Antonio Jesus Molina-Fernández, María Gemma Valero-Arroyo, Río Vázquez-Gomis
et al.
Social cinema is a cinematographic expression used to denounce current and historical problems, as well as to identify social limits and promote the transformation of society itself. To this end, works included in social cinema depict aspects of reality to critically influence it. The objective of this study is to examine the evolution of social cinema, as well as its scientific, economic and political bases and its main consequences for the general population. Method: This study was conducted by the application of the technique of qualitative research thematic analysis as a procedure in the process of the execution of the scientific task, related to a historical trend study of the research object. The search was carried out in the databases of IMDB and the Culture Ministry of Spain. The end of the dictatorship and the beginning of democracy (1975) was placed as the historical cutting point in the analysis. Various psychosocial variables were used as categories of analysis, including poverty, work, substance use, crime, urban and rural contexts, violence, etc. Results: Spanish social cinema has evolved since its origins in the 1950s as a reflection of Spanish society. These developments, including both progressions and regressions, have been connected with social, political and economic factors. Conclusions: While the shape of Spanish social cinema has changed over time, its themes have remained similar since the origin: poverty, work and hopelessness. The evolution has not been continuous, as it has fluctuated in response to the claims and requests from the context. The Spanish social cinema has reflected topics and images from Spanish society, even when the sociopolitical context avoided them. Finally, the legitimacy of Spanish social cinema is based on its cultural strength and social/political commitment.
Objectives
1. identification of the core of the title process and its comparison with known types of patterns of improving management,
2. elaboration on the proposals and topics that enrich knowledge about the processes of HRM improvement, including the problem of institutional isomorphism.
Material and methods
Literature studies allowed us to identify patterns of organizational improvement change. The subject of empirical research was the content of Polish-language offers posted on websites for consulting companies improving Human Resources Management. The analysis was conducted based on content analysis guidelines. The obtained analysis results were compared with theoretical patterns of changes. In this way, the features of the examined core were identified.
Results
The identified core of dissemination consists of four phases and three processes with different logic. The interaction of processes can create inconsistency in the entire solution. The dominance of behaviors securing and facilitating HRM operations over other types of managerial behaviors was found. There are no methods of dealing with this asymmetry in the offers.
Conclusions
The inconsistencies between the core processes of pattern dissemination should encourage practitioners to determine their level of acceptance of the heterogeneity of patterns. For this, it is necessary to develop practical competencies in managing contradictions. Future research should provide a more complete understanding of the specificity of different sources of patterns, the nature of operations performed on patterns, and the identification of inconsistencies in the processes of pattern dissemination. It is also valuable to draw attention to the specific forces of institutional isomorphism that shape the similarity of patterns and ways of disseminating them
Afsha Fatima Qadri, Sibhghatulla Shaikh, Ye Chan Hwang
et al.
Glycyrrhiza uralensis is a traditional herbal medicine with significant bioactivity. This study investigated the effect of G. uralensis crude water extract (GU-CWE) on nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) expression during myogenesis. GU-CWE treatment increased myoblast differentiation by downregulating NOS2 and upregulating myogenic regulatory factors (MYOD, MYOG, and MYH). Notably, this effect was supported by an observed decrease in NOS2 expression in the gastrocnemius tissues of mice treated with GU-CWE. In addition, GU-CWE treatment and NOS2 knockdown were associated with reductions in reactive oxygen species levels. We further elucidate the role of the NOS2 gene in myoblast differentiation, demonstrating that its role was expression dependent, being beneficial at low expression but detrimental at high expression. High NOS2 gene expression induced oxidative stress, whereas its low expression impaired myotube formation. These findings highlight that the modulation of NOS2 expression by G. uralensis can potentially be use for managing muscle wasting disorders.
The paper analyses the potential of the online environment for obtaining empirical data. It discusses the positive and the negative aspects of their use in scientific research and attempts to highlight the challenges of using social media for empirical data collection. Facebook and its growing levels of consumption attracts research interest because it facilitates recruitment of respondents, saves considerable money, time and effort, and opens access to hard-to-reach populations and highly engaged citizens in a variety of topics. At the same time, the use of online space for empirical data collection remains problematic in terms of representativeness, accessibility and security. The article briefly describes the process of recruiting Facebook respondents to participate in an online survey - a post-election study. The analysis of the results clearly shows the outreach, based on convenience sampling, to an online sample that is characterized by high interest in political issues, active communication practices, variety of information sources used, well-established practices of civic activism and participation in elections, relatively stable party affiliation and consistency in political orientation.
Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Musonera Abdou, Edouard Musabanganji , Herman Musahara
The purpose of the current study was to determine factors affecting tourism demand using machine learning techniques. The results of different linear regression and random forest models on both the train and test sets were compared using RMSE and R2
. The random forest model outperformed the linear regression model on both the
training and test sets. Climate, consumer price index, political stability, distance, promotion expenditure, and region of residence are all important factors in explaining total arrivals. The findings of the current research, therefore, provide additional evidence for the effectiveness of the AI based models to improve tourism demand forecasting compared to linear regression models.
Hospitality industry. Hotels, clubs, restaurants, etc. Food service, Business
While the precautionary principle may have offered a sound basis for managing environmental risk in the Holocene, the depth and width of the Anthropocene have made precaution increasingly untenable. Not only have many ecosystems already been damaged beyond natural recovery, achieving a sustainable long-term global trajectory now seem to require ever greater measures of proactionary risk-taking, in particular in relation to the growing need for climate engineering. At the same time, different optical illusions, arising from temporary emissions reductions due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the local deployment of seemingly “green” small-scale renewable energy sources, tend to obscure worsening global trends and reinforce political disinterest in developing high-energy technologies that would be more compatible with universal human development and worldwide ecological restoration. Yet, given the lack of feedback between the global and the local level, not to mention the role of culture and values in shaping perceptions of “sustainability”, the necessary learning may end up being both epistemologically and politically difficult. This paper explores the problem of finding indicators suitable for measuring progress towards meaningful climate action and the restoration of an ecologically vibrant planet. It is suggested that such indicators are essentially political as they reflect, not only different assessments of technological feasibility, but orientations towards the Enlightenment project.
This study aimed to investigate the washback effect of two high stakes tests, a global language proficiency test (i.e., TOEFL iBT) and a local English Proficiency Exam (developed and administered by a state university) on students' motivation and their autonomy. The study also examined whether proficiency level moderated the potential washback effect among the two groups of test takers. Additionally, the study tried to find out the language leaning strategies used by both groups and explore the reasons behind their preferences. The study was conducted with two English language preparatory programs offered at a state university in Turkey: University Preparatory Program (UPP) and Dual Degree Program (DDP). At the end of the UPP program, the students are required to take the university's proficiency test while as for the UPP, they need to take a valid TOEFL iBT. Data were collected from 152 preparatory students (N = 65 for DDP; N = 87 for UPP) whose proficiency levels were based on the CEFR Framework ranging from A2 (upper elementary) to B1 (pre-intermediate) to B2 (intermediate). In addition to the above proficiency tests, data were gathered via motivation questionnaire, autonomous learning scale and student interviews. The results revealed no washback of TOEFL iBT exam on students' motivation regardless of their proficiency level. No washback was also observed on students' autonomy except for A2 level DDP students who had higher level of autonomy than the A2 level UPP students. Finally, the two groups used more similar than different language learning strategies while practicing the four language skills. The findings afford pedagogical implications for the use of high-stakes tests in English preparatory programs.
This article analyzes the securitization of the political space under the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) governments in Turkey with a critical feminist lens. We argue that a feminist reading unpacks the connection between AKP’s discursive strategies in the spheres of social and national security. We focus on the AKP’s proposals that address social policy and defense policy spheres—namely, the “Women’s Employment Package;” “Family Package;” and “Internal Security Package.” In our analysis, we start from the argument that the AKP’s terms in office represent the last phase of neoliberal transformation in the country. Packages in this phase also speak to the patchwork style of neoliberal policy making. They function as means for checking, and then, manipulating public opinion. Analysis of the packages provides insight into the AKP’s increasing resort to violence vis-á-vis opposition as well as the deepening of the economic crisis in the country in the last two decades.
Since the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutional framework in 1944, the World Bank played the lion’s share in development finance globally. Although World Bank initially operated in terms of inter-governmental cooperation in the field of international economic aid, it soon developed the development finance approach that led to the flourishing of Multilateral Development Banks in the 50s. During the 60s and the 70s development finance became increasingly tied to market-based consideration and started to phase out from the governmental sphere, bringing in private actors. The 80s marked the final stage of this evolution, through the role played by the so-called Washington Consensus and the idea that the State should roll-back from development finance as well as from many other aspects of economics. This contribution tries to depict the evolutionary path of development finance and MDBs’ from its original government-oriented activity to a market-driven activity, a dynamic roughly following the evolutionary path of globalization according to the Washington Consensus principles. In the final section the case of Chinese development finance is addressed, trying to assess to what extent a reversal process is at work in partially bringing back development finance activities within the governmental sphere.
Antonio Capobiano, Marcos Fabricio Povoa, Paulo Burnier da Silveira
A crise sanitária e econômica provocada pela pandemia do Coronavírus acende uma série de questões jurídicas, que incluem as relações trabalhistas, a proteção dos consumidores, a livre-concorrência, o acesso a dados pessoais para fins de monitoramento social, entre tantos outros. Esse artigo tem por objetivo lançar luz sobre os desafios e as perspectivas no campo da defesa da concorrência. Inicialmente, aborda-se o papel do Estado na economia. Em seguida, examina-se os aspectos concorrenciais, como a prática de price gouging, as colaborações entre concorrentes, a aquisição de concorrentes em dificuldades financeiras, bem como a importância de promover a concorrência em contratações públicas emergenciais. Por fim, encerra-se com considerações no plano consumerista e reflexões em vista de perspectivas futuras sobre o tema.
Kobra Sangari Mohazzab, Hosein Raghfar, Mir-Hossein Mousavi
et al.
I International relations are full of complexities due to their multifaceted and multilateral nature. To understand decision making processes and the payoffs of their strategies, players are enabled to utilize their capabilities to impact the strategic decision payoffs. As an example of this decision structure we can refer to the international disputes and conflicts including the sanctions. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s interests in international arena have been influenced by the changing interests of the other stakeholders in the coalition of the United States sanction against Iran. In order to analyze and predict the equilibriums of the players positions in the complex international space of the sanctions, game theory, mechanism design, multi-agent systems, and artificial intelligent as new instruments of decision theory are utilized to resolve the transactions and processes influenced by the human decisions. In this research, a policy spectrum is defined according to the strategies of Iran, the United States of America and other stakeholder’s countries. Modeling and simulating the behavior of players on this continuous spectrum which includes two extremes of capitulation and confrontation shows that in the current situation, Iran’s equilibrium and dominated strategy is emphasizing the maintenance of the current agreement in JCPOA, although this position is in the lower range of the spectrum of the current agreement. In these sanctions there is a possibility of a tragedy of the commons. In order to prevent its occurrence, the results of this study imply that the dominant strategy, given that all the players are rational, is to preserve stability, security, and integrity of Iran as a regional power. In order to achieve a stable equilibrium of the game, the stakeholders try to maximize the social welfare function instead of individual participants’ payoff. The rational strategy of Iran is to stay in JCPOA, strengthening political ties with the European players, and to empower its own military and social securities.
In the UK and internationally, reducing inequalities in health and education has become accepted across the political spectrum as an essential component of government policy [...]
H. Robert Outten, Timothy Lee, Rui Costa-Lopes
et al.
Using concepts from social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979), we examined whether racial/ethnic majority group members' reactions to future demographic shifts is a function of the degree to which they perceive their ingroup's higher-status in society to be legitimate. In two studies, participants who varied in the degree to which they perceived their group's status to be legitimate were either exposed to real projections for 2060 (i.e., large decline in proportion of population that is the “majority” group), or fake projections for 2060—that resembled current figures (i.e., small decline). In Study 1, White Americans who perceived their status to be highly legitimate expressed greater intergroup threat, and negative feelings (anger and fear) toward minorities after exposure to projections with a large decline in the relative size of the White American population. In contrast, demographic shift condition had no effect on intergroup threat and negative feelings toward minorities among White Americans who perceived their status to be relatively illegitimate; negative feelings and threat remained low across both conditions. Similarly, in Study 2, ethnic Portuguese people in Portugal exposed to projections in which there was a large decline in the relative size of the ethnic Portuguese population experienced more intergroup threat and expressed a greater desire to engage in anti-immigration behaviors. The effect of demographic shift condition on intergroup threat and anti-immigration behaviors was stronger among ethnic Portuguese who perceived their status to be legitimate compared to ethnic Portuguese people who perceived their status to be relatively illegitimate. These results highlight that across different cultural contexts, majority group members' beliefs about the legitimacy of intergroup relations can affect their reactions to the prospect of increased diversity.
Research objective — to create model of obtaining competitive advantages the hi-tech companies. The method of the qualitative and comparative analysis which allows to receive a set of successful and unsuccessful configurations – combinations of factors which bring is chosen or don't lead to desirable result. The model is urged to promote formation of steady competitive advantage — a stable fast conclusion of a large number of qualitative and demanded innovations to the world market. Two successful scenarios for the sector companies "Electronics and technical providing" are revealed. If the company functions in various branches, it needs to concentrate on increase of liquidity and business combination by acquisition affiliated and creations of joint ventures in the macroregion. Managers of the hi-tech companies of the developed countries can use the developed model during the developing and correction of strategy, and also at adoption of administrative decisions. The separate specified factors and were considered earlier in literature, their association in the specified scenario models for obtaining competitive advantages is new development.
Dhonathã Santo Rigo, Pedro Selvino Neumann, Paulo Roberto Cardoso da Silveira
Inadequate occupation of rural areas and the intense exploitation of natural resources characterized by conflicting land use, as well as the divestiture process educational and productive rural population which is subjected, deepens social problems already identified at the end of the last century. The paper aims to study the complex reality of the rural municipality of Derrubadas, as an effort to build knowledge and analysis, identifying the landscaping design in the diversity of natural and social factors present, relatively homogeneous areas and the aspects socioenvironmental gifts in one of them. In the study we used methodological procedures and techniques for qualitative and quantitative approaches. Was done using the analysis of secondary data, reading the landscape, interviewing qualified informants and the community involved, besides the construction of thematic maps using the software spring and physical-chemical analysis of water samples. As a result, is observed the uneven occupation of rural areas of the county, with a large concentration of its population in vulnerable rural areas , low in suitability for agricultural use, limited in terms of production and land. For the community studied, retirement and welfare benefit (family bag) are present in income of 75% of the families interviewed. The result of water analysis, virtually all sources remained outside the potability standards established by the Ministry of Health, particularly the presence of total and fecal coliforms. These results are strongly related to social conditions encountered in the community, where 42% of households do not have an indoor bathroom and 50% of the houses, waste products are designed the-sky-opened. Allied to this variable, the lack of environmental planning of areas, mainly springs region, contributing to worsening levels of contamination found and highlights the environmental problems of such a community.
This study aims to analyze the effect of variable exchange rates, interest rates and inflation on share prices of listed property sector in Indonesia Stock Exchange. The population in this study is a company incorporated in the listed property sector in Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) for the period from 2007 to 2011. Samples obtained using purposive sampling method to obtain 48 companies. This study uses Ordinary Least Square analysis to determine the effect of independent variables on the stock price index of the listed property sector in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Based on t test, the exchange rate a significant negative effect on property sector stock price index, while the variable interest rates have a positive but not significant and variable inflation is positive but not significant effect on the property sector stock price index. Results simultaneously with the F test showed that all the independent variables significantly influence the stock price index property sector. So that only the exchange rate has an influence on stock price index of listed property sector in Indonesia Stock Exchange.
Production management. Operations management, Management. Industrial management
Resumen
El artículo presenta un balance de las dificultades actuales de los jóvenes a raíz de la crisis en sus procesos de transición a la vida adulta. Desde 2007 estos procesos han empeorado respecto a la situación previa, que ya era difícil. El desempleo, los bajos salarios y las dinámicas del crédito hipotecario sumen a los jóvenes en un futuro aún más incierto. Esta cuestión se agrava por las limitaciones de las políticas específicas de protección social. Para ilustrar estos aspectos, se utilizan datos de las principales fuentes estadísticas sobre mercado de trabajo y condiciones de vida. En este contexto, se trata en un capítulo final el movimiento 15M y el protagonismo que han tenido los jóvenes en la movilización, cuestión esta que se plantea como síntoma de ruptura en la actual condición juvenil.
Spanish youth in times of crisis: unemployment, precarious lives and collective action.
Abstract
This article presents an assessment of the current difficulties that young people find in the transition to adulthood. In Spain, the 2007 economic crisis has hindered this stage of life, which had already collapsed. The unemployment, the low wages and the dynamics of mortgage loan, plunge young people into an even more uncertain situation regarding the future. This situation is worsened by the bad quality of specific social protection policies, their limitations and improvisations. In this context, the 15 M movement is considered as a symptom of the rupture in the current condition of youth, such as the conclusions point out. In order to illustrate this article, data from the main statistical sources on the labour market and life conditions in Spain were used.
In everyday discourse and in the context of social scientific research we often attribute intentional states to groups. Contemporary approaches to group intentionality have either dismissed these attributions as metaphorical or provided an analysis of our attributions in terms of the intentional states of individuals in the group. Insection1, the author argues that these approaches are problematic. In sections 2 and 3, the author defends the view that certain groups are literally intentional agents. In section 4, the author argues that there are significant reasons for social scientists and philosophers of social science to acknowledge the adequacy of macro-level explanations that involve the attribution of intentional states to groups. In section 5, the author considers and responds to some criticisms of the thesis she defends.