Unraveling EU Policies: the �����Common Basic Principles����� and the �����European Integration Fund����� as a technology of government

this paper is about EU ���soft policies��� on immigrant integration. It analyzes the ���Common Basic Principles��� (CBPs) and the ���European Integration Fund��� (EIF), two devices that have been recently established within this framework. It adopts the theoretical perspective of the ���anthropology of policy��� and ���governmentality studies���. It shows the context of birth of the aforementioned devices, as well as their functioning and the assessment done by the actors implied in the elaboration/implementation/evaluation of the related policies. It is based both on documentary research as well as direct observation and interviews done to the actors implied. It concludes that the PBC and the EIF should be considered as a ���technology of government���, that strives to align the conduct of the actors with the governmental aims, as well as it produces specific practices and knowledge. It also underlines an intrinsic feature of many policies: their ���congenital failure���, since they are (often) disputed and resignified by situated actors, who are embedded in asymmetrical power relations.

Factores explicativos de las actitudes hacia el castigo juvenil. Evidencias de un dise��o factorial

El rol desempe��ado por la opini��n p��blica en el desarrollo de la pol��tica criminal actual justifica el incremento de investigaciones destinadas a evaluar las actitudes de los ciudadanos hacia el castigo. No obstante, los avances en este ��mbito han sido limitados debido a la utilizaci��n de rudimentarios instrumentos de medida. Por ello, el presente trabajo tiene como prop��sito explorar el efecto que generan en la opini��n ciudadana ciertas variables referidas al hecho delictivo y al infractor, precisando su contribuci��n relativa y la interacci��n existente entre ellas. Para satisfacer este objetivo se recurri�� a un dise��o factorial de la encuesta, creando una poblaci��n de 256 casos-escenario fruto de la combinaci��n de cuatro factores: la edad del joven, su historial delictivo, el grado de implicaci��n en el hecho y el tipo de delito cometido. Los mismos fueron distribuidos en grupos de ocho casos ordenados aleatoriamente y fueron suministrados a 32 sujetos. Posteriormente se aplicaron an��lisis de regresi��n log��stica binaria. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que la naturaleza violenta de los hechos, la implicaci��n activa de los j��venes y el historial delictivo son predictores importantes de las condenas punitivas. Sin embargo la edad, una variable fundamental en la configuraci��n de la justicia juvenil, no resulta significativa. De este modo, el trabajo muestra el potencial explicativo de este conjunto de factores y debate sus implicaciones te��ricas y metodol��gicas para la investigaci��n futura en este terreno.

De la cooperativa agroalimentaria a la "learning netchain". Hacia un planteamiento teorico interorganizativo e interpersonal

Se propone un planteamiento te��rico/conceptual para determinar si las relaciones interorganizativas e interpersonales de la netchain de las cooperativas agroalimentarias evolucionan hacia una learning netchain. Las propuestas del trabajo muestran que el mayor grado de asociacionismo y la mayor cooperaci��n/colaboraci��n vertical a lo largo de la cadena est��n positivamente relacionados con la posici��n horizontal de la empresa focal m��s cercana del consumidor final. Esto requiere una planificaci��n y una resoluci��n de problemas de manera conjunta, lo que est�� positivamente relacionado con el mayor flujo y diversidad de la informaci��n/conocimiento obtenido y diseminado a lo largo de la netchain. Al mismo tiempo se necesita desarrollar un contexto social en el que fluya la informaci��n/conocimiento y las nuevas ideas de manera informal y esto se logra con redes personales y, principalmente, profesionales y con redes internas y, principalmente, externas. Todo esto permitir�� una mayor satisfacci��n de los socios de la cooperativa agroalimentaria y de sus distribuidores y una mayor intensidad en I+D, convirti��ndose la netchain de la cooperativa agroalimentaria, as��, en una learning netchain.

Calibration of assessment instruments ��� classification in mathematics at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano

Item Response Theory, IRT, is a valuable methodology for analyzing the quality of the instruments utilized in assessment of academic achievement. This article presents an implementation of the mentioned theory, particularly of the Rasch model, in order to calibrate items and the instrument used in the classification test for the Basic Mathematics subject at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano. 509 responses chains of students, obtained in the june 2011 application, were analyzed with a set of 45 items, through eight case studies that are showing progressive steps of calibration. Criteria of validity of items and of whole instrument were defined and utilized, to select groups of responses chains and items that were finally used in the determination of parameters which then allowed the classification of assessed students by the test.

El razonamiento moral como elemento constitutivo de la competencia ��tica: dilemas reales e hipot��ticos en profesores de educaci��n secundaria en M��xico

El objetivo del presente texto es la indagaci��n del razonamiento moral en los profesores de secundaria como un elemento de la competencia ��tica. Se realiz�� con dilemas morales hipot��ticos (analizados y probados previamente para su validaci��n y cuya fiabilidad se obtuvo a trav��s del alfa de Cronbach) y con dilemas reales. Se aplic�� a 264 profesores, miembros de la comunidad acad��mica de la Escuela Normal Superior de Michoac��n, M��xico. Se analiz�� a trav��s del programa estad��stico Aquad 6. Entre los descubrimientos se encuentra una presencia mayoritaria de conflictos entre las normas ��ticas interpersonales con las normas de conformidad social y con las normas institucionales particulares. Tambi��n que la justicia y la protecci��n contra da��os a los alumnos son valores presentes en los dilemas reales y una prevalencia en el razonamiento convencional de los profesores

Lifelong learning through digital storytelling in corporate training

In this paper we discuss collaborative learning strategies based on the use of digital stories in corporate training and lifelong learning. The text starts with a concise review on theoretical and technical foundations about the use of digital technologies in collaborative strategies in lifelong learning. We will also discuss if the corporate training may be improved by the use of individual audio-visual experience in learning process. Careful planning, scripting and production of audio-visual digital stories can help in the construction of collaborative learning spaces in which adults are in the context of vocational training throughout life. Our analysis concludes emphasizing on the need to experience the routing performance of digital stories in the context of corporate training, following the reference levels mentioned here, so we can have in a future more theoretical and empirical elements for the validation and conceptualization in the use of digital stories in the context of corporate training. Ultimately we believe that lifelong learning can be improved with the use of strategies that promote the production of personal audio-visual for those involved in teaching and learning process in organizational context.

Blogs as virtual environments for teaching and learning in Higher Education

The transformation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into knowledge and learning technologies is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Teaching settings associated with the use of blogs in Higher Education are presented in this paper, proceeding from an innovative learning experience of projects carried out by a group of professors between 2009 and 2013. Both, teachers and students who took part in the subjects that implemented the blog, considered it as helpful resource to create a virtual and learning-teaching environment due to the multiple potentialities it offers. Among some of these potentialities, some stand out: it makes easier the access to knowledge, promotes a more active and reflective learning, expands the social experience of learning, provides evidence about the students��� progress which helps to reorient the teaching-learning process, and encourages the critical judgment. Nevertheless, several problems related with the students��� participation and the teacher���s blog management have been identified.

Alien gosd in the new epics: Noah remythologised through the ancient astronaut hypothesis in Abel's Montagut's "La gesta d'Utnoa"

Modern scientific world-view has undermined traditional myths, the functional survival of which seems to depend today in the West on a positivist justification. This would place them in the field of real History, through their study and revitalization by pseudoscientific disciplines such as the Atlantis and the ancient astronaut hypotheses. These have inspired new epic poems in (regular) verse that combine classic and/or biblical myths with a (pseudo)scientific modern world-view. For example, the critical rewriting of Noah���s myth by using the ancient astronaut hypothesis as a fictional device to produce a contemporary kind of plausibility allowed Abel Montagut to renew epic poetry, updating it also by adopting science fiction chronotopes in order to structure his fictional construction and to generate a high ethical sense for our time. Thus, his Poemo de Utnoa (1993) / La gesta d���Utnoa (1996), which has become a major classic of the literature in Esperanto thanks to its original version in this language, is a landmark of both science fiction and neo-biblical epics. This poem is written from a secular and purely literary perspective.