El modelo de gestión del Régimen Jurídico de la Propiedad de la Tierra en las comunas del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito

El presente trabajo académico de investigación trata sobre el reconocimiento constitucional de la propiedad de los territorios comunales ancestrales existentes en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito en relación con la problemática del ordenamiento y control urbanístico debido a que históricamente han estado excluidos de los modelos de gestión territorial por reunir unas características distintas al modelo de propiedad individual. Esta exclusión se evidencia en la falta de un cuerpo jurídico normativo en la jurisdicción del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito que establezca criterios sobre la aplicación del Derecho Urbanístico en las comunas ancestrales. El abordaje temático se realiza en tres capítulos. En el primero se muestra el proceso de conformación de las comunas ancestrales como procesos históricos de resistencia socio cultural que han obtenido el reconocimiento de que al Ecuador selo defina como un país unitario pero diverso en aplicación de los principios de plurinacionalidad e interculturalidad. Posteriormente, se examinanlosprincipales aspectos del Derecho Urbanístico existente en el modelo de gestión territorial ecuatoriano caracterizado por el principio de descentralización, recogido teóricamente en la normativa ecuatoriana pero polémico en la aplicación práctica; y, la participación protagónica de los sujetos sociales en la gestión pública. Para finalmente, vincular la teoría analizada con la realidad territorial comunal aportando a través de la generación de sugerencias prácticas en la solución de los principales problemas urbanísticos que se recogen en un proyecto de ordenanza metropolitana.

Aspectos de la cosmovisión andina en la serie de kukayus pedagógicos del Sistema de Educación Intercultural Bilingüe del Ecuador en comparación con la visión occidental moderna

En la presente tesis se intenta conocer ¿Cómo se manifiesta la cosmovisión andina en los textos, Kukayus pedagógicos y los oficiales del Ministerio de Educación? Se analizan las áreas de: Matemáticas y Ciencias Naturales de 6° y 7° año de E.G. B. ; las 8 unidades de los Kukayus; y los 6 módulos, de los oficiales del Ministerio de Educación por área. Se identifican los elementos de la cosmovisión andina y su importancia en la educación intercultural. Las vivencias son diversas, en tanto la filosofía y el saber andino están presentes, el conocimiento de los avances tecnológicos actuales a partir de los saberes ancestrales, son necesarios en un país intercultural y plurinacional. En el sentir andino los elementos son seres vivientes siendo parte armónica del hábitat, mientras que en la visión occidental estos mismos elementos son recursos para generar dinero y hay que explotar a lo máximo, cuestiones fundamentales que los textos kukayus los describen aunque no de acuerdo a las localidades. Peor aún en los textos oficiales no trata casi nada de la cosmovisión andina, desconociendo las diversidades existentes en el Ecuador. Las mismas que se contrastan con el estudio previo realizado. De lo cual se ha concluido que la educación debe tomar en cuenta el sistema de pensamiento y transmisión de conocimientos ancestrales, expresadas a través de la lengua correspondiente, ofreciendo respuestas apropiadas a las necesidades del educando y las expectativas sociales, tomando en cuenta el contexto socio cultural.

De la hacienda rural al Quito urbano. El caso del barrio La Concordia No.1

Este estudio recopila y analiza información sobre el proceso de crecimiento urbano en uno de los antiguos anejos de la parroquia de Chillogallo, conocido como La Concordia #1, durante el período 1950-2010. La investigación explora la dimensión espacial y los sentidos de pertenencia para entender cómo este asentamiento, que es una calle, se convirtió en un barrio y cuáles son las repercusiones de las transformaciones urbanísticas en la identidad de sus habitantes. El trabajo se sustenta en la recopilación de fuentes orales, en la experiencia etnográfica de la investigadora como ex habitante del asentamiento, en la compilación de información en varios archivos de la capital y en la elaboración de cartografías sobre los usos y transformaciones del espacio. De manera que se ha producido una dialéctica entre los diferentes tipos de fuentes, tamizada en el diálogo con las reflexiones teóricas sobre la memoria, la identidad y el espacio, y que se ha puesto en relación con el contexto urbano y social de Quito en la segunda mitad del siglo XX e inicios del s. XXI. Lo que en conjunto permite apreciar la experiencia socio-cultural de estas personas durante la transición del campo a la ciudad, que ocurrió en el Sur de Quito desde mediados del siglo XX, con una fuerte escalada entre las décadas de 1970 y 1990.

Emotional interactions and an ethic of care: caring relations in families affected by HIV and AIDS

In the context of global processes of economic restructuring, the HIV and AIDS epidemic and socio-cultural constructions of care, many women and young people in low-income households have been drawn into caring roles within the family. Drawing on the literature on an ethics of care, emotional geographies and embodiment, this paper examines the emotional dynamics of the caring process in families affected by HIV and AIDS. Based on the perspectives of both ‘caregivers’ and ‘care-receivers’ from research undertaken in Namibia, Tanzania and the UK, we examine the everyday practices of care that women and young people are engaged in and explore how emotions are performed and managed in caring relationships. Our research suggests caregivers play a crucial role in providing emotional support and reassurance to people with HIV, which in turn often affects caregivers' emotional and physical wellbeing. Within environments where emotional expression is restricted and HIV is heavily stigmatised, caregivers and care-receivers seek to regulate their emotions in order to protect family members from the emotional impacts of a chronic, life-limiting illness. However, whilst caregiving and receiving may lead to close emotional connections and a high level of responsiveness, the intensity of intimate caring relationships, isolation and lack of access to adequate resources can cause tensions and contradictory feelings that may be difficult to manage. These conflicts can severely constrain carers' ability to provide the ‘good care’ that integrates the key ethical phases in Tronto's (1993) ideal of the caring process.

Lesbian migrants in the gentrified valley: other 'geographies' of rural gentrification

This paper explores the migration and cultural consumption practices of lesbian households within processes of rural change. Taking forward Phillips' (2004. Progress in Human Geography 28, 5-30) discussion of neglected geographies of rural gentrification, and building upon Halfacree's (2001. International Journal of Population Geography 7, 395-411) critique of dominant conceptualisations of rural in-migrants, the paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study of lesbian households in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. This follows up an earlier study of rural gentrification (Smith and Phillips, 2001. Journal of Rural Studies 19, 457-469). Lesbian households are shown to be a significant group that socially and culturally (re)produce distinct constructions of rurality, and act as gentrifiers via their migration, residential, and consumption practices. Many parallels to the migration processes of non-lesbian gentrifiers in Hebden Bridge are revealed, with the alternative cultural structures of Hebden Bridge being a key factor. We therefore argue that lesbian households should not be 'othered' within discourses of rural gentrification. The discussion emphasises the value of focussing upon neglected socio-cultural groups in robust ways, in order to shed light on the wider lifestyles and experiences of diverse rural populations, and to deepen understandings of other geographies of rural gentrification. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the nature of "context" in chemical education

Some of the most pressing problems currently facing chemical education throughout the world are rehearsed. It is suggested that if the notion of "context" is to be used as the basis for an address to these problems, it must enable a number of challenges to be met. Four generic models of "context" are identified that are currently used or that may be used in some form within chemical education as the basis for curriculum design. It is suggested that a model based on physical settings, together with their cultural justifications, and taught with a socio-cultural perspective on learning, is likely to meet those challenges most fully. A number of reasons why the relative efficacies of these four models of approaches cannot be evaluated from the existing research literature are suggested. Finally, an established model for the representation of the development of curricula is used to discuss the development and evaluation of context-based chemical curricula.

Producing leisure spaces out of thin air: the case of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme

This paper examines the growing dysfunction between the apparently increasing significance of diverse leisure practices in the countryside and the largely unchanging official response towards them. Although there is recognition in the recent rural White Paper (DOE and MAFF, 1995) that access is essential to enjoying the countryside, the construction of this term is dubious, since paid access agreements, based on producer requirements, are favoured over any form of demand-driven freedom to roam. Using the Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) as an example of the incentive structure developed to promote this policy, the paper applies Plato's simulacrum as a reading of how this process is being utilised to underpin the dominant rights associated with rural property interests. In particular, the paper makes the point that rather than representing the corollary of a market situation, as its supporters claim, the CSS involves government grant for the eclectic provision of short term licences over ground which remains unmapped as anything other than its continued agricultural use. In concluding, the paper asserts that rather than representing an increase in the availability of leisure sites in the countryside, the CSS and other schemes represent a diversion from the wider and deeper socio-cultural process of continued wealth and power redistribution.

Oi! Oi! Oi! : class locality and British punk

This article looks at the controversial music genre Oi! in relation to youth cultural identity in late 1970s’ and early 1980s’ Britain. As a form of British punk associated with skinheads, Oi! has oft-been dismissed as racist and bound up in the politics of the far right. It is argued here, however, that such a reading is too simplistic and ignores the more complex politics contained both within Oi! and the various youth cultural currents that revolved around the term ‘punk’ at this time. Taking as its starting point the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies’ conception of youth culture as a site of potential ‘resistance’, the article explores the substance and motifs of Oi!’s protest to locate its actual and perceived meaning within a far wider political and socio-economic context. More broadly, it seeks to demonstrate the value of historians examining youth culture as a formative and contested socio-cultural space within which young people discover, comprehend, and express their desires, opinions, and disaffections.

Parental death as a vital conjuncture? Intergenerational care and responsibility following bereavement in Senegal

This article explores the ways that parental death represents a 'vital conjuncture' for Serer young people that reconfigures and potentially transforms intergenerational caring responsibilities in different spatial and temporal contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with young people (aged 15-27), family members, religious and community leaders and professionals in rural and urban Senegal, I explore young people's responses to parental death. 'Continuing bonds' with the deceased were expressed through memories evoked in homespace, shared family practices and gendered responsibilities to 'take care of' bereaved family members, to cultivate inherited farmland and to fulfil the wishes of the deceased. Parental death could reconfigure intergenerational care and lead to shifts in power dynamics, as eldest sons asserted their position of authority. While care-giving roles were associated with agency, the low social status accorded to young women's paid and unpaid domestic work undermined their efforts. The research contributes to understandings of gendered nuances in the experience of bereavement and continuing bonds and provides insight into intra-household decision-making processes, ownership and control of assets. Analysis of the culturally specific meanings of relationships and a young person's social location within hierarchies of gender, age, sibling birth order and wider socio-cultural norms and practices is needed.

Autonomy and the socialisation of architects

The socio-cultural production of architects' identities, and their professional personas, is a lively source of continuing debate. At one extreme, there is the claim to autonomy that highlights the distinctiveness of architecture and its cultural and disciplinary specificity. This view is challenged by those who emphasise architects' dependence, for acting and actions, on their embeddedness into collective, social, settings and relationships. In the paper, we consider what it may mean to be ‘autonomous of’ and ‘dependent on’ in relation to the actions of architects. There is limited specification in architectural writings about what autonomy and dependence are, and we suggest that there is a need not to discount such terms, but to reformulate them by recognising that the socially constructed self is an integral part of individual action. In this respect, we seek to amplify, and evaluate, the concept of relational autonomy that distances the notion of autonomy from individualistic, under-socialised, accounts of architects and their practices. Referring to three empirical examples of practice, we amplify this understanding by, first, outlining what a relational autonomous approach to architecture might entail, and, secondly, assessing how far it may enable a conception of the practices of architects in ways whereby, following Tony Fry's observations, they are conceived as much broader than ‘the specificity of any particular activity’ that expresses their existence.

Is it still King Lear? English teachers and the e-reader phenomenon

E-reading devices such as the Kindle have rapidly secured a significant place in a number of societies as at least one major platform for reading.To some extent they are part of the overarching move towards a fully digitised world, but they have a distinctiveness in being deliberately‘book-like’. Teachers generally have some suspicion towards ‘New Media’, especially when it challenges their established practice. This chapter reports on a survey of English teachers in England to gauge their reactions to e-readers, both personally and professionally, and describes their speculations about the place of e-readers in schools in the future. There is a mixed reaction with some teachers concerned about the demise of the book and the potential negative impact on reading. However, the majority welcome e-readers as a dynamic element within the reading environment with particular potential to enthuse reluctant readers and those with special or linguistic needs. They also, some grudgingly, view the fact that reading using this form of technology appeals to the ‘egeneration’ and may succeed in making reading ‘cool’. This form of technology is, ironically [given that it appears to threaten traditional books], likely to be rapidly adopted in classrooms.

Exploring trilingual Chinese children’s language use

This article investigates the patterns of language use among a selected group of trilingual Chinese immigrant children. The study is located in a socio-cultural-linguistic context of a Chinese heritage language school in Montreal, Quebec. Drawing on data collected from classroom observations, I explore how children’s language choices are influenced by their socialization networks, friendship patterns and daily social interactions. The analysis of data is guided by sociocultural theory and the theory of language socialization. The findings indicate that socialization and political institutional contexts can have powerful influences on children’s social and educational development, including language development, identity formation, and mother tongue maintenance and loss.

Enchanting resilience: relations of care and people-place connections in agriculture

The practices and decision-making of contemporary agricultural producers are governed by a multitude of different, and sometimes competing, social, economic, regulatory, environmental and ethical imperatives. Understanding how they negotiate and adapt to the demands of this complex and dynamic environment is crucial in maintaining an economically and environmentally viable and resilient agricultural sector. This paper takes a socio-cultural approach to explore the development of social resilience within agriculture through an original and empirically grounded discussion of people-place connections amongst UK farmers. It positions enchantment as central in shaping farmers' embodied and experiential connections with their farms through establishing hopeful, disruptive and demanding ethical practices. Farms emerge as complex moral economies in which an expanded conceptualisation of the social entangles human and non-human actants in dynamic and contextual webs of power and responsibility. While acknowledging that all farms are embedded within broader, nested levels, this paper argues that it is at the micro-scale that the personal, contingent and embodied relations that connect farmers to their farms are experienced and which, in turn, govern their capacity to develop social resilience.