bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A large phylo-floristic study on the present and future assembly of the Wisconsin flora – An area unique in North America
Authors: Cameron Kenneth M.
Published: February 2024

With 1.4 million specimens the Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS) is one of the largest in the Americas and Wisconsin offers botanists a unique opportunity to study species representing a confluence of global biomes. The state harbors >2640 species of vascular plants which have been sequenced for the two-gene plant DNA barcode to reconstruct a community phylogeny. At the same time >300’000 georeferenced specimens were used with bioclimatic and soil data to produce species distribution models for the flora, then subsequently aggregated to determine current and future patterns of species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Among the many surprising results uncovered are predictions that whereas species richness will increase as c. 850 taxa move into the state, c. 242 species will become extirpated by 2070. These most vulnerable species will not be affected at random. Furthermore, models suggest that Wisconsin’s projected climate will be unsuitable for most species to be able to retain their present distributions; only 65 % will be able to retain more than half of their current distributions. However, the state’s well known unglaciated Driftless Area may be able to serve as an Anthropocene refugium better than anywhere else in the region and should be targeted for increased land conservation.
Finding biotic anomalies described in specimen label text is a challenge that artificial intelligence can address
Authors: Mast Austin , Tian Shubo , He Zhe , Krimmel Erica , Pichardo-Marcano Fritz , Buckley Mikayla , Gomez Sophia , Hennessey Ashley , Horn Allyson , Howell Olivia
Published: February 2024

Biodiversity specimen collectors are on the front lines of observing biotic anomalies, some of which herald early stages of significant changes (e.g., the arrival of a new disease; Pearson and Mast 2019). Online data sharing has opened new possibilities for the discovery of anomaly descriptions on collectors’ labels, but it remains a challenge to find these needles in the haystack of many millions of specimen records available at aggregators like iDigBio and Global Biodiversity Information Facility. In a recent community survey, over 200 collectors identified 170 unique words and phrases (e.g., atypical) that they would use to describe six types of anomaly (Pearson and Mast 2019). Left unanswered was the relative efficiency with which anomaly descriptions can be found using the simple presence of these words. Here, we address that question with a focus on one type of anomaly (phenological; related to the timing of life historyevents) and ask a second question: can we further improve the efficiency of anomaly description discovery by engaging artificial intelligence (AI)?
Molecular docking, ADMET profiling of gallic acid and its derivatives (N-alkyl gallamide) as apoptosis agent of breast cancer MCF-7 Cells
Authors: Arsianti Ade , Nur Azizah Norma , Erlina Linda
Published: February 2024

Background In 2020, breast cancer has become the most common cancer in the world and in Indonesia. Searching for anticancer drugs using computational methods is considered more effective and selective than other methods. Gallic acid and its derivatives (esters and amides) are compounds that have biological activities such as anticancer effects. The purpose of this study was to analyse the molecular modelling and ADMET (Adsorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicity) profile of gallic acid derivative compounds (N-alkyl gallamides) as anticancer agents. Methods Target proteins were selected by analysis of protein-protein and drug-protein interactions. Molecular modelling was done by molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation. Predictive analysis of the ADMET profile of gallic acid and its derivatives (N-alkyl gallamide) was conducted using Marvin Sketch, Swissadme, protox II, and pkCSM pharmacokinetics. The selected target proteins were JUN, AKT1, CASP3, and CASP7. Results Compounds N-octyl gallamide, N-ters-butyl gallamide, and N-isoamil gallamide were the three best gallic acid derivatives based on molecular modelling analysis of target proteins associated with breast cancer. The ADMET profile of the N-alkyl gallamide compound is predictable and shows a good profile as a candidate for anticancer drugs. Conclusion N-octyl gallamide, N-ters-butyl gallamide, and N-isoamil gallamide have potential as anti-breast cancer agents.
Stage 2 Registered Report: Anomalous perception in a Ganzfeld condition - A meta-analysis of more than 40 years investigation
Authors: Tressoldi Patrizio E. , Storm Lance
Published: February 2024

This meta-analysis is an investigation into anomalous perception (i.e., conscious identification of information without any conventional sensorial means). The technique used for eliciting an effect is the Ganzfeld condition (a form of sensory homogenization that eliminates distracting peripheral noise). The database consists of studies published between January 1974 and December 2020 inclusive. The overall effect size estimated both with a frequentist and a Bayesian random-effect model, were in close agreement yielding an effect size of approximately .08 (.04 -.12). This result passed four publication bias tests and seems not contaminated by questionable research practices. Trend analysis carried out with a cumulative meta-analysis and a meta-regression model with year of publication as a covariate, did not indicate sign of decline of this effect size. The moderators’ analyses show that the selected participants’ effect size was almost three-times that obtained by non-selected participants and that tasks that simulate telepathic communication show a two-fold effect size for tasks requiring the participants to guess a target. The Stage 1 Registered Report can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.24868.3
AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE: ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE IN RUSSIA AND PROSPECTS FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Ignat'eva O. A. Safiullin T. R Oksana
Published: February 2024

The article highlights the current trends, features of development of agricultural insurance in the Russian Federation. Undoubtedly, the interest in agricultural in-surance is determined by the desire to minimise risks, which are quite numerous in the field of agricultural production, which is especially characteristic of crop production, why this sector occupies the main share in agricultural insurance. The need to address the topic of trends, status and prospects of agricultural in-surance development is associated with the focus on ensuring food security and the special attention of the state to this issue after the adoption in 2022 of a spe-cial insurance programme for agricultural producers, primarily from the conse-quences of emergencies. The article gives a brief characteristic of the existing con-ditions of development of agricultural insurance in the Russian Federation, pro-vides an assessment of the volume of services, comments on the existing situation within the framework of the issue under consideration.
Territorial Re-existences of Indigenous Movements in the Andean-Amazon Region.
Authors: Lopez-Flores Pabel-Camilo
Published: February 2024

Movements by indigenous peoples against neoliberal extractivist processes in Latin America have traditionally employed strategies focused on territorial recognition of their identity and culture. The issue under investigation is the recent resurgence of post-extractivist territorial-based social movements that are using strategies based on innovative economic models and creative development. The objective is to study these territorial social movements and socioecological conflicts by analyzing cases in the Andean-Amazonian region in Bolivia and Colombia. The methodology is qualitative and ethnographic, based on interviews and documentary analysis. In the case of the Rositas River in Bolivia, indigenous communities and producers have organized to oppose the construction of a dam and hydroelectric project. In the Colombian region of Cauca, the dispute is over 20,000 hectares of sugarcane monoculture where the local community is fighting to grow corn, beans and yucca. The common characteristics of these movements are ecofeminist involvement, autonomous forms of collective action and political experimentation, new languages, and patterns of struggle and mobilization including the deployment of international alliances
La abominación de lo híbrido: la mixofobia como política de estado.
Authors: Rodríguez García Dan
Published: February 2024

The article discusses a number of historical cases of nations that have developed anti-miscegenation laws premised on a logic of “state mixophobia”, with instances as diverse as the Spanish colonization of the Americas and later of Equatorial Guinea; England and Australia during the colonial and postcolonial eras; the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries;

Germany during the Nazi period; and South Africa under apartheid. I argue that in all of these cases, hybridity represented not so much the danger of external enemies, but rather the destruction of internal borders: that is, a threat to the socio-political and economic status quo.

This historical-anthropological analysis can help us in today’s world to better understand and reflect critically on the social, political, and economic contexts in which reductionist views of hybridity emerge and are used to legitimize social systems of exclusion.
Values, law and “discursive theory”: how the politicization of values triggers individualization in society.
Authors: Yaylali Mustafa
Published: February 2024

In this paper I want to claim that “politicization of values” will lead to individualization in society, in the long run, and further that this process will amount to a more personal form of legislation. Looking at the example of Turkey, I will employ Habermas’ theories of “communicative action” and “discursive law”, in order to explain how this process is taking place. My main claim is that the theory of communicative action explains how allowing values to be manifested in the public sphere leads to the rationalization of those values, and subsequently to individualization within the society.
Trends in european bioenergy law problems, perspectives and risks
Authors: Caputo Alice
Published: February 2024

Research into new forms of energy is a current challenge. This paper aims to inquire into the real advantages of bioenergy and its sustainable development within the European legal framework, while also considering the negative aspects of bioenergy use. The European Union, in fact, is an important supporter of bioenergy and shows that, through good legislative policy, the negative aspects of bioenergy use can be surmounted . In conclusion, bioenergy and sustainable development can still be a plausible solution to feed the planet.
Nanotecnologie e alimenti tra etica e diritto prospettive della regolazione nell’Unione europea
Authors: Leone Luca
Published: February 2024

The employment of emerging technologies within the agro-food sector implies considerations of legal, ethical, economic and social nature, which require specialists from different fields of study to confront and cooperate. This paper focuses on the main issues that have been arising in the regulation of nanotechnologies applied to the food sector: the relationship between science and law in defining new scientific entities; the problems related to the procedures of risk assessment and risk management; the role played by ethics in the framework of EU policy; the EU regulatory approach to nanofood.
Water, to feed the planet
Authors: Prodi Romano
Published: February 2024

Speech by Romano Prodi
Feeding the planet between food security and food safety.
Authors: Scarpellini Emanuela
Published: February 2024

The issue of food is indeed a systemic problem involving fundamental aspects of the social, cultural and economic organisation of our planet. This paper focuses on the main aspects related to the concepts of food security and food safety. While the first problem mainly affects less developed countries, the second concerns diet in the developed world. They are influenced by important factors such as the structure of food distribution, the effective access to food resources, the lack of confidence about the safety of the products, and the different consumption behaviours affected by social, economic and religious factors.
Melbourne versus Sydney: semiotic reflections on first and second cities.
Authors: Leone Massimo
Published: February 2024

Urban marketing has recently been adopting the concept, and the label, of “second city”. However, this concept requires sharper theoretical definition in order to turn heuristic. Thus far, it has been conceived in relation to an “ideology of ranking”, strictly related to the worldview of post-modern globalization. A more fruitful definition of “second cities” results from Charles S. Peirce’s idea of secondness: a city is second to another not in quantitative, but in qualitative and relational terms. The semiotic model of Jurij M. Lotman offers a suitable methodology to analyse this relational definition, as it is exemplified by the case-study of the rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. A historical survey of their relation shows that the latter progressively embraced an identity of “secondness” so as to successfully market an alternative vision of urban life. Melbourne therefore provides a model for non-quantitative construction of urban distinctiveness.
Rape in the metropolis: the geography of crime in Delhi.
Authors: Vikram Dwivedi Amitabh
Published: February 2024

This paper is a study of rape in the national capital of India, and the focus is on the amendments of rape law aftermath 12 December 2012 crime. It questions at the safety and security issues of women in the metropolis of India, and it also discusses critically how laws amendments have been made aftermath this barbaric crime. Though this paper doesn’t set an inquiry yet it provides common criticism against the new amendments and it remains observational in nature, and sets a study. The temporal aspect revolves around the gang rape case of December 2012, but it also peeks in the past for the reference purpose only. The insensitive reactions from the political party leaders and religious leaders also find a space in the paper to show the general reaction of the society. The urban middle-class carefree attitude is reflected by an example of a popular reality show. But finally this paper advocates for lengthy prison sentences that have some behavior-altering deterrent value.
The evolution of civil society and the rule of law regarding female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Authors: Cardone Rebecca
Published: February 2024

International human rights law relies on state sovereignty to localize suggested policy with codification and enforcement in an attempt to reconcile universalism with particularity. However, amidst domestic governance developments from post-conflict state building and self-determination, governmental instability complicates and often overlooks priorities of international human rights for more tangible domestic infrastructure, such as basic human needs rather than seemingly suggested rights ideals. This does not diminish the significance of human rights, though, pertaining to the rights of the child in addressing gender-based violence through the elimination of female genital mutilation, for example. While state-centric localization is currently prioritized for implementing international law, the rule of law is more integrated throughout the realms of societal structure, culture, and institutions in addition to the legal realm. If the legal realm is disrupted with instability, violence, and discontinuity, how does society internalize and integrate international human rights law over time, and can it be sustainable despite instability? This research evaluates the development of the rule of law, and its effectiveness, regarding female genital mutilation (FGM) as a case study in Iraqi Kurdistan from the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988 until 2013, the early years of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s parliament. Comprehensive rule of law evolution can be measured through comparing domestic legal developments through state-centric policy and enforcement, or lack thereof, with cultural internalization and non-governmental engagements. By studying the legal and cultural realms’ interaction with the anti-FGM discourse over Iraqi Kurdistan’s past two decades, this research will determine the role of a continuous society overlaid by intermittent legal structures in the sustainability of negotiating cultural relativity with universal human rights.
Resilient development and environmental justice in divided territory: political ecology in the San Diego-Tijuana bioregion.
Authors: Haines Kyle
Published: February 2024

This paper explores issues in the expansion of environmental justice rhetoric to the developing world, and propose insights from resilience theory, political ecology, and bioregionalism as supplements. I do this from the frame of the San Diego-Tijuana region, where regional inequalities are stark and global processes have a heavy local footprint. Sharing a broadly-defined natural region, the growing evidence of ecological crisis increasingly calls for collaboration between two communities which often perceive themselves as relatively disconnected. Understanding challenges to social-ecological resilience and environmental justice in the San Diego-Tijuana region, however, also requires understanding it as an inflection point for global economic, military, and human migration flows occurring at many scales. It is in the context of building effective regional collaboration that environmental justice must engage the analyses of scale and political economy contained in political ecology as a challenge. I suggest, however, that any environmental justice discourse informed by political ecology cannot remain abstract from the local context. A “bioregional” community forged around shared ecological systems may serve as an important resource for creating social-ecological resilience in politically divided territory.
La théorie des régimes dans un monde globalisé: entre évolutions et résistances.
Authors: Thibaut Zoungni Fiacre
Published: February 2024

In 1982, in the journal “International Organization”, was published a special issue on international regimes. This special edition was reprinted a year later as a collective book under the direction of Stephen D. Krasner titled International Regimes. This book aims to be the echo of the existing theoretical debate within the discipline of International Relations during this period namely the analysis of international regimes in the light of realism and liberalism. Clustered around these two theoretical trends, the authors of this book, with the exception of Susan Strange, tried to support each of their side the merits of their theory to explain the conditions for the creation, maintenance and change of an international regime. As for Strange, she criticizes the analysis of schemes considers a transient, vague fashion, value-laden, too static and state-centred. Given the changes experienced by the theory of schemes over the past 30 years, we hypothesize that some criticisms of Strange always remain relevant while others are less relevant or not at all relevant.
Taking salience seriously: the viability of Ronald Dworkin’s theory of salience in the context of extra-territorial corporate accountability.
Authors: Dennison David Brian
Published: February 2024

In his posthumously published article “A New Philosophy for International Law”, Ronald Dworkin advocates for the use of “salience” as means for generating international law. Dworkin argues that the consent-based mechanisms for establishing international law are often incapable of addressing collective challenges such as change. Dworkin’s salience in alternative means for creating international law whereby the law can emerge from widely held principles and practices without the necessity of global sovereign consent. Unfortunately and somewhat ironically, Dworkin’s essay on salience does not include non-consent based mechanisms for salience to obtain international recognition as a legitimate engine for creating international law. This essay offers international corporate accountability is a fertile area for the emergence of salience as a source of international law. Dworkin’s description of salience and its law-forming capacity speaks to what can take place and what is taking place in the development of this area of law. Salience presents a theoretical construct that can nurture the development of coherent and extra-referential standards for judicial engagement with extra-territorial corporate wrongs. Thus the use of salience in the context of international corporate accountability is well-suited for the specific task at hand and can offer a stage whereby salience can prove its worth and legitimacy as a source of international law.
Place Attachment in a Sustainable Neighbourhood: Comparison of Two Cases in Surrey, B.C
Authors: Youssef Karim W. F.
Published: February 2024

Scholars have voiced the emphasis of studies in sustainability on environmental sustainability over social sustainability. One of the dimensions of social sustainability is neighbourhood cohesion among residents of a neighbourhood. This paper compares the social sustainability of two neighbourhoods in Vancouver metropolitan area particularly in the city of Surrey, B.C. with respect to the sense of neighbourhood cohesion among their residents. Buckner’s (1988) instrument for measuring neighbourhood cohesion index is used with the addition of a few questions to probe for a new conception of space that may link the degree of accessibility and permeability of a neighbourhood (or degree of gated-ness) with the level of neighbourhood cohesion. Results of qualitative and quantitative analysis show that the neighbourhood having an enclosure model had a higher level of neighbourhood cohesion than the neighbourhood with an encounter model on both the affective and interactive dimensions of neighbourhood cohesion.
Cosmopolitan Utilitarianism and the Problem of Local Inaction in a Globalized World
Authors: Corvino Fausto
Published: February 2024

This article explores the problem of the public acceptability of political inaction as an extreme consequence of cosmopolitan utilitarianism. The case of political inaction as the utility-maximizing public policy option emerges more clearly in the globalized world, because of a misalignment between the electoral body and the persons that the government ought to consider while evaluating the consequences of a given policy. In this context, a situation can easily occur in which the only way to maximize utility in a global context is by renouncing action at the national or local level. However, the problem of inaction should not be interpreted simply as a by-product of globalization. Its origins can be traced to the basic structure of utilitarianism as a normative consequentialist theory. This drawback can even present itself at the local level in a less visible form. One example is that in which the performance of a supererogatory act in the exercise of public office leads to a reduction in overall utility. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that cosmopolitan utilitarianism can bind the decision maker to a series of inactions at the global and local levels that contradict his own mandate, generating a dangerous moral confusion in the implementation of public policies. This can seriously threaten the universal applicability of cosmopolitan utilitarianism as a normative political theory, especially in the age of globalization.
The Political Exclusion of (Illegal) Bangladeshi Immigrants in Assam
Authors: Das Jeemut Pratim
Published: February 2024

The main focus of this paper lies in explaining the hypothesis that the exclusion of the (illegal) Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam has been the outcome of a continuous historical process undertaken by the political leaders of the state, rather than as a result of any particular mass uprising from ‘below’. This push from a top-down perspective changed the issue from one of economic consequences to a more religious nature, also culminating in a failed project to assert a unique indigenous ‘Assamese’ identity in relation to the ‘other’, all the while relegating the more usual aspects of open versus closed borders that figure in immigration discourses to the background.
L’Analyse du Risque Géopolitique: du Plausible au Probable
Authors: Bencherif Adib
Published: February 2024

This paper is going to explore the logical process behind risk analysis, particularly in geopolitics. The main goal is to demonstrate the ambiguities behind risk calculation and to highlight the continuum between plausibility and probability in risk analysis. To demonstrate it, the author introduces two notions: the inference of abduction, often neglected in the social sciences literature, and the Bayesian calculation. Inspired by the works of Louise Amoore, this paper tries to go further by studying qualitative tools used in geopolitical risk analysis and establishing links between abduction and Bayesian probability. After a brief exploration of some epistemological contradictions in risk analysis, the paper explores different methodological tools used in geopolitical risk analysis, through a comparison between quantitative and qualitative tools. Finally, the author suggests new avenues for research on risk analysis.
Internet and Social Media’s Social Movements Leading to New Forms of Governance and Policymaking Cases from India
Authors: Madhavan Esha Sen
Published: February 2024

Just as internet has touched and transformed every aspect of human life in present times, its significant effects on the realms of politics and governance is captured in this essay through some real world events like the social movements. Internet and social media have given new strength to social activism and in the process have laid the path for a new form of governance model – open, consultative and inclusive. India has witnessed social movements that have resulted in significant policy related decision making. In the recent times, such social movements have gained much of its momentum through internet and social media. In this essay, three social movements from India are compared and analysed through case study research in order to draw attention to the growing prevalence of a new form of open consultative policy making process that is both leading to a learning experience for the networked society and also creating newer responsibilities for citizens. The three social movements analysed are the Right to Information Act movement (2005); the India Against Corruption movement (2011); and the Net neutrality movement (2015). The case studies are analysed in terms of their unique features of fostering deliberative democracy under the possible influence of internet and social media. The case studies generate data that could be used to study similar practices with a global comparative perspective.
The United States and the European Community (1969-1974) Economic and Political Disputes
Authors: Nguyen Hang Thi Thuy
Published: February 2024

This paper aims to examine the economic and political disputes between the United States and the European Community between 1969 and 1974. Utilising the documentary research approach, the paper will first explore the main economic disputes which were manifested in two rounds of the United States-European Community Consultation in 1970 and 1972. Then, it will investigate the divergence between the United States and the European Community in their policy stances on energy and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War which together constituted the major political disputes between the two sides. With these economic and political disputes, the years 1969-1974 witnessed a difficult phase of the United States-the European Community relations.
The Refugee Crisis as a European Democratic Crisis
Authors: Kapartziani Chryssoula , Papathanasiou Katerini
Published: February 2024

The institutional European Union is facing two types of crisis. On the one hand, it needs to manage the current refugee’s influx efficiently and on the other hand it needs to deal with the democratic deficit that emerged by Europe’s incapacity to make the required decisions and gain the justification of its actions from its own people. This article aims firstly to highlight the legal framework (rule of law) that governs the asylum and migration procedures as well as the democratic gap that these provisions created in the different member states, as a crystal clear example of how a national competence became supranational. Furthermore, it illustrates the refugee profile, as a human being with acquired human rights through the theories of H. Arendt and the U. Beck. Lastly, the cosmopolitan approach is suggested in order to overcome the refugee crisis but a well-established integration should be the long term goal of Europe.
Multi-level Governance as an Alternative The Municipality of Barcelona and the Ciutat Refugi Plan
Authors: Irgil Ezgi
Published: February 2024

This paper analyses the response of the Municipality of Barcelona to the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe as an alternative solution that challenges the national government’s restrictive approach. This response introduces the Ciutat Refugi Plan with a city-to-city network at the municipal level that involves other European cities in creating safe routes for refugees at the local government level. In line with multi-level governance theory, I argue that central governments’ inaction has pressured local governments to take action during the Syrian refugee influx. Relying on the influence of local government networks, the Municipality of Barcelona uses discourse as a tool of action in opening discursive spaces for humanitarian political responses to the refugee crisis. Using critical discourse analysis, I test this argument by examining in-depth interviews, speeches of people in power that have appeared in news articles, and statements on official websites.
El Escenario Uruguayo ante la Posible Aplicación de Acciones Afirmativa as Para Afrodescendientes
Authors: Olaza Mónica
Published: February 2024

In 2013, the Uruguayan Parliament passed Law No. 19122: Afro-descendants Regulations to promote their participation in the areas of education and work, which has been regulated by the Executive. This law provides affirmative action to favour Afro-descendants and recognise their contributions to national culture and identity. It introduces redistribution and recognition; demands that have been claimed for at least three decades by the organisations of the Uruguayan Afro-descendants’ movement. This work presents the main results of interviews and discussion groups about the implementation of the aforementioned law.
A Tale of Ambivalence: Salman Rushdie’s “Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights”
Authors: Gulcu Tarik Ziyad
Published: February 2024

Salman Rushdie’s memoirs, essays and novels contribute to the appreciation of the contradictions in his outlook on life. His experiences in his family enable Rushdie to make efforts for objective and tolerant judgement of British lifestyle and culture. However, his isolation from the society in Britain despite his struggle for adaptation to British cultural values cause contradictions in his cultural identity. While Rushdie expresses his allegiance to India and its culture in The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), he reflects his alienation from his homeland in this novel as well. Similarly, in his Imaginary Homelands (1981-1991) whereas Rushdie questions the injustice and inequality caused by imperialism in The New Empire within Britain (1982), he justifies the colonialist discourse in Kipling (1990). He elaborates on the contradictions in his outlook on life in terms of his cultural ambivalence in his fictions such as Midnight’s Children (1981) and Shame (1983). However, in his latest novel, Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015), Rushdie reflects his cultural identity conflict in terms of rationalism-mysticism dichotomy. With the use of allegory as well as the lack of linearity in time and space, Rushdie justifies his cultural ambivalence in relation to the dynamism of contemporary world. Thus, Rushdie’s latest novel invites reading for its representation of the oppositions in his approach to life.
Reporting Together: Transactional Sociability, Digital Communities and Alternate Embodiments on the Road through the Use of Waze
Authors: Ramos Regner
Published: February 2024

The research discussed in this paper situates itself within experiential and critical approaches to architectural and urban space through GPS-based mobile app technology. It uses Waze, a crowd-sourcing satellite navigation app, as its case study to discuss how the app enables new digitally mediated spatial practices performed and embodied by users. To explore how Waze informs spatial relations and practices – both physical and digital – the app is analyzed as a material object, particularly addressing the design and spatial properties of the interface, while framing it within a Cyberfeminist theoretical framework. The paper seeks to fill a gap in digital spatial theory by upholding that apps are made at a fast pace to help increase their commercial value, but their development, design, and research currently lacks critical study. As such, it looks into Waze’s implications regarding the social reconfiguration of urban relations and identity-formation. Collecting its data through a series of interviews with users as well as personal analyses, this paper aims to critically address how through its interface Waze: a) contests notions of “community” among a group of drivers on the road, b) creates transactional collaborations between Wazers, and c) sets up a digital space where users perform and move in relation to each other. The paper argues that studying Waze’s properties enables a space-based theorization of embodiment, and that through Waze’s avatars, users construct a sense of embodied self-awareness and a social understanding of their immediate context by being able to visually position themselves within an expansive network of others.
Democracy and Climate Change a Confucian Proposal
Authors: De Prada Aurelio
Published: February 2024

Democracy is one of the West’s most important contributions to universal human heritage. Still it presents some drawbacks in the ways it relates to certain global problems, especially climate change. In this paper we claim that these drawbacks can be ameliorated by turning to a non-Western tradition, specifically to Confucianism. A tradition that, first of all, we will have to analyze in its proper terms – i.e. in ideographical ones –, in order to relate it, afterwards, to democracy in what concerns climate change. Finally, we will propose a synthesis – what we call 君人, individual and king –, introducing in the concept of democracy the idea of harmony between nature and society. In other terms, we will defend a royal/real democracy, in which the political subject would be individual 人and king 君at the same time.
Federalism A Way to Govern Globalization
Authors: Levi Lucio
Published: February 2024

Globalization is a social and economic integration process, which has a significant political meaning, i.e. the erosion of state sovereignty. Thenature of globalization is not a mere quantitative increase of social relations and exchanges at world level, but it is a qualitative change rooted in the scientific revolution of material production, and it creates, alongside national societies and markets, a global market and a global civil society. It is a process that is changing the form and size of economic and social life and imposes on all sectors of social life a much wider dimension than that of sovereign states, even the biggest ones. The changes that have occurred in the sovereign state and the international system of states are by now recognized as the central political fact of our times. The construction of a general theory of politics that unifies political science and international relations is a long term task that may be performed by an entire generation of scholars. Multitudes of scholars are working to reconstruct a theory of politics that adheres more to the evolution of contemporary history. Federalism is one of these theories: it is an unfinished project, not a static political vision nor a timeless political theory. It is an unaccomplished project, which is constantly evolving in response to the new problems which history is raising relentlessly. Flexibility – which is the specific character of federal institutions – is particularly adapted to answering the need of combining unity with diversity that is required by the globalization era. Therefore, federalism is a political tool suitable for governing the social transformations under way in the contemporary world. It appears to be a very efficient institutional device for political integration, for ensuring the functioning of pluralistic societies, for protecting minorities, for solving ethnic, religious and national conflicts, and for answering the need for peace and international solidarity.
Espacios interculturales, espacios transculturales y transliteraturas
Authors: Pérez Graciela S.
Published: February 2024

Globalization challenged the notion of borders redefining migration, confinement and (im)mobility. Nowadays, the “self” and the “other” meet in a “neutral” space where geographies and landscape merge hosting the dialogue in a welcoming space that while defying a definite description opens itself up for exploration. Our world is characterized by pluralities, by spaces that are less and less defined, by messages that circulate in an undefined cyberspace in multiple languages, in exchanges that are closer and closer to a simultaneous dialogue where words and thoughts that represent multicultural spaces escape being defined as a geographical space while nonetheless painting a unique landscape. I will explore these concepts as I will analyze the transliterary process of migration of stories, cultures and cultural artifacts centering my study in the transcultural space. I will analyze this figurative and objective geographical space. I will study how the story after being confined to a class perception, to cultural stereotypes thus being held immobile, then thanks to the creation of a transliterary space the story migrates and participates in the globalized dialogue that transcends the literary realm of origin. This literary and cultural migration take place in a landscape that represents the transitional aspect of the literary transaction creating a unique geographical landscape and space that I will explore in detail.
Reflecting on Local Reality Tensions and Challenges of Sustainable Development in Contexts of Urban Poverty
Authors: Pilar Pi Puig Ana
Published: February 2024

The aim of this paper is to present some reflections on the tensions and challenges that emerge from both the literature review on sustainable development and the study of sustainable development as a paradigm in local contexts. In particular, a shantytown located in the outskirts of La Plata city (Argentina) is presented as a case study with the idea that there are some implications between the practices and social representations of people living in urban poverty and the sustainable development paradigm that rules environmental and waste policies in Argentina. The structure of the paper is a combination of two approaches: the macro or top-down approach and the micro or bottom-up approach. The challenge is viewing global as part of local. In addition, two tensions will be introduced: one theoretical at the macro level and one empirical at the micro level. Furthermore, regarding the local context, some preliminary findings of the case study will be introduced.
Challenging Lebanese Politics-as-usual One Neighborhood at a Time The Role of Local Municipal Platforms in Processes of Democratization
Authors: Mahzari Bahar
Published: February 2024

How does the municipal platform Beirut Madinati challenge relations of subordination through its nuanced facilitation of radical democratization processes in Beirut and beyond? Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with electoral candidates, founders and volunteers of Beirut Madinati and an analysis of documents provided by the participants, this study argues that Beirut Madinati has facilitated nuanced processes of radical democracy, which can disrupt patron-client relationships and challenge sectarianism, by attempting to advance egalitarian political structures through the enhancement of participation for and representation of Beirut’s diverse population. In particular, the Lefebvrian Right to the City approach implemented by Beirut Madinati through its various activities is a practical example of radical democracy. For example, the municipal platform organizes residents through its Neighborhood Groups to demand public goods and service provision from the municipality instead of being dependent on local chapters of sectarian political parties. At an institutional level, Beirut Madinati’s Alternative Municipality functions as a shadow municipality, which keeps officials and sectarian political parties accountable. Its Electoral Working Group, on the other hand, pursues political mobilization countering the sectarian political establishment attempting to build an independent labor union movement and co-creating a national coalition compromising civil society groups and independent parties for the 2018 parliamentary elections in Lebanon. The research explores Beirut Madinati’s role and impact at a national and global level examining specifically the transnational character of municipal platforms, which are able to frame local everyday struggles in a global context.
Shifting Paradigms Islamic just Sustainabilities and American Muslim in the Age of Trump
Authors: Ouassini Anwar , Amini Mostafa
Published: February 2024

This paper explores how Trump-era American Muslim activists and organizations have contributed to the development of what we call an “Islamic Just Sustainability”. We explore how this emerging paradigm has restructured Muslim identity in the American context, while reinforcing a foundational shift in religious and sociocultural understanding of the environment and its corresponding intersectional identities. The paper will discuss how the Trumpian context has buttressed American Muslim activist networks that first arose in the post-9/11 environment then explore the development of Islamic Just Sustainability as a theological precept in the American Muslim community. Finally, we will explore the way American Muslim scholars and activists have promoted and implemented the Islamic Just Sustainability paradigm through the pulpit and in their communities.
Civilizations for Global Society
Authors: Cotesta Vittorio
Published: February 2024

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union created an effect comparable to culture shock in worldwide public opinion. These events were interpreted as an epochal change: a political revolution that opened a new era of human history. In the 1990s, various theories of global society were proposed. These theories also open news paths for social and political analysis. Viewed with unprejudiced eyes, history does not seem to have reached its fulfillment and turns out to be more complex than a bipolar structure (the democratic and capitalistic Western World vs. the anti-democratic and totalitarian Communist world) or tripolar structure (the First, Second and Third worlds) of the “Cold War” period. By discussing some of these interpretations through the intertwining of the concepts of “civilization” and “globalization” and through a comparison with non-Western or non-Modern frameworks of civilization, this essay underlines that every civilization has its own idea and its own project for a global society: comparative analysis shows the possibility of dialogue and, at the same time, the risks of conflict.
A Post-Western Account of Critical Cosmopolitan Social Theory
Authors: Murphy Michael
Published: February 2024

The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptually post-Western centric and critically oriented theory of cosmopolitanism capable of cutting across disciplinary and epistemic boundaries. Such an account moves beyond contemporary versions of critical cosmopolitanism and decolonial theory. The paper sets out a critical reconstruction of the concepts of cosmopolitanism and decolonialism with the goal of over-coming the frustrated potential contained in the two approaches of critical thinking. The first is the critical cosmopolitanism of Gerard Delanty and the second by the decolonial theory of Walter Mignolo. It does this through creating a “border” for these works within the social ontology of the Japanese philosopher and historian, Watsuji Tetsurō. The outcome of this encounter between these three thinkers is understood as a post-western account of cosmopolitan critical theory. The paper will develop as fol- lows. The introduction presents the work of Watsuji to the reader. Here the paper will set out his concepts of fūdo, aidagara, and emptiness. It also introduces the reader to the question of cosmopolitan space. The next stage of the paper sets out the triadic models of cosmopolitan critical theory presented by Delanty and Mignolo. It draws attention to how both accounts of human space are understood as diametric dualities: self, other and the world are separated and distinct. In both cases this fails to account for internal heterogeneity, limited as they are to abstraction. The third section sets out a conceptually post-Western centric account of cosmopolitanism as a synthesis of the work of Delanty, Mignolo and Watsuji and t begins by setting out a brief description of emptiness’s use as an epistemic principle for cosmopolitan critical theory. The outcome of this synthesis is similarly a triadic model. This is composed of an ultimate unit of analysis being a post-individual subjectivity, that the encounter occurs within a concentric understanding of space, and the result of this encounter is a radical cosmopolitan imagination. This overcomes the present restrictions placed on the possibilities of the cosmopolitan imagination through expanding agency by safe-guarding the infinity of otherness and simultaneously requiring the opening of infinity within self.
#Ragazzemondiali spinte globalizzanti e specificità nazionali nel calcio femminile italiano
Authors: Giani Marco
Published: February 2024

Thanks to the stunning performance of the Italian national team (who reached the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France), the summer of 2019 was the apex in the development of women’s football in Italy: it was greatly helped by its integration into the huge FIFA system (including sponsors and media). This essay tries to investigate the quality and quantity of this external, global influence. Gender, geographic, and historical filters will be used to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon. The analysis will be based mainly on sports blogs, online newspapers, interviews with footballers and supporters’ tweets, in order to capture the most realistic view of the sociological reality of the Italian women’s football movement. The globalizing tendencies, models (a new image of women in sport) and values (such as female empowerment and diversity) shaped the representation of Italy’s national team as broadcasted by media to the Italian audience, unaccustomed to viewing young women playing soccer. On the other hand, the Italian female footballers, who took advantage of the global influence in order to improve their condition, were successful in shaping it (for example, by showing an image of the hard-headed footballer, rather than the arrogant one coming from the USA). What happened in Italy during the summer of 2019 seems like an interesting (and successful) case of glocalization in women’s sports, played out in such a gendered context as the Italian one.