Conditional cash transfer programs and the representations of poverty in Bolivia and Peru

Bolivia and Peru adopted the same instruments of social policy —conditional cash transfer programs— to solve the same public problems under different political regimes. By means of the qualitative methodology of discourse analysis, this paper studies the representations of poverty and State made by key actors of those social programs. Underlying more differences than similarities, one demonstrates that the same social policy is linked to opposite social representations of poverty and the State role in every country. The main explanation for this is, far from being imposed by international organizations, those programs are adopted and adapted by each political regime.

Places making: participatory construction of scientifi c culture cities

In the framework of the European project Platform of Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science (PLACES), we analyse the articulations between scientifi c communication, public perception of science, processes of citizen participation and apropiation of space, based on a case study of the inhabitants of Teruel city, Autonomous Community of Aragon, Spain. On the interrelationships between these issues, there are a number of contradictions, such as the difference between a high interest for information about science and technology and a low level of recognition and interaction with local institutions involved in those activities, the complex conceptualization of scientifi c space in relation to the “public-private” pair, or an articulation of a claiming civic rethoric and an insuffi cient co-responsibility. We conclude that, in a local context, the dimension of territoriality and, in particular, the identifi cation with the town, is a central mediation for activating citizen participation as part of processes of appropriation of space for setting up cities of scientifi c culture.

Prueba de inmigración y márgenes legales del desencuentro. Políticas públicas, prácticas sociales y construcción de la persona

La redacción de las directrices y los procedimientos administrativos que hacen virtualmente posible la inmigración, contribuye a construir no sólo los itinerarios sino también el imaginario social sobre la alteridad. El principal objetivo del artículo es poner de relieve –mediante el análisis discursivo de las Hojas informativas publicadas en la WEB del Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social- cómo la construcción social del emigrante/inmigrante y el proyecto migratorio topan con unas representaciones y envites, instituidos y refrendados  en y por la propia formulación de la reglamentación, pero no del todo explícitos. Entendiendo el texto como una acción que genera otras acciones, se examinan las consecuencias que tiene sobre la practica social de los inmigrantes. En suma, se trata  de vislumbrar los elementos (terminología, fórmulas, esquemas y prácticas inducidas) que van constituyendo al inmigrante como agente social subordinado a micro-procesos y relaciones que se le escapan en gran parte (en contra de las apariencias que parecieran sugerir lo contrario) y van marcando su propia capacidad de acción. En conclusión y retomando la distinción entre principio de diferencia y principio de indiferencia sugerida por Foucault, se muestra que mientras el primero rige las clausulas generales, el segundo articula las específicas.

Probing quantum communication rules by addition and subtraction of single photons to/from a light field

The possibility of arbitrarily "adding" and "subtracting" single photons to and from a light field may give access to a complete engineering of quantum states and to fundamental quantum phenomena. We experimentally implemented simple alternated sequences of photon creation and annihilation on a thermal field and used quantum tomography to verify the peculiar character of the resulting light states. In particular, as the final states depend on the order in which the two actions are performed, we directly observed the noncommutativity of the creation and annihilation operators, one of the cardinal concepts of quantum mechanics, at the basis of the quantum behavior of light. These results represent a step toward the full quantum control of a field and may provide new resources for quantum information protocols