Concept of project: learning lessons

The concept of Project encompasses a semantic disparity that involves all areas of professional and nonprofessional activity. In the engineering projects domain, and starting by the etymological roots of the terms, a review of the definitions given by different authors and their relation with sociological trends of the last decades is carried out. The engineering projects began as a tool for the development of technological ideas and have been improved with legal, economic and management parameters and recently with environmental aspects. However, the engineering projects involve people, groups, agents, organizations, companies and institutions. Nowadays, the social implications of projects are taken into consideration but the technology for social integration is not consolidated. This communication provides a new framework based on the experience for the development of engineering projects in the context of "human development", placing people in the center of the project

El análisis de la dirección integrada de proyectos (project & construction management) en el marco europeo: propuesta de regulación en España y su inclusión en la ley de la ordenación de la edificación

El presente trabajo de Tesis Doctoral surge de la Figura de la Dirección Integrada de Proyecto en Edificación (“Project & Construction Management”) y su analisis de la situación regulatoria en la legislación española. El primer planteamiento fue pensar en la situación actual de esta figura en el contexto internacional, para analizar su repercusión en el sector de la edificación, lo cual me llevo a cabo las siguientes preguntas que he reuelto en esta investigación. ¿ Como surge el ¨Project & Construction Management”? ¿ Cuales son sus actividades, funciones y cometidos? ¿ Existe el ¨Project & Construction Management” en otros países? ¿Hay regulación del ¨Project & Construction Management” en esos paises? ¿Cómo es la regulación del ¨Project & Construction Management”? ¿Existe demanda del ¨Project & Construction Management” en España? ¿Cómo es esa demanda en España, y como se puede cuantificar? ¿Existe regulación del ¨Project & Construction Management” en España? ¿ Como debería ser la regulación del ¨Project & Construction Management” en España? Todas las preguntas anteriores las he ido respondiendo con el presente trabajo, llegando a una serie de respuestas, que están reflejadas en el desarrollo del presente trabajo y que resumo: - EL ¨Project & Construction Management” surge a principios del siglo XX en USA, desarrollándose como una disciplina con metodología propia y extendiéndose por otros países. - EL ¨Project & Construction Management” es una disciplina, basada en una metodología propia con herramientas y técnicas para organizar cualquier 14 proyecto de cualquier tipo, pero en este caso un proyecto de edificación, para lo cual he definido con todo detalle esta figura. - El origen del ¨Project & Construction Management” es anglosajón, concretamente en USA, extendiendose luego al Reino Unido, a Europa (Francia y Alemania), a Asia, a América del Sur y a Oceanía. - En todos los paises estudiados (Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Francia y Alemania) existe una regulación sobre el ¨Project & Construction Management” que me ha servido de base comparativa para introducirla en España. - Hay muchas empresas en España (Nacionales e Internacionales) que ejercen su actividad dentro de este sector, por lo que para realizar un estudio más profundo, hice una muestra de las 30 empresas más significativas, prepare un cuestionario, dividido en 5 apartados: Organizativo, Sectorial, Cualitativo, Cuantitativo y Profesional para obtener una radiogradía de la situación real del sector, y así valorar cual es la importancia de este agente. - Estudié las posibles regulaciones del ¨Project & Construction Management” en España y no encontré ninguna. - El lugar idóneo para que se regule al ¨Project & Construction Management” es la Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación (LOE), ya que la jurisprudencia (sentencias de los tribunales de justicia españoles) le ha asimilado con los agentes de la LOE y se ha basado para absolver o condenar en la Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación. Por lo que el Objetivo fundamental de esta tesis ha sido regular la figura del ¨Project & Construction Management”, traducirla al Castellano, definirla y realizar una estructura de Agente de la Edificación, según la LOE, para poder introducirla dentro de la Legislación Española, con el objeto de mejorar la calidad de la edificación, proteger al usuario, estableciendo responsabilidades y garantías y proteger al ¨Project & Construction Management” de las responsabilidades solidarias. ABSTRACT This Doctoral Thesis figure emerges from the Integrated Building Project ("Project & Construction Management") and his analysis of the regulatory situation in the Spanish legislation. The first approach was to think of the current situation of this figure in the international context, to analyze its impact on the building sector, which I conducted the following questions that I have met in this research. - How did the “Project & Construction Management "? - What are your activities, functions and duties? - Is there a “Project & Construction Management "in other countries? - Is there regulation “Project & Construction Management "in these countries? - How is regulation of ¨ Project & Construction Management "? - Is there demand “Project & Construction Management "in Spain? - How is that demand in Spain, and as you can quantify? - Is there regulation “Project & Construction Management "in Spain? - How should regulation ¨Project & Construction Management "in Spain? All the above questions have been answered with this study, leading to a series of responses, which are reflected in the development of this study and are summarized: - The ¨ Project & Construction Management "comes early twentieth century in the USA, developed as a discipline with its own methodology and extending other countries. - The ¨ Project & Construction Management "is a discipline based on a metodology own tools and techniques to organize any project of any kind, but in this case a building project, for which I have defined in detail this figure. - The origin of ¨Project & Construction Management "is Anglo-Saxon, particularly in USA, then spreading to the UK, Europe (France and Germany), Asia, South America and Oceania. - In all countries studied (USA, UK, France and Germany) there is a regulation on ¨Project & Construction Management "has helped me to introduce comparative base in Spain. - There are many companies in Spain (National and International) who perform work within this sector, so for further study, I made a sample of the 30 most important companies, prepare a questionnaire, divided into five sections: Organizational , Sector, Qualitative, Quantitative and Professional radiography for a real situation of the sector, and thus assess which is the importance of this agent. - Study the possible regulations ¨Project & Construction Management "in Spain and found none. - The place to be regulated to ¨Project & Construction Management "is the Law of Construction Planning (LOE), as the case law (judgments of the courts Spanish) has assimilated LOE agents and has been based to absolve or condemn Law Construction Planning. So the objective of this thesis has been regular figure ¨ Project & Construction Management ", translated to spanish, define and perform an Agent structure of the Building, as the LOE, to enter into Spanish law, in order to improve the quality of the building, protecting the user, establishing responsibilities and guarantees and protect the ¨ Project & Construction Management "solidarity responsibilities.

Methodological Proposal for Teamwork Evaluation in the field of training Project Management.

Teamwork, is one of the abilities that today is highly valued in the professional arena with a great importance for various personal and interpersonal skills associated with it. In this context, the Technical University of Madrid, is developing a coordinated educational innovation project, which main objective is to develop methodological and assessment tools for the acquisition of personal skills necessary to improve the employability of graduates and their skills for project management. Within this context, this paper proposes a methodology composed of various activities and indicators, as well as specific assessment instruments linked to the teamwork competence. Through a series of systematic steps it was allowed the design of an instrument and construction of a scale for measuring the competence of teamwork. The practical application of the methodology has been carried out in Projects lectures from different Schools of Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, which results are presented in this document as a pilot experience. Results show the various aspects and methods that teachers should consider in evaluating the competence of the work, including analysis of the quality of results, through reliability and construct validity. On the other hand, show the advantages of applying this methodology in the field of project management teaching.

Final year project: students and instructors perceptions as a competence-strengthening tool for engineering students

This work indicates the importance of the Final Year Project (FYP) in the strengthening of competences of engineering students. The study also shows which personal competences of students are reinforced most during the FYP process,including the preparation, elaboration, presentation and defence stages. In order to gather information on this subject, a survey was conducted at two different Spanish technical universities—one public and one private—and a comparative analysis was performed of the questionnaires collected. The competence model considered is that used by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), since the official title of the public university has been accredited by this model. The results indicate which personal and professional competences of students are reinforced well by undertaking the FYP. Any significant differences in response by university are explained in the study. For validation purposes, the results were contrasted with the instructor’s perspective using the triangulation methodology. Finally, the conclusions drawn will permit the design of new study plans to cope more effectively with the challenges of the FYP in the new Bologna framework.

A Multingual Web-based Educational System for Professional Musicians

This paper presents the main results of the eContent HARMOS project. The project has developed a webbased educational system for professional musicians. The main idea of the project consists of recording master classes taught by highly recognised maestros and annotate this multimedia material using an educational musical taxonomy and automatic annotation tools. Users of the system access a multi-criteria search engine that allows them to find and play video segments according to a combination of criteria, which include instrument, teacher, composer, composition, movement and pedagogical concept. In order to preserve teachers and students rights, a DRM and protection system has been developed. The system is being publicly exploited. This model preserves musical heritage, since these valuable master classes are usually not recorded and it also provides a sustainable model for musical institutions.

Andrea Branzi y la “Città senza architettura”: De la No-Stop City a los modelos de urbanización débil

El tema de estudio de esta tesis son las propuestas urbanas que Andrea Branzi ha desarrollado durante los últimos cincuenta años, centrándose especialmente en aquellas más elaboradas y completas: la No-Stop City (1970-71), que elabora como miembro del grupo radical Archizoom, y dos de sus modelos de urbanización débil, Agronica (1995) y el Master Plan para el Strijp Philips de Eindhoven (2000). Se trata de una parte de su obra que ha mantenido constante, a lo largo del tiempo, una propuesta de disolución de la arquitectura de notable consistencia que puede describirse con la fórmula “città senza architettura”, acuñada por él mismo. Una voluntad que ya se apunta en la muy variada producción de Archizoom previa a la No-Stop City, y que cristaliza y se hace explícita en este proyecto que aspiraba a: “liberar al hombre de la arquitectura”. A pesar de la continuidad de esta idea en el tiempo, la ciudad sin arquitectura de Branzi ha evolucionado claramente dando lugar a distintos tipos de disolución. Una disolución que, obviamente, no supone la efectiva desaparición de la disciplina, sino la formulación de una arquitectura “otra” basada en un replanteamiento radical de la naturaleza y el papel de la misma. Esta agenda contra la disciplina se ha desplegado a través de una serie de temas que socavan el objeto arquitectónico canónico (su vaciamiento expresivo, la pérdida de importancia de la envolvente y la forma acabada, el carácter anticompositivo, la independencia entre forma y función, la mutabilidad en el tiempo…), pero va más allá al poner en crisis el rol que la propia arquitectura ha tenido en la configuración material, política y simbólica del hábitat humano. Una pérdida de protagonismo y centralidad en la sociedad contemporánea que, en el discurso del arquitecto, implica necesariamente un papel subordinado. De este proceso de disolución surge un nuevo tipo de ciudad en la que la forma urbana o se ha perdido o se ha convertido en superflua, en la que se ha disuelto la zonificación funcional, cuyos espacios interiores se hallan en un proceso de permanente reprogramación que ignora las tipologías, que trasciende la división entre lo urbano y lo agrícola y que es, ante todo, un espacio de flujos y servicios. La crisis de la ciudad tradicional implica, en definitiva, un cambio en la naturaleza misma de lo urbano que pasa de considerarse un lugar físico y construido, a convertirse en una condición inmaterial y virtualmente omnipresente que se despliega independientemente de su soporte físico. En las investigaciones urbanas de Branzi convergen, además, muchas de las reflexiones que el arquitecto ha desarrollado sobre, y desde, las distintas “escalas” de la actividad profesional: diseño, arquitectura y urbanismo. Estas propuestas no sólo cuestionan las relaciones establecidas entre objetos, edificios, ciudades y territorios sino que ponen en cuestión estas mismas categorías. Unas ciudades sin arquitectura que se basan, en última instancia, en plantear preguntas que son muy sencillas y, por otra parte, eternas: ¿Qué es un edificio? ¿Qué es una ciudad? ABSTRACT The subject of study of this thesis are the urban proposals developed by Andrea Branzi over the last fifty years, with a special focus on the more developed and comprehensive ones: the No- Stop City (1970-1971), produced as a member of the architettura radicale group Archizoom, and two of his “weak urbanization models”: Agronica (1995) and the Master Plan for Philips Strijp in Eindhoven (2000). This area of his work has kept, over time, a remarkably consistent proposal for the dissolution of architecture that can be described with the motto città senza architettura (city without architecture), coined by himself. A determination, already latent in the very diverse production of Archizoom prior to No-Stop City, that crystallizes and becomes explicit in this project which was aimed to "liberate man from the architecture." Despite the continuity of this idea over time, Branzi’s city without architecture has clearly evolved leading to different types of dissolution. A dissolution that, obviously, does not mean the effective demise of the discipline, but rather, the formulation of an architecture autre based on a radical rethinking of its nature and role. This agenda against the discipline has been developed through a number of issues that undermine the canonical architectural object (its expressive emptying, the loss of importance of the envelope and the finished shape, the anticompositional character, the independence between form and function, the mutability over time...), but goes beyond it by putting into crisis the role that architecture itself has had in the material, political and symbolic configuration of the human habitat. A loss of prominence and centrality in contemporary society that, in the architect’s discourse, implies a subordinate role. From this dissolution process, a new type of city arises: a city where urban form has been lost or has become superfluous, in which functional zoning has dissolved, whose interiors are in a permanent process of reprogramming that ignores typologies, that transcends the division between urban and agricultural and becomes, above all, a space of flows and services. Ultimately, the crisis of the traditional city implies a change in the very nature of the urban that moves from being regarded as a physical and built place, to become an immaterial and virtually omnipresent condition that unfolds regardless of its physical medium. Many of the ideas Branzi has developed on, and from, the different "scales" of professional activity (design, architecture and urbanism) converge in his urban research. These proposals not only question the relations between objects, buildings, cities and territories but also these very categories. Cities without architecture that are based, ultimately, on raising simple questions that are, on the other hand, eternal: What is a building? What is a city?

An Analysis Of The Recommended Knowledge For The Software Project Management Discipline

According to the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements” [1]. Project Management has proven to be one of the most important disciplines at the moment of determining the success of any project [2][3][4]. Given that many of the activities covered by this discipline can be said that are “horizontal” for any kind of domain, the importance of acknowledge the concepts and practices becomes even more obvious. The specific case of the projects that fall in the domain of Software Engineering are not the exception about the great influence of Project Management for their success. The critical role that this discipline plays in the industry has come to numbers. A report by McKinsey & Co [4] shows that the establishment of programs for the teaching of critical skills of project management can improve the performance of the project in time and costs. As an example of the above, the reports exposes: “One defense organization used these programs to train several waves of project managers and leaders who together administered a portfolio of more than 1,000 capital projects ranging in Project management size from $100,000 to $500 million. Managers who successfully completed the training were able to cut costs on most projects by between 20 and 35 percent. Over time, the organization expects savings of about 15 percent of its entire baseline spending”. In a white paper by the PMI (Project Management Institute) about the value of project management [5], it is stated that: “Leading organizations across sectors and geographic borders have been steadily embracing project management as a way to control spending and improve project results”. According to the research made by the PMI for the paper, after the economical crisis “Executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates—all vital to surviving the economic crisis”. In every elite company, a proper execution of the project management discipline has become a must. Several members of the software industry have putted effort into achieving ways of assuring high quality results from projects; many standards, best practices, methodologies and other resources have been produced by experts from different fields of expertise. In the industry and the academic community, there is a continuous research on how to teach better software engineering together with project management [4][6]. For the general practices of Project Management the PMI produced a guide of the required knowledge that any project manager should have in their toolbox to lead any kind of project, this guide is called the PMBOK. On the side of best practices 10 and required knowledge for the Software Engineering discipline, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) developed the SWEBOK (Software Engineering Body of Knowledge) in collaboration with software industry experts and academic researchers, introducing into the guide many of the needed knowledge for a 5-year expertise software engineer [7]. The SWEBOK also covers management from the perspective of a software project. This thesis is developed to provide guidance to practitioners and members of the academic community about project management applied to software engineering. The way used in this thesis to get useful information for practitioners is to take an industry-approved guide for software engineering professionals such as the SWEBOK, and compare the content to what is found in the PMBOK. After comparing the contents of the SWEBOK and the PMBOK, what is found missing in the SWEBOK is used to give recommendations on how to enrich project management skills for a software engineering professional. Recommendations for members of the academic community on the other hand, are given taking into account the GSwE2009 (Graduated Software Engineering 2009) standard [8]. GSwE2009 is often used as a main reference for software engineering master programs [9]. The standard is mostly based on the content of the SWEBOK, plus some contents that are considered to reinforce the education of software engineering. Given the similarities between the SWEBOK and the GSwE2009, the results of comparing SWEBOK and PMBOK are also considered valid to enrich what the GSwE2009 proposes. So in the end the recommendations for practitioners end up being also useful for the academic community and their strategies to teach project management in the context of software engineering.

Influencia de un nuevo marco jurídico en la competitividad del sistema portuario español

El sistema portuario español movió en el año 2013 aproximadamente 458,54 millones de toneladas, 13,8 millones de TEUs, con un total de 131.128 buques que accedieron a puerto para el conjunto de las 28 Autoridades Portuarias. Con el 62% de las exportaciones y el 86% de las importaciones realizadas por vía marítima, una rentabilidad del 2,34 %, muy cerca del objetivo del 2,5 % de rentabilidad media annual establecida legalmente, y una cifra de negocios aproximada de 1.028 millones de euros equivalentes al 1,1 % del PIB que genera un empleo directo e indirecto vinculado de 145.000 personas, concluimos que estamos hablando de un sector estratégico para la economía del país. Desde hace décadas, en muchos puertos del mundo se han venido desarrollando terminales “hub” o de concentración y distribución de cargas. Las navieras concentran entre este tipo de terminales sus líneas transoceánicas con buques de enormes dimensiones y capacidad de carga para producir los tránsitos de contenedores desde estas líneas a otras líneas llamadas “feeder”, con buques de menor tamaño que enlazan el “hub” con los puertos de su área marítima de influencia. La excepcional ubicación geoestratégica de España, con aproximadamente ocho mil kilómetros de costa, ha originado que los puertos españoles de mayor dimensión aspiren a incorporarse a esta red marítima internacional de contenedores y determina que en nuestro sistema portuario los movimientos de contenedores de tránsito tengan gran importancia. Sin embargo, la crisis económica ha tenido un efecto decisivo en el sector marítimo, determinando una lucha feroz entre todos los puertos, nacionales e internacionales, por captar este tipo de tráficos, lo que origina una búsqueda de las compañías navieras de puertos cada vez más eficientes en términos calidad/coste del servicio. La entrada en vigor del Texto Refundido de la Ley de Puertos y la piedra angular de su reforma, la Ley 33/2010, plantea como objetivo principal la mejora de la competitividad del sistema portuario español y liderar su recuperación, ofreciendo unas condiciones de entorno favorables a los puertos españoles que acaben por incentivar la captación de tráficos e inversión privada a través de una oferta de servicios e infraestructura de calidad y a precios competitivos que consoliden su posición dentro del tráfico marítimo mundial. Surge, por tanto, la conveniencia de investigar la influencia de las medidas propuestas por dicha norma legal y las soluciones ofrecidas a las demandas de un sector considerado estratégico para la economía del país, y cuya resolución se considera imprescindible para consolidar su recuperación. Por eso, se han analizado los aspectos más importantes de la reforma mediante la realización de un resumen ejecutivo y se ha estudiado la influencia de las medidas que incorpora desde el punto de vista de tres factores, que previamente se han considerado como fundamentales para la recuperación del sistema portuario español, y que históricamente habían sido demandados por el mismo, como son, en primer lugar, un progresivo sistema de flexibilización tributaria que permitiera a los puertos españoles ganar en términos de competitividad respecto a otros modelos portuarios mucho más flexibles en materia tarifaria, en segundo lugar, una necesaria liberalización del régimen de prestación de los servicios portuarios que posibilite el libre acceso a cualquier interesado en su prestación y, en último lugar, el progresivo abaratamiento de los costes inherentes a dichos servicios, fundamentalmente la manipulación de mercancías. Con posterioridad se ha investigado el trámite parlamentario al que se ha sometido la ley, fruto del enorme consenso alcanzado entre las dos principales fuerzas políticas del país, que determinó que se presentaran más de 700 enmiendas al proyecto original, y en algunos casos, se ha prestado especial atención a determinadas enmiendas que se consideran, en opinión de este investigador, novedosas y aventuradas, razón por la cual quizás no fueron incorporadas definitivamente al texto legal. Y se han analizado las principales demandas y aportaciones extraídas de la Sesión Informativa sobre la tramitación del entonces proyecto de ley ofrecida por la Comisión de Fomento del Congreso de los Diputados a los principales representantes del sector, comunidad portuaria, universidad y sindicatos. Siendo conscientes de la incidencia que tiene el servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías en el paso de la mercancía por el puerto, se ha hecho una referencia concreta al peculiar régimen jurídico y laboral del personal vinculado al servicio. Avanzamos que las características de la relación laboral especial, y su peculiar régimen jurídico, con una dualidad de relaciones laborales, tiene una influencia decisiva en la nómina del trabajador que se repercute en los usuarios del servicio, fundamentalmente el naviero y el operador de la terminal, que en definitiva, incide en la competitividad del puerto. Y se ha constatado el auge aperturista de numerosas legislaciones portuarias europeas, prestando especial atención al proyecto frustrado de liberalización de los servicios portuarios en la Unión Europea de la conocida como Directiva Loyola de Palacio del año 2003 y al Libro Blanco de Transportes del año 2011. Así como a las deficiencias advertidas por el Dictamen de la Comisión Europea de fecha 27/09/2012 en relación al régimen jurídico del servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías, que lo considera disconforme y contrario con las normas de libertad de establecimiento en Europa y que amenaza con una previsible reforma unilateral de la legislación portuaria española, a instancias europeas. Bajo este planteamiento, se ha procedido a analizar el marco de prestación de dichos servicios desde el punto de vista de la propia comunidad portuaria. Inicialmente, a través de un estudio de fuerzas de la competitividad del sector de los servicios portuarios en el sistema portuario español que nos permitirá trazar un mapa estratégico del mismo a través del “Modelo de las Cinco Fuerzas de Porter” concluyendo, que el poder de los prestadores de servicios portuarios como proveedores de los mismos, fundamentalmente en la manipulación de mercancías, es máximo, con un único colectivo, los estibadores portuarios, que al amparo de la normativa legal vigente tienen la exclusividad de su prestación. Dichas circunstancias restan competitividad al sistema frente a alternativas portuarias más flexibles y desincentivan la inversión privada. Y, en segundo lugar, mediante un proceso participativo en distintas encuestas sobre el modelo legislativo y sobre el marco formativo del sector con los propios agentes afectados dentro de la comunidad portuaria, desde la triple perspectiva de la vertiente pública que representan las Autoridades Portuarias, como gestores de las infraestructuras, la vertiente privada que representan los usuarios y prestadores de servicios, como principal cliente del puerto y desde el punto de vista de la propia mano de obra portuaria materializada en la representación sindical de dichos trabajadores. Los resultados nos permitirán concluir, respectivamente, la incidencia del servicio portuario mercancía por el puerto, por representar más de la mitad de los costes. Así como la aspiración de los trabajadores adscritos a dicho servicio de consolidar un título formativo que unifique y potencie su capacitación profesional, circunstancia esta última, también demandada por toda comunidad portuaria. Analizadas las conclusiones extraídas en cada una de las líneas de investigación se han detectado una serie de ineficiencias dentro del mismo que dicho marco regulador no ha sabido resolver, por lo que se ha considerado la conveniencia de formular, como herramienta de ayuda a gestores del sistema portuario español, una relación de medidas que, en opinión de este investigador, se consideran necesarias para mejorar el régimen de prestación de los servicios portuarios y se ha propuesto un borrador de modificación del actual Texto Refundido que pueda servir de base para materializar una futura reforma legal. Las conclusiones obtenidas en la investigación deben sentar las bases de una profunda reflexión sobre la necesidad de encaminar, como alternativa a una previsible modificación a instancias europeas, una reforma legal que decididamente apueste por la competitividad del sistema portuario español desde el punto de vista de la liberalización de servicios, el abaratamiento de los costes de la estiba y la necesaria profesionalización de los trabajadores adscritos al servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías. During 2013 the Spanish Port System moved nearly 458,54 million tons of freight, 13,8 million TEUs, involving a total of 131.128 ships for the 28 existing Port Authorities. With 62% of exports and 86% of imports made through sea transportation, a 2,34% profit, close to the 2,5% average annual profit goal legally established, revenues of 1.028 million € equivalent to a 1.1% of Spain’s GDP and a figure of 145.000 people a directly or indirectly employed we can conclude that maritime industry is undoubtedly one of the strategic and key sectors for the country’s economy. Since several decades many ports in the world have been increasingly developing “Hub” terminals, those which concentrate and distribute freight. Shipping companies place among these type of terminals their transoceanic sea liners along with huge dimension & capacity ships to make the container transit from these liners to other called “feeder” which are smaller freight ships that connect the “hub” with the ports within its maritime area of influence. Spain’s exceptional geostrategic location with over 8.000 km of coastline has originated that those big dimension Spanish ports aspire to become a part of a container international maritime network which also determines that transit container move is key within our port system. Nevertheless the economic crisis has had a decisive impact on the maritime sector originating a fierce battle between all ports, national and international ones, all of them fight against each other to catch this type of maritime traffic which triggers an ongoing shipping companies search in cost/service quality efficient ports. The cornerstone of the Restated Text of Port Law is Law 33/2010, which lays out as main goal the Spanish Port System competitiveness improvement and lead its recovery offering favorable environment conditions to Spanish ports which help encourage maritime traffic attraction and private investment through a wide offer of services, quality of infrastructure and competitive prices which can consolidate its positioning within the world’s maritime traffic. It is therefore key to investigate the influence of the measures proposed by the above mentioned law and also the solutions offered to the demands of a sector which is considered strategic for the country’s economy and which solution is essential to consolidate the recovery. It is because of this that the most important aspects of the reform have been analyzed through the making of an executive summary and it has also been studied the influence of the measures it includes from the point of view of three factors which have previously been considered as key for the Spanish port system recovery. The system has historically demanded a progressive tax flexibility, which would permit Spanish ports be more competitive compared to other port models much more flexible in rates, a necessary liberalization of the port service provision regime and last but not least, to cut the price of costs related to those services, mainly freight handling. Following this, the parliamentary process of the law has also been studied as a consequence of the vast consensus reached by the main political forces in the country which clearly determined that more than 700 amendments to the original project were presented. In some cases the focus has been on amendments which are adventurous and new, reason why they were finally not included to the final legal text. Being well aware of the importance that freight handling procedure has, I have made a specific reference to the legal and working framework of those employees related to this service. We conclude that the special working relationship, its different legal regime, along with the working relationship dualism has a big impact and decisive influence over the worker’s salary which also affects service users, mainly shipowners and terminal operators, having a bad effect on the port’s competitiveness. The above confirms the new opening trend of main European port laws with special attention to the frustrated European Union port services liberalization project, also known as Directive Loyola de Palacio (2003) and the White Paper on Transports (2011). It is important to highlight that the European Commission has also observed several deficiencies with regard to the freight handling port service Law Regime being in disagreement with it, considering it is against the free establishment rules in Europe. The Commission is likely to present a unilateral reform to the Spanish Port Law. Under this approach the service provision framework is being analyzed from the Port Community point of view. Initially the analysis will focus on the study of the competition forces within the port services industry in Spain, this will allow us to draw up an strategic map through “Porter’s Five Forces Model” concluding that the power of port services providers as freight handlers is maximum, with an only collective, stevedores, which has the exclusivity for their services. All these circumstances not only decrease the system’s competitiveness versus other more flexible but also restrain private investments. Secondly, through a participating procedure in different surveys about the legislative model and about the training framework with the affected agents within the port community, there is a triple perspective: Public point of view represented by Port Authorities as infrastructure managers, Private point of view represented by users and service suppliers as main Port’s customer and finally, port workforce, represented by union leaders. Results will let us conclude that freight handling service is the most critical port service and represents more than half of the costs. This service related workers aspire to obtain a training certificate that unifies and boosts their professional role which is also chased by the entire port community. Once conclusions have been analyzed for all research lines, several deficiencies have been found and the regulatory framework hasn’t yet been able to solve them, it has therefore been a series of necessary measures that help improve the port services provision regime. A new proposal to the Restated Law Text has been drafted as the first step to embrace a future legal reform. Conclusions obtained on the research should set the new basis of a deep reflection about the need to bent on a new legal reform which firmly bets on Spanish port system competitiveness from three key points of view, service liberalization, ship load cost reduction and professionalization of freight handling related workers.

Agricultural trade and prosperity

In an environment where there is no communication between different social levels and which is suffering an increasing demand in agricultural production, agribusiness and quality, trade, as a regulator of the supply and demand, has a strong impact on the economic and environmental areas as well as on the farmers quality of life. This entails the need to find a sustainable and fair balance between the different parties (farmers and traders). This paper seeks to find this balance through the integration of trade with prosperity, understood not from a purely economic point of view, but as an improvement in life quality. This proposal is framed within Working With People (WWP) as the main conceptual base for achieving concrete actions that will promote a rapprochement between the parties that will lead to the sector?s sustainable resilience. This will be achieved through a exhaustive review of scientific literature in order to analyze and develop the state of the art of the concepts involved. The result is a conceptual proposal presented from the three dimensions of the WWP model: technical-entrepeneurial, ethical-social, political-contextual"

Resilence, rural development and suistainable management: a working with people model approach

Nowadays, it has become evident the need to seek sustainable development models that address challenges arising in a variety of contexts. The resilience concept appears connected to the ability of people to cope with adversities that inevitably arise due to context dynamics, at different spatial and temporal scales. This concept is related to the model known as Working With People (WWP), focused on rural development projects planning, management and evaluation, from the integration of three dimensions: technical-entrepreneurial, ethical-social and political-contextual. The research reported is part of the RETHINK European Project, whose overall aim is farm modernization and rural resilience. The resilience concept has been analyzed, in the scope of rural development projects management, and a relationship with the WWP model has been established. To this end, a thorough review of the scientific literature concerning this topic has been addressed, in order to develop the state of the art of the different concepts and models involved. A conceptual proposal for the integration of resilience in rural development projects sustainable management, through the three-dimensional WWP model is presented.

Best practices for school leaders: implementation of a professional competence model for school management in Chile

In Chile, during the last three decades there has been a strong decentralization process whose main objective has been to improve the management of schools through the transfer of responsibilities and resources of education and thus improve the outcome of learning, reducing equity gaps between schools and territories. This is how, there has been an evolution of school principals¿ professional profile from an administrative to a management approach, in which principals have become project managers of educational projects. From a competence model for school leaders, based on IPMA guidelines, the present article presents an analysis of best practices for school management, allowing to generate a link between competencies and school management, from the perspective of project management. Results showed that the different competence elements, have relative weights according to the different practice fields, and that this analysis can be considered as a strategic element in educational project planning and development.

Technology transfer of renewable energy for rural development: historical evolution and lessons of experience from the model WWP

Technology transfer (TT) in the area of renewable energy (RE) throughout history has been an important tool for rural development (RD). Initially, the TT has been conceptualized as the purchase or donation of machinery from first world countries - without any consideration of staff training and contextual conditions for the adaptation of technology to the needs of the country. Various researches have revealed the existence of different approaches to planning the TT of RE, demonstrating the high complexity of projects from the social and contextual dimension. This paper addresses the conceptual evolution of the TT of RE for RD, examining its different periods considered for three criteria: historical events occurred, the role of stakeholders and changing objectives for the TT of RE for RD. For the conceptual analysis of changes the model Working With People (WWP) is used for planning and project management of high social complexity in RD. The analysis defines the existence of four historical periods in the TT of RE and synthesizes the lessons of experience from the three dimensions (ethical-social, technical-entrepreneurial, and political-contextual) of the WWP model.

Diseño arquitectónico y protección en caso de incendio: desarrollo normativo español en materia de evacuación en los siglos XIX y XX

Esta es la búsqueda de respuestas a esa duda constante: De dónde venimos y que hemos ido dejando por el camino. ¿Está todo claro en este recorrido o hemos actuado por acumulación de errores heredados de procesos anteriores? Es la investigación a través del descubrimiento de nuestro pasado, de nuestros orígenes en materia de seguridad de protección contra incendios, y sobre todo de ejecución de una arquitectura pensada para ser recorrida con mayor seguridad y ser evacuada en un tiempo razonable. El trabajo investiga, a nivel nacional, la evolución de la sociedad y sus efectos sobre la manera de interpretar el problema de la seguridad contra incendios en los edificios. El interés fundamentalmente es poner en claro todos aquellos aspectos que afectan a la evacuación de las personas. Para ello se han estudiado los principales hitos de actuación, las preocupaciones principales surgidas en cada momento y las soluciones adoptadas. Se ha comprobado su aplicación o su demora hasta que se ha producido el siguiente gran suceso que ha motivado una nueva revisión de los procedimientos de diseño y control. En primer lugar, tratando de relacionar los incendios fundamentales que han influido en nuestra forma de abordar el problema en distintos momentos de la historia de España. En segundo lugar, haciendo un recorrido sobre la figura del arquitecto y su participación en los medios de control y legislación sobre la manera de intervenir en el servicio de incendios o de resolver los edificios en materia de protección contra incendios o evacuación de sus ocupantes. En definitiva, descubriendo los escritos de algunos especialistas, fundamentales para entender nuestra manera de abordar el problema de la protección en los edificios, a lo largo de la historia. Se ha revisado como se han producido los siniestros más importantes en teatros y otros locales públicos .Analizando la forma en que los arquitectos implicados han tratado de resolver las posibles deficiencias ante el riesgo. Se trata de la tipología edificatoria donde, por primera vez, surge la preocupación por adoptar medidas y procedimientos de seguridad en caso de incendio. Resultan locales con una importante siniestralidad, donde se desarrolla la principal actividad lúdica del momento, y que por el importante número de personas que albergan, son fuente de preocupación entre el público y las autoridades. Otras cuestiones en un tema tan amplio, que quedan simplemente esbozadas en este trabajo de investigación, son los procedimientos de los sistemas de extinción, la estructura organizativa de la ciudad, las primeras sociedades de seguros de incendios, la aparición de patentes a partir del desarrollo industrial del siglo XIX. Todo ello, con el hilo conductor de la reglamentación que se ha ido elaborando al respecto. Al principio, sobre espectáculos públicos, acotando el punto de partida en la materia de nuestra reglamentación. Anticipando sistemas constructivos y datos dimensionales de la evacuación. Llegados a mediados del siglo XX, abordando otros usos. Haciendo seguimiento de la modernización de los procesos edificatorios y la reglamentación sectorial. Recabando información de las organizaciones profesionales que comienzan a reclamar una coordinación nacional de los sistemas preventivos y que desemboca en el Proyecto de Reglamento de prevención contra el fuego que nunca será publicado. Toda esta etapa, plagada de documentos de carácter voluntario u obligatorio, local y nacional, van definiendo los criterios dimensionales con los que debe resolverse los elementos arquitectónicos susceptibles de servir para la evacuación. Se trata de una etapa intensa en documentación, cambiante, sujeta a los criterios que establecen los países del entorno más avanzados en la materia. Las dos últimas décadas del siglo, acotadas por la transición política y varios siniestros de graves consecuencias, definen el proceso normativo que culmina con el código técnico de la edificación que hoy conocemos. Es un periodo de aprendizaje y asimilación del capítulo de la seguridad, donde los métodos son variados. Donde la intencionalidad última es trasladar un sistema prescriptivo a un modelo prestacional propio de la madurez en el análisis del tema y en las corrientes de los países del entorno. ABSTRACT This is the search for answers to that constant question: Where do we come from and what have left along the way? Has everything been clear on this journey, or have we acted as a result of a collection of errors learned from prior processes? This has been research through exploration of our past, of our origins regarding fire protection safety, and, above all, of the endeavour to utilize architecture aimed at offering the highest level of safety and evacuation in a reasonable time. This project has researched society’s change nationwide and its effects on how to interpret the difficulty of fire protection safety in buildings. Its focus has fundamentally been to clarify those aspects that affect the evacuation of people. To this end, the main milestones of action, the principal concerns that have arisen at each step, and the solutions taken have all been studied. A check was performed on their application; or their delay until a significant event occurred that prompted a new revision of design and control procedures. Firstly, this was done by attempting to connect the main fires that have influenced how we handle the problem at different times in Spain’s history. Secondly, an examination was done on the figure of the architect and his participation in the means of control and legislation on how to intercede in fire services, or how the architect finds solutions for buildings in terms of fire protection, or the evacuation of their occupants. In short, the written works of certain specialists, who are essential to our understanding of how to deal with the problem of protection in buildings, were explored throughout history. A study was done on the most significant disasters in theatres and other public establishments. This was done by analysing the way the architects involved have aimed to solve possible points liable to risk. It is a classification of building where, for the first time, the concern arose to adopt safety measures and procedures in the event of fires. Public establishments with considerable accident rates emerged. Here the main entertainment activities of the time took place. These spaces were a source of worry among the public and authorities due to the high number of persons they accommodated. Other issues in such an extensive subject, which are only outlined in this research study, are procedures in extinguishing systems, the organizational structure of cities, the first fire insurance companies, and the appearance of patents after the industrial development of the 19th century. All of these aspects are joined by the common thread of regulations that have been created in this matter. At the beginning, these regulations were for public shows, thus defining the starting point for our regulations. This was done in anticipation of structural systems and size data of evacuations. With the arrival of the mid-20th century, different uses were addressed. A modernization of construction processes and the industry regulations were tracked. Information was gathered from professional organizations that began to demand a national coordination of prevention systems which led to the Regulation Project on fire prevention which will never be published. Throughout this stage, replete with voluntary and compulsory documents, both on the local and national level, the dimensional criteria to be used in the resolution of architectural elements open to use in evacuation were defined. This was a period that was filled with documentation, change, and subject to the criteria that the most advanced countries in the field established in this regard. The final two decades of the century, marked by political transition and several accidents with grave consequences, defined the regulation process that culminated with the building technical code known today. This was a period of learning and understanding in the chapter of safety, where the methods are varied. In this chapter, the ultimate goal is to insert a prescriptive-based standard into a performance-based code suitable for cultivated experience in analysis of the subject and the tendencies in countries dealing with this field.

La opción radical : viaje a través de Superstudio

Entre 1966 y 1967 un pequeño grupo de jóvenes arquitectos recién titulados en la Facultad de Arquitectura de Florencia escenifican en dos actos programados en las ciudades de Pistoia y Módenala exposición Superarchitettura, con la que sin saberlo inauguran un corto pero intenso periodo de experimentación arquitectónica que convulsionaría Italia durante los 10 años posteriores, dinamitados por multitud de propuestas que darán lugar a la última arquitectura con aspiraciones socio-políticas responsable de un vibrante legado teórico que proclamaba la vuelta a las raíces olvidadas de la profesión y que se mostraba más preocupada por reflexionar sobre sus fundamentos que por perpetuar la práctica de un oficio ahora puesto en crisis. Ambos eventos suponen también el nacimiento simultáneo de Superstudio y Archizoom, dos de los colectivos más influyentes de la arquitectura experimental italiana de estos años, convertidos en protagonistas de un agitado periodo de transición en el que una generación estaba dando paso a la siguiente a través de la sustitución de los principios doctrinarios recibidos de la modernidad por una jugosa incertidumbre desmitificadora ligada a una nueva realidad económica, política y social que marcaría los inicios de la posmodernidad. La experiencia italiana surge aprovechando la efervescencia de un fenómeno que posteriormente algunos críticos etiquetaron como Arquitectura Radical con la intención de unificar el trabajo de un heterogéneo y atomizado grupo de arquitectos fundamentalmente europeos – individualmente comprometidos con el replanteamiento total de la definición y objetivos de la disciplina, al tiempo que participaban en una particular cruzada existencial mediante la que pretendían, si no cambiar el mundo, al menos romper la dinámica estéril de la arquitectura profesional y tecnológica heredada. La presente tesis fomenta la recuperación interesada de este breve momento radical como un ambicioso proyecto de modernización inacabado, pero no solo para analizar las causas de su precipitado final, sino sobre todo para mostrar las razones de su gran éxito internacional, convirtiendo para ello el trabajo de Superstudio, ejemplo paradigmático de la actitud crítica compartida por el resto de operadores contemporáneos, en el catalizador adecuado a partir del cual interpretar y extrapolar su legado con el fin de narrar el cambio trascendental que este episodio supuso para la práctica arquitectónica, alejándola del diseño de edificios y centrándola en la adopción y aplicación de multitud de actividades no tectónicas en un intento por separarse de lo que era percibido como una disciplina corrupta. A lo largo de su corta carrera en común, los seis miembros de Superstudio sustituyeron la construcción convencional por la explotación intensiva de medios alternativos desde el diseño de mobiliario e iluminación y algunos experimentos en torno a la “arquitectura eléctrica”, hasta la expansión mediática de su trabajo a través de revistas, películas, exposiciones y conferencias contribuyendo así a una provocativa destrucción y posterior expansión de los límites dentro de los que hasta ese momento se había mantenido cómodamente instalada la arquitectura. Esta investigación descubre la trascendencia de considerar aquello que ocupó gran parte de la actividad de Superstudio y de sus colegas radicales (muebles, revistas, instalaciones, películas, labor teórica y docente, etc.) como nuevas formas de arquitectura con las que construir un nuevo lenguaje crítico, en un intento por contribuir a renovar y reforzar la relevancia y responsabilidad social de una profesión llamada a expandirse más allá de lo construido para nutrirse e interactuar con todos los ámbitos de nuestro entorno diario. ABSTRACT Between 1966 and 1967 a small group of newly qualified young architects from the Faculty of Architecture of Florence staged in two events planned in the cities of Pistoia and Modena the Superarchitettura exhibition, with which unwittingly inaugurated a short but intense period of architectural experimentation that convulse Italy during the following 10 years, blown up by a multitude of proposals that will result in the latest architecture with socio political aspirations responsible for a vibrant theoretical legacy proclaiming a return to forgotten roots of the profession and that was more concerned with reflect on its fundamentals than perpetuate the practice of a profession now put into crisis. Both events also involve the simultaneous birth of Superstudio and Archizoom, two of the most influential groups of Italian experimental architecture of these years, turned into protagonists of an hectic period of transition in which a generation was giving way to the next through replacing the received doctrinal principles of modernity by a juicy demystifying uncertainty linked to a new reality economic, political and social that would mark the beginning of postmodernism. The Italian experience arises taking advantage of the commotion of a phenomenon that later some critics labeled as Radical Architecture with the intention of unifying the work of a diverse and fragmented group of architects mainly European individually committed to the total rethinking of the definition and objectives of the discipline, while participating in a particular existential crusade with which they sought to, if not change the world, at least break out of the sterile dynamic of professional and technological architecture inherited. This doctoral thesis promotes an interested recovery of in this short radical time as an ambitious modernization project unfinished, but not only to analyze the causes of its precipitous end, but above all to show the reasons for it’s international success, turning the work of Superstudio, a paradigmatic example of the critical attitude shared by the rest of contemporary operators, into the suitable catalyst from which to interpret and extrapolate it’s legacy in order to recount the significant change that this episode marked for architectural practice, moving it away from building and focusing it on the adoption and implementation of many nonLtectonic activities in an attempt to separate from what was perceived as a corrupt discipline. Throughout their short career in common, the six members of Superstudio replaced conventional construction by intensive exploitation of alternative means L from furniture and lighting design and some experiments around the "electric architecture", to the media expansion of their work through magazines, films, exhibitions and lectures thus contributing to a provocative destruction and subsequent expansion of the limits within which architecture had remained ensconced until then. This dissertation finds out the importance of considering what occupied much of the activity of Superstudio and their radical colleagues (furniture, magazines, installations, films, theoretical and educational work, etc.) as new forms of architecture that build a new critical language, in an attempt to help renew and reinforce the relevance and social responsibility of a profession call to expand beyond the built to nourish and interact with all areas of our everyday environment.

Discourses and values underpin public debate on fracking in Spain: a case study at the crossroad

In the EU context extraction of shale and oil gas by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) differs from country to country in terms of legislation and implementation. While fossil fuel extraction using this technology is currently taking place in the UK, Germany and France have adopted respective moratoria. In between is the Spanish case, where hydrocarbon extraction projects through fracking have to undergo mandatory and routine environmental assessment in accordance with the last changes to environmental regulations. Nowadays Spain is at the crossroad with respect to the future of this technology. We presume a social conflictt in our country since the position and strategy of the involved and confronted social actors -national, regional and local authorities, energy companies, scientists, NGO and other social organization- are going to play key and likely divergent roles in its industrial implementation and public acceptance. In order to improve knowledge on how to address these controverted situations from the own engineering context, the affiliated units from the Higher Technical School of Mines and Energy Engineering at UPM have been working on a transversal program to teach values and ethics. Over the past seven years, this pioneering experience has shown the usefulness of applying a consequentialist ethics, based on a case-by-case approach and costs-benefits analysis both for action and inaction. As a result of this initiative a theoretical concept has arisen and crystallized in this field: it is named Inter-ethics. This theoretical perspective can be very helpful in complex situations, with multi-stakeholders and plurality of interests, when ethical management requires the interaction between the respective ethics of each group; professional ethics of a single group is not enough. Under this inter-ethics theoretical framework and applying content analysis techniques, this paper explores the articulation of the discourse in favour and against fracking technology and its underlying values as manifested in the Spanish traditional mass media and emerging social media such as Youtube. Results show that Spanish public discourse on fracking technology includes the costs-benefits analysis to communicate how natural resources from local communities may be affected by these facilities due to environmental, health and economic consequences. Furthermore, this technology is represented as a solution to the "demand of energy" according to the optimistic discourse while, from a pessimistic view, fracking is often framed as a source "environmental problems" and even natural disasters as possible earthquakes. In this latter case, this negative representation could have been influenced by the closure of a macro project to store injected natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea using the old facilities of an oil exploitation in Amposta (Proyecto Cástor). The closure of this project was due to the occurrence of earthquakes whose intensity was higher than the originally expected by the experts in the assessment stage of the project.