment un membre de la classe des hommes. D’autre part, nous analysons comment le droit reconnaît le sexe de ses sujets, mais surtout comment cette sexualité est construite sur l’idéologie naturaliste. Ce modèle de sujet masculin est fondamental dans la construction du droit du logement. L’étude féministe de la dichotomie privé/public en fait ressortir le caractère situé. En effet, si par essence aucun domaine ou enjeu n’est en soit privé ou public, le processus de qualification, lui, est un acte de pouvoir. Nous verrons comment le droit civil crée des zones de droit privé, comprises comme des zones de non-droit pour les femmes. La qualification de privé dévalue également le travail accompli par cette classe de sexe. Le droit du logement est pourtant centré sur le rapport contractuel et sur le droit de propriété. Il importe alors d’examiner la nature du consentement donné par les femmes comme groupe social dans les contrats de vente et de location. Ces contrats ne prennent pas en compte l’expérience des femmes dans leur formation. Les catégories qui y sont attachées, telles que vendeur.e ou locataire, représentent le point de vue de la classe des hommes. Bien que la popularité de la copropriété auprès de la classe des femmes semble porteuse d’un vent de changement, nous analysons comment le discours dominant qui l’entoure instrumentalise certaines revendications féministes, tout en laissant dans l’ombre la question du travail domestique et des violences sexuées. Finalement, nous nous intéressons aux notaires en les repensant comme des intellectuel.les organiques, tels que conçu.es par Gramsci, pour la classe des hommes. Cette fonction d’intellectuel.les permet de mettre en lumière comment chaque transaction immobilière favorise la reproduction des intérêts patriarcaux, remettant ainsi en question la nature des devoirs de conseil et d’impartialité du notariat. À la lumière de cette analyse, le Code civil du Québec est qualifié dans une perspective féministe matérialiste et radicale pour devenir un système qui institutionnalise l’appropriation des femmes par l’entremise du droit du logement. Ce travail de recherche permet d’envisager certaines pistes de réflexion pour des rénovations potentielles des pratiques juridiques entourant le droit du logement, notamment la pratique notariale, tournées vers des objectifs féministes de justice sociale.

Las ONG microfinancieras peruanas: ¿siguen manteniendo su misión social?

In recent years, the growth of the microfinance sector has been significant. Either as a cause or as a consequence, some governments have decided to make it part of the financial system adapting regulatory frameworks to allow the sector to continue to expand as the number of formal institutions increases. It is the case in Peru where many NGOs have decided not to become regulated, arguing that this change could leave them to move away from the social aims for which they were created. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, where the legal framework encourages the regulation of microfinance institutions, there appears to be a need to study the potential future role of NGOs in the sector. In consideration of this question, this paper attempts to analyse the social role of those NGOs that have decided not to become regulated institutions. In this study a number of social indicators are analysed; these include the number of female clients, average loan amount and how loans are used, among others. These indicators will be used to attempt to evaluate the social role of unregulated NGOs and their prospects in this new context.

Avvägning mellan arbetsmiljö och effektivitet med hjälp av multikriterieanalys : Hur komplettering av kundtjänst påverkar kundnöjdhet och effektivitet

A public organization has a section for customer service which is responsible of order entry from customers concerning errands within real estate and business equipment, cleaning, transport operations and handicap appliance. According to the co-ordinators in hospitals within the organisation the customers are requesting for staff to talk to physically, meaning a person to speak with face to face. The customers experiencing that it’s sometimes difficult to call customer service or use the web form, which is the only communication paths in the current situation. Proposed changes presented claim that a complement to customer service with local service centers in every hospital. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a change proposition by weigh between efficiency and working environment, this by using multi-criteria analysis. To achieve the goal a decision model is designed in the decision tool DecideIT. The aim of the study is to recommend decision makers to choose one of the options based on as rational grounds as possible. The result of the study showed that the preferred alternative is not to supplement customer service with local service centers. For the most part, the result depending on the survey (represented result from working environment criteria) which showed that the majority of customers do not request a person to speak with face to face at all.

Effect of Earnings Volatility on Cost of Debt: The case of Swedish Limited Companies

The paper empirically tests the relationship between earnings volatility and cost of debt with a sample of more than 77,000 Swedish limited companies over the period 2006 to 2013 observing more than 677,000 firm years. As called upon by many researchers recently that there is very limited evidence of the association between earnings volatility and cost of debt this paper contributes greatly to the existing literature of earnings quality and debt contracts, especially on the consequence of earnings quality in the debt market. Earnings volatility is a proxy used for earnings quality while cost of debt is a component of debt contract. After controlling for firms’ profitability, liquidity, solvency, cashflow volatility, accruals volatility, sales volatility, business risk, financial risk and size this paper studies the effect of earnings volatility measured by standard deviation of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) on Cost of Debt. Overall finding suggests that lenders in Sweden does take earnings volatility into consideration while determining cost of debt for borrowers. But a deeper analysis of various industries suggest earnings volatility is not consistently used by lenders across all the industries. Lenders in Sweden are rather more sensitive to borrowers’ financial risk across all the industries. It may also be stated that larger borrowers tend to secure loans at a lower interest rate, the results are consistent with majority of the industries. Swedish debt market appears to be well prepared for financial crises as the debt crisis seems to have no or little adverse effect borrowers’ cost of capital. This study is the only empirical evidence to study the association between earnings volatility and cost of debt. Prior indirect research suggests earnings volatility has a negative effect on cost debt (i.e. an increase in earnings volatility will increase firm’s cost of debt). Our direct evidence from the Swedish debt market is consistent for some industries including media, real estate activities, transportation & warehousing, and other consumer services.

Avskaffandet av revisionsplikten : Ränteeffekter på företag inom fastighetsbranschen efter avskaffandet av revisionsplikten

Bakgrund: År 2010 avskaffades revisionsplikten för mindre aktiebolag i Sverige. Anledningen till avskaffandet var att minska kostnaderna för mindre företag. Tidigare forskning har kommit fram till att företag som valt bort revisor får en högre kreditkostnad när de till exempel tar lån. Den tidigare forskningen menar att detta kan bero på att banker och andra kreditinstitut anser att oreviderade finansiella rapporter har en sämre kvalitet än reviderade rapporter vilket leder till en högre risk för kreditgivarna. Denna uppsats kommer att undersöka om det finns någon skillnad på låneräntan mellan företag som valt att ha kvar revisor och företag som valt bort revisor. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka, jämföra samt analysera låneräntan hos mindre aktiebolag inom fastighetsbranschen som inte är revisionspliktiga. Metod: Kvantitativ metod, multipel regressionsanalys. Resultat: Resultaten i denna studie visar på att företag med revisor har en lägre ränta i genomsnitt jämfört med företag utan revisor. Vi har även fått fram att revision har en negativ påverkan på företags ränta, men detta resultat är inte signifikant. Därför kan vi inte uttala oss om att revision har en negativ påverkan på företags ränta, trots att tidigare forskning har visat det. Slutsats: Företags val av revisor eller ej är inte det viktigaste för kreditgivare när det kommer till vilken ränta företagen skall få på sina lån. Det finns andra faktorer som har en större påverkan på räntan. I denna studie är det företags storlek samt andelen materiella tillgångar i förhållande till totala tillgångar som har den största negativa påverkan på företags ränta. Detta indikerar att banker och andra kreditinstitut ser dessa företag som en lägre risk.

Affordable Housing Policies: An Overview

As urban housing markets throughout the United States increasingly exhibit challenges of affordability, federal, state, and local governments have placed renewed emphasis on housing, specifically mixed-income housing, which integrates affordable housing incentives into multifamily development projects. With such incentives, one must wonder what comprises a successful affordable housing policy and how affordable housing can be successfully implemented into a community. This article attempts to answer these questions by detailing the history of affordable housing policies, exploring some of the current affordable housing policies and programs, comparing affordable housing programs from different regions, and discussing some successful affordable housing programs and lessons that can be learned from them.

Impact of Rapid Transit on the Residential Market in Hudson County, New Jersey

The New York Metropolitan region is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world, and the single largest in North America.[1] It is also one of the most prominent economic centers, with New York City at the epicenter of its growth. With the entire region growing rapidly over the last decade, it is essential to analyze the socio-economic changes in order to understand the impact it has on commercial real estate. With its focus on housing rentals, this study aims to highlight housing costs as a function of rapid transit over time.

Second Quarter 2016: Slowdown for Large Hotels Continues; Small Hotels Have Now Slowed as Well

Our Standardized Unexpected Price (SUP) metric continues to show a decline in the price of large hotels, and now also the price of small hotels has eased—even though hotel transaction volume has increased. Although debt and equity financing for hotels remain relatively inexpensive, we are concerned that the total volatility of hotel returns is greater relative to the return volatility for other commercial real estate. If this trend continues, lenders will eventually start to tighten hotel lending standards. Our early warning indicators all continue to suggest that the downward trend in hotel prices should continue into the next quarter. This is report number 19 of the index series.

The Consequences of REIT Index Membership for Return Patterns

We study the impact of S&P index membership on REIT stock returns. Given the hybrid nature of REITs, their returns may become more like those of other indexed stocks and less like those of their underlying properties. The existing literature does not offer clear predictions on these potential outcomes. Taking advantage of the inclusion of REITs in major S&P indexes starting in 2001, we find that shared index membership significantly increases the correlation between REIT returns after controlling for the stock characteristics that determine index membership. We also document that index membership enhances the link between REIT stock returns and the performance of the underlying real estate, consistent with improved pricing efficiency. REIT investors appear to be able to enjoy the benefits of improved visibility and liquidity associated with index membership as well as the exposure to underlying real estate markets and the related benefits of diversification.

Third Quarter 2016: Hotels Exhibit Positive Momentum

Our Standardized Unexpected Price (SUP) metric showed an uptick in the price of large hotels during the third quarter of 2016, with a continued decline in the price of small hotels. Although debt and equity financing for hotels were still relatively inexpensive during this quarter, we remain concerned that the increasing relative riskiness of hotels compared to other commercial real estate suggests that lenders will eventually start to tighten hotel lending standards if this trend continues. Our early warning indicators continue to suggest an eventual downward trend in large hotel prices. This is report number 20 of the index series.

O Litoral e a metrópole dinâmica imobiliária, turismo e expansão urbana na região metropolitana de Natal-RN

The metropolitan regions of Northeast Brazil are being gradually included in a scenario of international investments, which are motivated by the restructuring of both touristic and real-estate sectors. The new capital, real-estate developers and space configurations that result from this process indicate the need for the creation and implementation of public tools which should, at least, allow the mitigation of the urban impacts and environmental losses resulting from this situation. The effects on landscape and on the socio-spatial configuration result from the intensification caused by the dynamism of the "real estate-tourism" sector. There is a regional integration as an expression of the urban expansion of the metropolitan area of Natal. This study investigates the uniqueness of the restructuring and territorial integration of coastal areas and the strategies of the circuit of capital accumulation formed by linking the real estate to tourism. It is intended to increase the understanding about the strategies of tourism, real estate and public policy agents involved in this territorial reconfiguration and in the fund-raising needed for the investments, to understand the existing social and environmental effects and their future trends and also to understand the forms of spatial production as results from the practices of approaching the land transformation and the tourism valorization of the landscape, in a synchronous manner, first in the Northeast region and, as a focal study, in the Metropolitan Area of Natal. Likewise, it is intended to apprehend the current processes of metropolization of the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte, in addition to indicate its physical-territorial transformation and the types of projects/developments promoted by the market in the recent period. Based upon analysis undertaken for the Metropolitan Region of Natal RN, this piece of work presents some considerations on possible legal instruments that can be adjusted to the municipalities which are experiencing the impact of this peculiar and recent phenomenon in the region, caused by the arrival of the real estate-touristic capital. It is also intended to point out basic proposals to the forms of public intervention, in a speculative way, starting from a Metropolitan Planning project within a medium and long term

Espaços especiais em Natal (moradia e meio ambiente): um necessário diálogo entre direitos e espaços na perspectiva de proteção aos direitos fundamentais na cidade contemporânea

Some protected special spaces on behalf of fundamental rights to the environment and the housing at the city of Natal are fragile by facing actions and attempts to suppress and changing (or omission in the implementation) of standards in furtherance of those rights at the local level, which seems to reflect a situation that goes beyond the context of the city. Based on integrated approach of the housing rights and the environment and its protection of special spaces on the field of fundamental rights, the thesis seeks to understand the weaknesses that affect the legal state duty under the realization/implementation of fundamental rights to the environment and housing in cities, focusing on the issues of flexibility of the founding legislation of special spaces to the detriment of the attributes they protected and the lack of implementation of the legal system that allows their effectiveness. So, it looks initially to understand the environment and housing rights and their special protected areas in the brazilian legal system, looking forward the evolution of its legal protection, as well as the weaknesses that emerge in the field of their effectiveness. Analyzing the trajectory of the environment and housing rights and their special protected areas in Natal, considering its standards, attributes, protection indicators, weaknesses and negative evidence within its legal protections and their enforcement by state entity, this thesis proposes to verify the existence of forms to confronting the weaknesses founded in the maintenance of legal protection and its implementation. At this point it discusses the legal basis and safeguard instruments of protection, especially within the juridical field, as part of a (re)discussion about issues of legislative and administrative discretion in the face of objective legal state duty to realization/implementation of fundamental rights in the urban space. With all these issues together the thesis does not ignore the scenario where the dividing line between public and private (economic) are becoming ever more tenuous in the field of state action and where the city stands as a special commodity to the reproduction of real estate, according to the interests of capitalist logic

Outorga onerosa do direito de construir e dinâmica do mercado imobiliário formal: planejamento e descaminhos na expansão urbana de Parnamirim RN (2008-2010)

The `Outorga Onerosa do Direito de Construir - OODC` (Public Concession of Building Rights), instrument instituted by The City Statute in 2001, has as main objective the recovery of urban property, seeking for a fair distribution the urbanization benefits. The possibility of usage of the OODC instrument is linked to the maximum utilization coefficient, determined to specific areas in accordance to existing infrastructure conditions, further taking into account the formal real estate market, expansion axis and crowding. Being an instrument which establishes values to be paid for a better use of land, it maintains a narrow relation to the real estate, incentivizing or discouraging the crowding in specific areas. The present study investigates the relationship between the criteria for the making of the Public Concession of Building Rights instrument and the dynamics of the formal real estate market. It takes as empiric universe Parnamirim (RN), part of the Natal Metropolitan Area (RN), focusing on the application of the OODC in the period of 2008-2010. It seeks to better understand the necessary basis for the formulation of the instrument, about how it works and its relation to the formal real estate market. It aims to depict the formal real estate market by presenting the production of urban space in Parnamirim in terms of intensity and nature of the real estate, furthermore identifying the licensed properties through the application of the municipality instrument. For the conclusion, it is discussed the criteria for the formation of OODC, its relationship to the dynamics of the formal real estate market and its influencing possibilities in the processes of usage and occupation of land in the context of urban planning

Configurando a cidade contemporânea em Natal : os processos espaciais em Ponta Negra

This dissertation is about the spatial configuration in Natal and processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood today. Ponta Negra has undergone a number of critical social and spatial changes due to tourism development after the 1990s. It is of special interest to consider the intensification of real estate investment after 2000, when the new airport terminal, located in the neighboring municipality of Parnamirim, was in use. Ponta Negra is the place where most tourists go to, so attracting considerable public investments. New agents of transformation have produced change in the neighborhood as well. The present study aims at analysing the spatial processes in this part of the city. Here, the spatial configuration that resulted from extended real estate investments, both public and private, in recent years, is analysed in detail. The study identifies the multually differentiated, however internally homogenous areas. The concepts of production of space, contemporanean urban development and spatial dynamics are discussed. The research is based on document analysis and field work. Results were plotted to maps and tables. A detailed analysis of the spatial processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood is undertaken as a conclusion, considering the contemporanean global scenario

Natal qual é a sua cara?: análise do perfil edilício da avenida Eng. Roberto Freire (Natal/RN) à luz da acessibilidade

This study focuses on the building ensemble of Avenida Roberto Freire, a main road in Natal, Brazil, as a material expression of the confluence of various factors among which the following may be emphasized: high level of accessibility due to urban spatial re-structuring and the growth of the real estate market, in view of the increasing number of consumers, who arrived in Natal within the last decades. The intense urban modification process that has been going on in Natal since at least the 1980s, has engendered the formation of long axial lines which express the expansion dynamics and some of the forces subjacent to it. Avenida Roberto Freire has been an iconic example of an urban thoroughfare where architecture becomes primarily a communication support that can be perceived by fast moving passers-by, what brings it close to the venturian concept of strip (Venturi at al, 1972). The building types that line the road not only respond to the dynamics in process but also contribute to intensify it, as they house a variety of uses which attract people and generate more movement. The dynamics is further strengthened by the action of the real estate business which benefits from the increase of highly accessible locations, and from the private and public investments and incentives to tourism that aim to insert this city into the globalized world. Although the intention of reconstituting part of the history of density increase on this avenue in a diachronical perspective was attempted within the limits of the available references and documentation, the central contribution of this study is to understand the relations between topological accessibility and the typological nature of the building ensemble. By observing the synchronic morphological frame resulting from the spatial configuration analysis pertinent to this avenue (cf. Hillier and Hanson,1984) and the inventory and classification of the building ensemble there existing, this study aims to understand how architecture responds to accessibility in view of the real estate pressure, boosted by a cosmopolitanizing process brought about by the continuous flow of foreign and Brazilian arrivals as visitors, temporary or permanent residents