bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluación del potencial tecnológico de galactomananos del endospermo de semillas de Prosopis sp. para el uso en la industria de alimentos
Authors: Oliva M. , Alfaro C. , Palape I.
Published: September 2024

Las especies de leguminosas presentan galactomanano en mayor o menor cantidad en el endospermo de las semillas sus principales fuentes comerciales son la goma guar, caroba y tara, las que se emplean particularmente en la industria de alimentos, bebidas y farmacia. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el potencial tecnológico del galactomanano del endospermo de semillas de algarrobo (Prosopis sp.) para el uso en la industria de alimentos. Para esto se trabajó con galactomananos obtenidos a partir de extractos del endospermo de semillas provenientes de Quillagüa, Chile. Se evaluaron propiedades de interés industrial, como rendimiento, relación manosa/galactosa y características reológicas. Los resultados obtenidos confirman que el galactomanano posee características de hidrocoloide y muestra comportamiento no newtoniano y propiedades reológicas como la viscosidad. La relación manosa/galactosa y rendimiento variaron substancialmente con el método utilizado en la eliminación de la testa de la semilla.
Production of haploid plants from ten hybrids of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through wide hybridization with maize (Zea mays L.)
Authors: Torres L.E , Bima P. , Maich R. , Badiali O.J.J. , Nisi J.
Published: September 2024

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue obtener plantas haploides de trigo para pan mediante hibridación interespecífica con maíz. Se utilizaron 10 híbridos de trigo para pan (madre) y una población de maíz (donante de polen); se llevaron a cabo dos ensayos en distintas estaciones de cultivo. Cada espiga de trigo fue emasculada manualmente y polinizada dos veces con polen fresco de maíz; las flores polinizadas se pulverizaron con una solución de 2,4-D (100 mg l-1),a que también se inyectó en la base de la espiga. Las semillas se cosecharon a los 15 y 21 días posteriores a la polinización. Los embriones recuperados se colocaron en tubos conteniendo medio de cultivo B5. Las 10 combinaciones híbridas produjeron semillas, de ocho de los híbridos se recuperaron embriones y en seis de ellos los embriones desarrollaron plantas haploides. Estos resultados muestran que existe influencia del genotipo del trigo sobre el porcentaje de formación de embriones haploides. Independientemente del genotipo materno, la estación de cultivo y la edad de los embriones recuperados, 69,4% de las flores polinizadas formaron caryopses, 5,5% de los caryopses formados desarrollaron embriones presuntamente haploides (por sus fenotipos morfológicos) y 26,1% de los embriones recuperados desarrollaron plantas haploides
Compostaje de estiércol de feedlot con aserrín/viruta: características del proceso y del producto final
Authors: Hang S. , Castán E. , Daghero A. , Buffa E. , Ringuelet A. , Satti P. , Mazzarino M.J. , Negro G.
Published: September 2024

Composting of feedlot manure is a common practice in developed countries which aims at taking advantage of its value as reclamation and fertilizer as well as at reducing its negative impact on the environment. In Argentina manure is often applied without  treatments of  stabilization and hygienization. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of two rates of bulking agent (sawdust-woodshavings) and feedlot manure (1:1 and 2:1) on composting efficiency and final compost quality in experiments conducted as turning piles. Three piles per treatment were prepared at a pilot scale (3 m3each). The termophilic phase lasted 70-100 days and the content of  faecal coliforms, potentially toxic materials and parameters of stability and maturity  ?  the latter being evaluated through  water soluble C (WSC), ratio WSC/total N, ammonium, ratio ammonium/nitrate and germination index  ?  , indicated that after 4-6 months the product was innocuous, stable and mature. Pathogen and potentially toxic element contents were below the limits established by international laws. Compost 1:1 showed higher concentrations of total and extractable P than compost 2:1, and similar C and N values. When mixed with control soil both composts increased P and N availability and microbial respiration.
Selection of artichoke plants and analysis of correlation between quantitative traits for fresh consumption
Authors: Reolon-Costa A. , Grando M.F. , Cravero V.P. , Almeida A.
Published: September 2024

The goals of the present study were to evaluate and select artichoke plants suitable for fresh consumption and to establish correlations between quantitative traits. Clones from 39 accessions were obtained from the germplasm collection of the University of Passo Fundo and evaluated for 17 quantitative and 3 qualitative traits. Data on quantitative traits were subjected to analysis of variance followed by a Tukey test at p<0.05 to compare averages, and correlations were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Significant differences were observed for 9 of the 17 quantitative traits analyzed, and 10 of the 39 accessions presented higher values for some of those traits than the remaining tested accessions. Significant correlations were observed between several traits and the capitulum yield, which makes indirect selection easier. For the qualitative traits, nine accessions were selected that presented circular head, violet colored bracts and absence of thorns, which are desirable traits for fresh consumption.
Relevamiento de chicharritas (Homoptera: Cicadellidae y Delphacidae) sobre Glycine max L. en Córdoba, Argentina
Authors: Sosa H. M. , Rubiale A , Sanchez L. R. , Otero J. C. , Audisio R.
Published: September 2024

Considering the importance of Homoptera: Cicadellidae as disease vectors, a survey was carried out in experimental plots of Medicago sativa L., Melilotus L., Triticum aestivum L. and X Triticosecale Wittmack; near the city of Córdoba. Yellow adhesive traps were used, exposing them for 24 hours, once a week. The following species were detected: Exitianus obscurinervus Ber., Amplicephalus obsoletus Linnavuori, Stirellus picinus Ber., Atanus angustanus Linnavuori, Mendozellus dubius Linnavuori, Empoasca sp., Synchrirxt punctiatissima Signoret, Agalliana ensigera Oman.
Descripción de cuatro poblaciones de Pratylenchus (Nematoda: Tylenchida), provenientes de la Provincia de Córdoba , Argentina
Authors: Doucet Marcelo
Published: September 2024

Four populations of phytophagous nematodes belonging to the genus Pratylenchus Filipjev, 1936 (P. hexincisus Taylor & Jenkins, 1957; P. scribneri Steiner, 1943; P. thornei Sher & Allen, 1953; and P. vulnus Allen & Jensen, 1951) from cultivated areas in the Province of Córdoba are described.
Exploring Psychometric Analysis of Textual Data with Large Language Models: Chances and Challenges
Authors: Chen Jinsong
Published: September 2024

This research explores a psychometric method for analyzing textual data using contextualembeddings generated by large language models. The proposed method leveragescontextual embeddings to create contextual scores, which are then used as input to createfactor analysis models. By treating documents as individuals and words as items, thisapproach provides a natural psychometric interpretation, unveiling a vast, unexploredlandscape for future research. It assumes that certain words, whose contextual meaningsvary significantly across documents, can be employed to differentiate documents within acorpus. The modeling process consists of two stages: obtaining contextual scores andperforming factor analysis. The first stage involves utilizing natural language processingtechniques and encoder-based transformer models to find common keywords and generatecontextual scores. The second stage involves employing different types of factor analysis toextract and define factors, obtain factor correlations, and identify top words of the factors.Tested on the Wiki STEM corpus, the experimental results demonstrate the new method’schances and challenges for analyzing textual data by combining both large language modelsand psychometric modeling.
Superradiance in Schwarzschild Black Holes under Bell's Theorem Constraints and Its Connection to $f(R)$ Gravity
Authors: Chen Wen-Xiang
Published: September 2024

This paper explores the mechanism by which Schwarzschild black holes may exhibit superradiance when Bell's theorem is considered as a fundamental principle. By integrating quantum field theory with general relativity under the constraints imposed by Bell's inequalities, we develop a comprehensive model that extends the classical understanding of black hole dynamics. The study further draws parallels between the superradiant phenomena in Schwarzschild black holes and those observed in $f(R)$ gravity theories. Our findings suggest a profound mathematical and conceptual linkage between Bell's theorem and $f(R)$ gravity, particularly in the manifestation of irreducible singularities and their associated residues. This work provides a novel framework bridging quantum non-locality with modified theories of gravity, offering potential insights into the quantum nature of spacetime and black hole physics.
Learning Alters Salience
Authors: Duncan Dock H , van Moorselaar Dirk , Theeuwes Jan
Published: September 2024

The ability to ignore salient yet irrelevant stimuli is essential to accomplish even simple tasks. Previous research has shown that observers are better able to suppress distracting items via experience; yet how this learned suppression is achieved is largely unknown. The current study employed a psychophysical approach combined with computational modelling to examine how learned spatial suppression affects perception. The results show that items presented at suppressed locations are perceived as less bright than those in non-suppressed areas, suggesting that learned suppression directly affects the perceived saliency of items. To determine how this saliency change affects visual search, computational modelling approach was used to compare various models of attentional selection. The analysis favoured a model in which learned suppression reduces the saliency of objects presented at suppressed locations in the initial salience calculation. Since the saliency of these items is reduced, they are less able to compete for attentional processing and capture attention less often.
Artificial Intelligence Enhanced Environmental Detection System
Authors: Wang Xiaoyin
Published: September 2024

This paper presents a novel approach to improve the accuracy ofenvironmental detection and prediction by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)technology into existing detection systems. At the heart of our approach lies thecombination of a complex AI model with the hardware and software components ofthe inspection system. This combined approach can significantly improve theaccuracy of detection systems through greater ability to predict environmentalchanges and events, underscoring the superior performance of hardware and softwarecombined with AI technology. This paper delves into the details of hardware andsoftware design, and discusses measurement implementation methods using abuild-down machine. We also explore the practical application of AI models withinthe framework described above. In addition, this paper also describes theimplementation of communication protocols to ensure the effective data exchangebetween the system network and the artificial intelligence model. These protocols areessential for the real-time processing and analysis of environmental data, enablingsystems to respond quickly to detected changes.Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Detection System, NetworkInterface Chip
Persuasive Britain: The Generation of Soft Power in the Facebook Pages of the British Embassy and British Council in Egypt
Authors: Phillips Lawrie
Published: September 2024

This study explores the soft power that is currently generated on and through the Facebook pages of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Egypt and British Council in Egypt. In his classic text, ‘Soft power: The Means to Success in World Politics’, Joseph Nye argues that successful international institutions and policies should be based on both hard power (coercion, military power, and payment) and soft power (consent, attraction, and seduction). This paper claims that the social media pages of the British Embassy and British Council generate and disseminate soft power in order to pursue the interests of national institutions based in Britain such as the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and British universities and schools. This research is based on a nuanced critical multimodal discourse analysis of posts published on their Facebook pages between June the 1st, 2023 and May the 1st, 2024. These social media platforms highlight mutual spheres of public interaction between the UK and Egypt, synergising large-scale public and private interests in building British prosperity, ‘safeguarding’ British national security, and supporting British nationals, in that order of priorities (FCDO 2024). This nuanced analysis of soft media power concludes that these social media pages represent the doctrine of ‘Foreign Aid in the national interest’ (USAID 2002) in which large-scale private British interests prevail. Official Facebook posts tend to be static and monolithic rather than dynamic and interactive, presenting and promoting rather than personalising or debating large-scale national policies and initiatives.
Emotion regulation and mental health across cultures: A meta-analysis examining the roles of national cultures, EIRDness, and demographics
Authors: Chen Mark Shuquan , Cai Qiyue , Omari Deemah I , Sanghvi Drishti Enna , Lyu Shibo , Bonanno George A.
Published: September 2024

Emotion regulation (ER) plays a central role in mental health but the effect differs acrosscultures. Expanding from extant literature’s focus on Western-Eastern dichotomy orindividualism-collectivism, this meta-analysis synthesized evidence on the associations betweenthe two most studied ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and twomental health outcomes (psychopathology and positive functioning) and investigated themoderating roles of several cultural dimensions: Hofstede’s national cultures dimensions,Education, Industrialization, Richness, and Democracy (EIRDness), and sample demographics(249 articles, n=151,637, 861 effect sizes, 37 countries/regions). Greater reappraisal propensitywas more adaptive in more short-term oriented, uncertainty-tolerant, and competition-drivencultures and samples with more female and racial minority participants. Greater suppressionpropensity was more maladaptive in indulgent, individualistic, and competition-driven culturesand younger samples. These findings elucidate how cultures shape the function of ER andsuggest ways in which future studies can integrate cultural characteristics when examining ERand psychological adjustment.
The construction of concepts: Active inference and the probabilistic language of thought
Authors: Rutar Danaja , Carcassi Fausto , Deane George
Published: September 2024

The active inference framework is increasingly influential as a unifying model of perception, action, and cognition. However, it is unclear how higher cognition, thought, and concept formation should be understood within active inference. In this paper, we argue that active inference has the resources to deliver an account of the Language of Thought. The Language of Thought Hypothesis (LoTH) posits that cognitive processes are underpinned by a symbolic system of internal representations akin to a language (Fodor, 2010). This "mentalese," as it is sometimes referred to, supports the notions of systematicity and productivity, suggesting that thinking operates via syntactic rules and structured symbols, allowing for the capacity to produce and understand novel cognitive constructs (Fodor, 1998). While LoTH fell out of favour, it has had a recent resurgence, and a particularly promising version of it is the probabilistic Language of Thought (pLoT) which adds probabilistic processes to the LoT picture. We argue that the fundamental features of conceptual representation posited by the pLoT can be accounted for in active inference when we consider concepts as built up sequentially through a series of mental actions, or mental action policies articulated in active inference. Once constructed, concepts can be compressed, are then amenable to rapid deployment and can serve as primitives in the construction of more complex concepts.
Who Cares More About Morality? Evidence from 67 Countries
Authors: Paruzel-Czachura Mariola , McHugh Cillian
Published: September 2024

The self-importance of moral identity is about being moral for yourself (internalization) and for others (symbolization). We tested sex, age, and cultural differences in participants from 67 counties. We used Uz’s cultural tightness and looseness index and Hofstede’s dimensions. We found women had higher internalization and symbolization than men. Older individuals cared more about being moral for themselves and others. Symbolization was positively related to power distance, individualism, masculinity, indulgence, and domain general tightness; negatively to long-term orientation and both the domain-specific and combination indexes of tightness and looseness and was unrelated to uncertainty avoidance. Internalization was positively related to indulgence and domain-specific index of tightness and looseness; negatively to power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, domain-general, and combination indices of tightness and looseness; and unrelated to masculinity. We observed country-level differences for all variables, so our results should not be treated as universal.
Children’s social connections, internet usage and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global South: evidence from Disrupting Harm
Authors: Metherell Thomas Edward , Kurten Sebastian , Ghai Sakshi , Kardefelt-Winther Daniel , Ploubidis George , Moreno-Agostino Darío , Orben Amy
Published: September 2024

Objective:To investigate the cross-sectional associations of digital technology use with mental health indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic in 12 countries in the Global South.Methods:We used data from the UNICEF Innocenti Disrupting Harm survey of 11,912 children aged 12–17 in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. We modelled the associations of social connection and internet use during lockdown with six different indicators of wellbeing in each country and in the overall sample using robust linear and logistic regression. We controlled for a range of putative socioeconomic and demographic confounders and handled missing data using multiple imputation.Findings:We did not find clear evidence for any general associations of social connection or internet use with mental health indicators during lockdown across countries. Rather, our results are complex and demonstrate that the relationship depends heavily on an individual’s context; not just on the country they are living in but also on their sex, urbanicity and other factors. Nonetheless, our results highlight key focus areas for further research.Conclusion:Extensive further research is needed to identify ways in which technology use, including internet use, might act as a risk or protective factor relevant to mental ill health among young people in the countries of the Global South.
Cues and Processes Underlying Confidence in Choice
Authors: Sieck Winston R , Yates J. Frank
Published: September 2024

Three experiments that address the following fundamental questions about confidence judgment are presented: (1) What cues form the basis for confidence in choice? And (2) what are the cognitive processes that drive choice and confidence responses in general knowledge tasks? Critical manipulations in the experiments included reasons generation, priming of options, and intensive demands to recall relevant domain knowledge. Behavioral response and process tracing results from the three experiments provided evidence for a two-stage process wherein a preliminary choice stage is driven largely by familiarity, and an ensuing evaluation stage is determined mainly by accessibility and arguments for the preliminary choice.
Sleep selectively consolidates images based on perceptual features
Authors: Matorina Nelly , Ghajar Kevin , Bainbridge Wilma A. , Barense Morgan
Published: September 2024

Sleep plays a role in memory consolidation. However, there is considerable debate about whether all memories, or only certain memories, benefit from consolidation during sleep. Previous investigations of sleep-dependent memory consolidation have explored top-down mechanisms on memory selection (e.g., future relevance) or utilized stimuli that are easily differentiated by participants (e.g., emotional stimuli). Here, we tested the role of bottom-up influences on sleep-dependent consolidation, specifically testing whether the intrinsic memorability of a stimulus is related to how likely an image is to be remembered after sleep. We found that sleep selectively consolidated only high memorability images. Previous work has shown that participants could not reliably predict image memorability, suggesting that our observed benefit for high memorability images reflected an automatic selection process. We provide the first evidence that one mechanism of selective memory consolidation during sleep is based on perceptual features, suggesting that unconscious “relevance” at encoding impacts subsequent consolidation.
Striving for Excellence or Chasing Perfection? Differential Associations with Test Anxiety for Students in Tertiary Education
Authors: Gaudreau Patrick , Racine Patrick , Boivin Thomas , Parent Gabrielle , Boileau Laurence , Schellenberg Benjamin J. I.
Published: September 2024

Past studies have found an unexpectedly small and inconsistent association between perfectionistic standards and test anxiety. Our goal was to unpack this association through the lens of a novel theory: The Model of Excellencism and Perfectionism. Results of Study 1 (N= 273) showed higher test anxiety, fear of failure, and mistake rumination for perfection strivers compared to excellence strivers. Results of Study 2 (N= 248) replicated these findings. Also, they showed that perfection strivers are more likely than excellence strivers to catastrophize about small mistakes, use reassurance seeking safety behaviors, and underperform in their exams. Excellencism and perfectionism are related but different pursuits, and their differentiation is essential to unveil the unhealthy role of perfectionistic standards in the nomological network of test anxiety. Our findings realign empirical knowledge with theories and interventions and enhance the impetus to intervene on the perfectionistic standards of students in schools.
Inheritance of Socioeconomic Disadvantages is More Complex than Assumed in the Social Sciences
Authors: Lehti Hannu , Eskelinen Niko , Arhippainen Simo
Published: September 2024

A fundamental concern in studying social inequalities is understanding how socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages are passed down from generation to generation. However, previous studies have not adequately distinguished between the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to socioeconomic disadvantage. In this paper, we use Finnish register data on twins born from 1975 to 1986, considering a total of 7,628 pairs, to analyze how genetic and environmental factors are associated with dropout from secondary education, unemployment, and the receipt of social assistance during early adulthood. The results of the twin design show that not only environmental but also genetic factors play a role in all measured socioeconomic disadvantage outcomes. For school dropout and, particularly, unemployment, genetic components explain more than shared environment. Conversely, for the receipt of social assistance, the shared environment component is larger than the genetic component. This result indicates that living in impoverished economic conditions is more dependent on factors related to social resources than those related to genetic inheritance. Of all the measured indicators, the unique environment is the most important, indicating the influence of stochastic life events regarding socioeconomically disadvantageous outcomes.
‘Link in bio’: fake cancer cures, radicalization pathways and online harms on TikTok.
Authors: Baker Stephanie Alice
Published: September 2024

This chapter provides an ethnographic account of how content creators present cancer cures on TikTok. It assesses the quality of cancer cure videos algorithmically recommended by TikTok, the radicalization pathways afforded by short video platforms like TikTok and their potential to cause online harms. Content creators commonly feature contrarian doctors and draw on a conspiratorial worldview to present various miracle cures as intentionally concealed and stigmatized by the establishment. This framing gives credence to creators’ claims and the cures they promote. It also presents TikTok as a more reliable platform from which to access health information censored by the mainstream. Since TikTok is used as a search engine by younger demographics, it becomes a key means of accessing health information. Using TikTok to access health information poses significant risks: First, the technological affordances of TikTok render the app susceptible to radicalizing users. While radicalization is not technologically determined by simply viewing content, radicalization can occur through the endless scroll of conspiratorial content algorithmically recommended to users searching for cancer cures on the platform through a gradual process of socialization. Second, short form videos can become a gateway to radical views because these videos commonly direct users to personal bios, websites and ecommerce stores. Third, radicalization and online harms can be facilitated by TikTok because the app provides accessible avenues for monetization that incentivize content creators to profit from fake cancer cures. This research has important implications for content moderators because the risk of cancer misinformation is not limited to the content uploaded the platform, but the ways in which short videos become a gateway to harmful products and more extreme, conspiratorial content.
«Her var det navn, og her var det fjes - men jeg vet ikke hvem de er»: En tematisk analyse av rollen til fagsosiale fellesskap for nettstudenters livskvalitet.
Authors: Stuedal Madeleine Trolle
Published: September 2024

Type: Master´s Thesis. Supervisors: Peder Isager, Erik Nakkerud. Final Grade: A (Norwegian grade system).Denne studien ble gjennomført som et selvstendig prosjekt med hensikt om å dekke etkunnskapshull av stadig større relevans i dagens digitale samfunn. Resultater fra studenteneshelse og trivselsundersøkelse (SHoT) viste i 2022 en forekomst av psykisk uhelse og plagerblant norske studenter på 42%, hvor 30% av studentenes plager kunne kategoriseres somalvorlige (Sivertsen & Johansen, 2022). I tillegg går høyere utdanning i Norge gjennom endigital omstillingsprosess etter Covid-19 pandemien (Regjeringen, 2021). Lovgitte krav tilgode psykososiale forhold på høyskoler og universiteter gjør allikevel ikke et skille pådigitale og fysiske læringsforhold. Studier har vist at nettstudier før og under pandemien erassosiert med blant annet økt stress og isolasjon (Hysing et al., 2023; McDougall, 2019;Stone et al., 2016; Wissing et al., 2022), men lite er kjent om hvordan frivillige nettstudenteropplever deres psykososiale forhold. Denne studien utforsker nettstudenters behov forfagsosiale fellesskap, og hvilken rolle slike fellesskap oppleves å spille for deres generellelivskvalitet. Studien er et kvalitativt forskningsprosjekt, hvor jeg gjennomførte individuelle,nettbaserte semistrukturerte intervjuer av seks nettstudenter fra institutt for statsvitenskap oginternasjonale relasjoner på Oslo Nye Høyskole. En refleksiv tematisk analyse (Braun &Clarke, 2006) ble gjennomført. Analysen resulterte i tre temaer: «Nettstudentenesusikkerhet», «Faglig fokus over sosial tilhørighet», og «Fleksibilitet og tidsklemmer».Resultatene fra studien tyder på at fagsosiale fellesskap oppleves å spille en positivrolle for nettstudentenes livskvalitet, dersom terskelen og tidsbruken assosiert medfellesskapene er lav. En upersonlig nettverden av medstudenter ble for mange avnettstudentene trukket frem som hindrende for fagsosiale fellesskap og engasjement.Majoriteten av deltakerne opplevde at terskelen for å oppleve fellesskap var knyttet tilmuligheten for å finne nettstudenter som har lik motivasjon, engasjement, og tidskapasitet. Itråd med tidligere forskning uttrykte noen deltakere et ønske om det sosiale fellesskapet, menfokuset for de fleste var på det faglige læringsutbytte.
Buen Vivir, Sumak Kawsay, 'Good Living': An Introduction and Overview
Authors: Waldmüller Johannes M.
Published: September 2024

This overview and introduction to Buen Vivir and/or Sumak Kawsay refers to the context and discussion in Ecuador. It differentiates between Buen Vivir and Sumak Kawsay as well as between (at least) three main types of this vast field of discourses and practices: (1) a state-led program for the 'socialism of the 21st century"; (2) a post-modern utopian and intellectual project, drawing on indigenous Andean values; and (3) an (essentializing) 'indigenist' form of living and thinking that adds spiritual ontological dimensions, based on individually and collectively acquiring a practice of all-connected consciousness.
The ‘Commodities Consensus’ and Valuation Languages in Latin America
Authors: Svampa Maristella , Carballo Ana Estefanía
Published: September 2024

ince Evo Morales’ arrival to the Palacio Quemado and the nomination of David Choquehuanca as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bolivian international policy has been marked by a rhetoric of environmentalism, defence of indigenous rights and cosmovisions, and the promotion of vivir bien (good living) as a new paradigm of development.This piece investigates the narratives that the actors of the mobilisations in 2003 — both in the urban context, in the city of El Alto, and in the countryside, in the province of Omasuyos — have enacted to explain their struggle. What sort of perspective(s) on development do they express in their accounts? How much of them can actually be related to a vivir bien formulation, which emphasises the importance of living in harmony with nature and with the community? By investigating these issues in people’s actual perception of their struggle, this piece attempts to cast light on processes that mediate between the empirical and the normative dimensions of development.
Academic Dependency
Authors: Beigel Fernanda
Published: September 2024

As a research field, academic dependency is nourished on the social studies of science, critical epistemology and comparative studies of higher education. It encompasses the unequal structure of production and circulation of knowledge that has emerged historically along with the international scientific system. This structure is composed of institutional, material and symbolic processes, mutually related, which have produced different paths of academia-building. In the periphery, these combinations are the historical result of national and regional responses to internationalization – particularly given the diverse roles played by the state in scientific development and higher education.
Technical vs. Grassroots Experts in Global Water and Forests Governance
Authors: Dupuits Emilie
Published: September 2024

Since the 2000s, facing the increasing globalization and commodification of common-pool resources, community-based organizations managing water and forests at the local level started to create transnational networks. Their main goal is to get direct representation in global governance arenas and to transform languages of expertise around governance norms and the scales at which they operate. The international involvement of grassroots organizations raises several interrogations: who are grassroots experts and to what extent are they different from technical experts dominating international arenas? At what scale and in what field is grassroots expertise constructed as legitimate? Finally, is transnational grassroots expertise based on a harmonization or a diversification of knowledge and practices?
Sumak Kawsay, Feminisms and Post-Growth: Linkages to Imagine New Utopias
Authors: Vega Ugalde Silvia , Mancilla García María
Published: September 2024

This article explores the different understandings of gender that correspond to different concepts of sumak kawsay, tackling both ‘gender’ and ‘sumak kawsay’ as polysemous concepts. The article focuses specifically on the degrowth perspective, which is part of the ecological post-developmental understanding of sumak kawsay. It explores the implications that follow from these perspectives when questioning androcentric gender relationships. Additionally, the article exposes the meanings which the feminist economics of rupture attributes to the conceptual category of ‘the sustainability of life’, highlighting the overlaps and divergences with the post-growth understanding of that same category. The article defends the importance of resituating political and feminist debates under utopic horizons, such as those of sumak kawsay and post-growth.
Taking Matters into Their Own Hands: The MST and the Workers’ Party in Brazil
Authors: Gilbert Bruce
Published: September 2024

Brazil’s Movement of Landless Rural Workers (Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra do Brasil—MST) has long engaged in a subtle form of brinkmanship with the Brazilian state and with the rule of law. The strange combination of audacity and vulnerability that characterizes this strategy is even more delicate in the context of the fourth straight mandate of the MST’s erstwhile political ally, the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores—PT). The great hope born in the MST that a PT administration would wholeheartedly support agrarian reform and thus make the MST strategy of land occupation and civil disobedience mostly unnecessary was to be utterly disappointed. As a result the MST must both challenge and yet tacitly support the PT for fear of the alternatives, all of which are worse. In this article the author concludes that the MST effectively implements a strategy that all at once creates authentically socialist agricultural settlements while simultaneously using the state to forward its goals.
Race, Power, Indigenous Resistance and the Struggle for the Establishment of Intercultural Education
Authors: Tonet Martina
Published: September 2024

Peruvian Andes, meanings of resistance, reproduction of the racial social order This article explores the controversial aspect of resistance in the Peruvian Andes. Resistance does not necessarily mean subversion of a dominant unjust social order. On the contrary, it can paradoxically endorse it. The case of the Peruvian Andes provides an illustrative example of how resistance in a post-colonial society can play this role. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the meaning of resistance in contexts imbued with racial prejudice towards the indigenous Other. By illustrating how resistance has implied the reinstatement of an unjust and fundamentally racist social order, it induces researchers to review the understanding of indigenous bottom-up forms of opposition. Not all forms of indigenous resistance unanimously mean that subversion of an unjust and oppressive domination is taking place. Case in point the example of indigenous mobilising in the Peruvian Andes will illustrate this oxymoron. In order to exemplify my argument I take into account various forms of indigenous resistance enacted throughout history. This includes opposition that indigenous peoples have practiced against the consolidation of an intercultural education.
“Bien Vivir” – Between “Development” and the De/Coloniality of Power
Authors: Garbe Sebastián , Quijano Anibal
Published: September 2024

The whole extensive historical formational process of the Global Coloniality of Power has entered a deep crisis. The “Bien Vivir”, an expression of the indigenous populations of Latin America, is shaping an alternative for social life that can only be realized as a De/Coloniality of Power.
Can the Latin American Progressive Governments Outlive Their Success?
Authors: Cava Bruno , Muñoz Gerardo
Published: September 2024

Surrounded by an overwhelming support from the popular classes and the nationalist left; Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, the Kirchners in Argentina, and Lula in Brazil confronted openly the elites, the press monopolies, the right-wing destituent force, and in doing so, detached themselves from the governmentality that intensified inequality and poverty in the neoliberal 1990s. The year 2015 was the annus horribilis of the Latin American progressive cycle. This was the year in which governments were defeated on their own terms, that is, through massive electoral participation that included the poor popular sectors. It is in this context that the discourse on the exhaustion of the progressive cycle begins to take shape. At the same time, understanding it as a narrative of “closure” is insufficient and full of traps, since it seems to point to a defeat of what previously was a golden age of progressive usurpation of power. This article explores the narratives associated with this process and the ambiguous results that are now emerging.
The Chilean Case and the Latin American Pink Tide: Between Democracy and Developmentalism
Authors: Villalobos-Ruminott Sergio , Muñoz Gerardo
Published: September 2024

The so called Marea Rosada (Pink Tide) specifically refers to the turn that several Latin American governments took by the end of the 90s, in favor of public and social agendas that opposed the neoliberal order that characterized the region in the previous decades. These new agendas also broke away from the age-old ideal of revolutionary partisanship, pursuing a critique of neoliberalism that was not reducible to a radical (impossible) delinking still embedded in the logic of accumulation. The new political agenda brought to the fore by the governments of the Marea Rosada without opposing neoliberalism tried to radically modify its logic and produce a more humane economy. In spite of the anti-imperialist and nationalist rhetoric that have flourished in the regional Left, it is also true that for cases such as the Chilean and the Brazilian ones the scene is dominated by a type of government that seeks to correct unjust income distribution while maintaining a disciplined fiscal budget as to facilitate its entry into international markets.
Virgin Forests. The Long Human Past of the Tapajos Valley
Authors: Cigaran da Rocha Bruna , Honorato de Oliveira Vinicius , Cardoso de Mello Louise
Published: September 2024

This article looks at the archaeological heritage along the rapids of the Tapajós River and its tributaries, such as the Juruena and Teles Pires Rivers, based on the existing record. Apart from archaeology, historical sources as well as oral history may also shed some light on the (often turbulent) past of the Tapajós Valley after the Portuguese conquest (Menéndez, 1981/1982, 2006 [1992]). They also point at the possible location of archaeological sites; stemming from the review of historical and archaeological sources, Alexandre Robazzini (2013) has compiled a comprehensive table containing 423 archaeological sites in the Tapajós Valley. Notwithstanding the limited amount of archaeological fieldwork carried out in the region where the government intends to build the Tapajós Hydroelectric Complex (CHT) –and in contrast to the idea promoted by the official discourse that the area in question is empty and has no history- we present some evidence here that points to the richness and singularity of the existing archaeological heritage. Far from being located in a virgin forest, the Tapajós and its tributaries irrigate an area that has been anthropized, or in other words, altered by humans for thousands of years.
Reclaiming the Food System: Agroecological Pedagogy and the IALA María Cano
Authors: Kaur Jaskiran
Published: September 2024

Industrial agriculture has been one of the key contributors to global warming and consequent climate disasters worldwide. In 2014, 44-57% of global greenhouse gas emissions were produced by industrial food production; principally from deforestation, transportation of products, their processing and refrigeration (GRAIN, 2014). This paper will focus on the case of the Instituto Agroecologico Latinoamericano (IALA) María Cano in Colombia, which aims to use knowledge as resistance in an epistemo-political struggle against industrialised agriculture. The piece will theoretically outline the phenomenon of industrial agriculture, the impact this has on societies and ecologies, as well as the overarching epistemologies that maintain this.
Sumak Kawsay is not Buen Vivir
Authors: Cuestas-Caza Javier
Published: September 2024

Nowadays, the paradigm of development-consumerism is responsible for the desolating panorama of social injustice and unrestrained exploitation of natural resources that leads to self-destruction of life on the planet (Huanacuni-Mamani, 2010). From the Global South, the voices that question in depth the philosophical and civilizational presuppositions of the Eurocentric developmental model are becoming stronger and more frequent. No one is surprised that these voices emanate from the population disillusioned by the promises of global culture (Álvarez, 2014; Estermann, 2013). From the Andes, a philosophical otherness arises, denominated "Andean Philosophy", which is a sapiential manifestation of an ancient tradition that questions the civilizational centrism of the Western (Estermann, 2015). The purpose of Andean's thought is reflected in the Sumak Kawsay.
Food Sovereignty in Latin America: a gendered and multiescalar perspective
Authors: Machado Brochner Gabriela Pinheiro
Published: September 2024

This article aims to analyze how the concept of food sovereignty in Latin America has been constructed as a political tool for peasant women. In addition, it examines the practices found in this everyday life construction, by drawing on a multiscale perspective stemming from feminist political geography. With regard to peasant women, or rather, transnational networks of peasant women, it is necessary to take into account where their demands come from and how they lead women in one region to create networks with other women movements in the world in order to achieve their goals. In Latin America, the life of rural women in agriculture revolves around family care and food production at the local scale, and also at the regional scale. Women experience different forms of violence (by state, transnational companies, partners, etc.), and their consequences are perceived in everyday life. What occurs at the local scale is reflected in other scales, such as the state, the region, and the global. Peasant women are capable of recognizing their demands as women, particularly as peasant woman, which allows them to identify a point of convergence with women from different places in Latin America, sharing demands within the region since scales are mutually constitutive.
Understanding how ontological conflicts materialize through dialogue between political ontology and Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories
Authors: Lamers Louise
Published: September 2024

This article explores how Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories can inform post-development research, particularly into socio-environmental conflicts. Post-development’s politico-ontological branch understands these conflicts as ontological clashes, stemming from the imposition of particular understandings of concepts like 'development' and 'nature'. The article argues that Lefebvre’s spatial theories constitute a language for grasping the spatial dynamics of these ontological conflicts. The article offers guidance on applying this language by navigating through four key areas: (1) the ontological domain, by first overcoming some problems in Lefebvre’s work through a politico-ontological reading, (2) the methodological domain, by demonstrating how his work provides an analytical framework to dissect the spatial manifestations of conflicts between diverse worlds, (3) the epistemological domain, by highlighting how Lefebvre’s theories give insights into strategies of dominant ontologies to remain in power, (4) the domain of theories of change, by emphasizing Lefebvre’s advocacy for the empowerment of marginalized communities to reclaim agency in shaping their spatial environment. This theoretical effort is then briefly illustrated with tensions that can arise from fortress conservation policies. Given their clear material concerns regarding land use and distribution, it is demonstrated how a PD’s politico-ontological examination of such socio-environmental conflicts can benefit from Lefebvre’s spatial theories.
Chilean Muralism in Exile: On Solidarity and Transnational Memory
Authors: Rudman Sandra , Barria Cristobal
Published: September 2024

Fifty years after the coup d`état in Chile, cities such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Leeds, Milan, Belgrade, Los Angeles, and Chicago, still display traces of Chilean exile on the walls of cultural centres, universities, theatres and other buildings. These are the remains of hundreds of murals, painted by brigades created by Chileans in exile to encourage their host countries to show solidarity with their resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship. The complex experience of Chilean exile and its long-lasting and intergenerational repercussions have only slowly been integrated into research and memory practices. This article examines three case studies of Chilean murals in exile as atypical forms of testimonial sources, with the aim of gaining insights into the multi-layered network of actors behind them, in particular into the testimonies of Chilean exiles and actors of international solidarity. It also explores the memorial dimensions of postephemeral murals and how these can function as carriers of a collective, transnational memory of Chilean exile.