bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Theory in a Relational World
Authors: Shih Shu-mei 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
In the 2014 book Latin American Philosophy from Identity to Radical Exteriority, Alejandro Arturo Vallega claims that the question “Is there Latin American philosophy?” has outlived its rhetorical usefulness, because, by all objective measure and practical purposes, there exists a long and rich tradition of Latin American philosophy. Following Vallega, we may ask whether “Is there Taiwan theory?” has outlived its rhetorical usefulness. On the one hand, this article is an invitation to think about theory and theorizing from the perspective of a small, peripheral, minor nation, and what it might mean for theory, its nature, production, and circulation, not just as we know it (what exists) or do not know it (what exists but is not recognized or known), but also as we search for the potentialities and limits of our capacity to imagine it (what does not yet exist). On the other hand, my proposal here is to think about theory in terms of world history, using a method that I have been calling relational comparison (2013; 2015).
Comparison and Correspondence: Revisiting an Old Idea for the Present Time
Authors: Longxi Zhang 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
Analogical thinking that relates everything to everything else in a complicated system of correspondences was common in ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, early modern Europe, as well as ancient China. Such premodern theories of knowledge about correspondences between the cosmos and the human world are discredited in modern scientific thinking, but by revisiting some of the old ideas, of which the value has not been sufficiently recognized in modern scholarship, we may find them helpful in rethinking the disciplinary compartmentalization of knowledge and the possibilities of dialogues between different disciplines in comparative studies.
Language and the Logic of Subjectivity: Whitehead and Burke in Crisis
Authors: DiCaglio Joshua 
Published: February 2017

ABSTRACT
This article examines the meaning of the subjective in rhetorical modes of inquiry in contrast to the other-oriented nature of social critique. I reopen the problem of consciousness for interpretation by examining challenges to scientific authority in the 1930s, specifically how Kenneth Burke and Alfred North Whitehead respond to a “crisis in mathematics” born out of Whitehead's attempt, with Bertrand Russell, to reconcile logic and mathematics. Whitehead uses Russell's paradox to demonstrate the necessary return of subjective inquiry as a legitimate mode of knowledge. Burke's Permanence and Change develops Whitehead's arguments to justify interpretative approaches to knowledge. Examining their arguments reveals an analogous “crisis in the humanities” in which language or culture is substituted for the examination of subjectivity. Such misplaced concreteness risks omitting interpretive aspects of rhetorical inquiry in favor of the social or political when such social aspects only emerge within the field of subjective experience.
Investigating the Activity Design and Development Skills of Geography Teachers
Authors: Meydan Ali 
Published: February 2017

As geography program has been discussed with the constructivist approach, it has become necessary to enhance the lessons with activities. Geography teachers implement the activities in course books, on the one hand, and also use the activities other teachers prepared or the activities in social network websites, on the other. However, what is more important is teachers’ designing and developing activities considering the conditions of the school they carry on their duties, status of their students, environmental properties and geographical area depending upon acquisitions. The Ministry has also provided conveniences required for designing and developing activities taking the activities in course books and other sources as example.In this research, it was aimed to reveal skills of geography teachers upon designing and developing activities. The research was carried out by using the case study method, one of qualitative research approach and the opinions of geography's teachers working in Turkey in Nevsehir province, were consulted in the academic year of 2015-2016. The views of 32 geography teachers carrying on their duties in the center and districts of Nevsehir province were collected using semi-structured interview form. Each question in the form was accepted as a main theme, and sub-themes were created depending upon the views. It was concluded in the research that activities performed in the lessons had several benefits upon affective and cognitive development of children, course books, supplementary sources and internet websites were widely used for the activities, school sub-structure was adequate for organizing activities, teachers considered themselves as competent for designing activities, and teachers were able to develop the relationship of activity-acquisition in activities.
Professionals onder druk of professionele tegendruk? Gebalanceerde motivatie voor de publieke zaak in professionele publieke dienstverlening
Authors: van Loon Nina Mari , Noordegraaf Mirko 
Published: February 2017

Professionals under pressure or professional pressures? Balanced professional service motivation in public services
There are many practical and academic concerns about public professionals and the pressures and burdens they experience. Professional autonomies and skills are reduced, it is argued, as a result of businesslike new public management, in order to control service results. The solution is clear: organizational logics must be weakened, professional autonomies must be enlarged and professional ways of working must be ‘rescued’. In this paper we re-interpret this presumed problem by analyzing: the interaction between organizational and professional logics, by relating these to a broader institutional logic and by tracing the contribution of individual professional motivations. Professionals, it is shown, can be motivated by broader ambitions to serve society. Such public service motivation consists of three types of motives: rational/instrumental, affective and normative. Our results show that employees in different public professional services show different patterns of motives, which we mainly explain by relating their motivations to the nature of the services they render – whether they render people-changing or people-processing services. These institutional dimensions imply that professional work can be managed, not so much by businesslike ‘market logic’ but by strengthening the meaning of the work professionals do. Professional pressures against organizations do not have to be suppressed – they can be productively used.
Zonder beelden van geweld lijkt er geen sprake van oorlog
Authors: Zweers Louis 
Published: February 2017

De Blinde Vlek
The most relevant part of a discussion is not what is discussed but what cannot be spoken of. The real taboos are those for which it is taboo to call them taboos. The status quo defines itself as non-ideological while denouncing any challenge to itself as radical.Therefore the column ‘De Blinde Vlek’ frames the framers, politicizes the status quo and articulates what is not heard of.
Het bestrijden van uitkeringsfraude: mogelijkheden en moeilijkheden
Authors: Fenger M. , Voorberg W. 
Published: February 2017

Fighting fraud with social assistance benefits: possibilities and difficulties
This article focuses on the role of local municipalities in detecting and sanctioning benefit fraud, specifically fraud with social assistance benefits. Since the early 2000's, the government's attention for benefit fraud has been increased, resulting in the strengthening of the tasks and responsibilities of local municipalities in combatting and detecting fraud. There are indications that this has been successful: there is an increase in detection and the number of people that claims to offend the rules is decreasing. However, there is a significant amount of variety between municipalities in their performance with this regard. The authors argue that these differences are related to the design and implementation of local policies concerning the detection of benefit fraud. They offer several recommendations for more effective policies at the local level. These recommendations include a better use of available data and knowledge about the background of offenders and social assistance recipients.
Philosophy in Front of Religion
Authors: Sevo Dorian 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
From Plato to Aristotle, from Augustine to Aquinas from Pascal to Freud and Heidegger the world and philosophical thought has continually interpreted the human nature, the source of morality and religion, specifically what we call (metaphysics). Man of antiquity, the medieval, modern and contemporary has his attitude towards the sacred. But what is happening with the man of our age, what relation does it have nowadays with the sacred, what is his attitude and what are the reasons for this relationship with the sacred. All the above are part of this scientific research paper. To give readers an overview of attitudes of philosophical thought of different times in front of the sacred, what are its meanings at different times and how is the attitude toward the sacred today. Descriptive analysis of the philosophical and religious issues.
The Study of Risk in the Light of Social Changes: Beck and Giddens
Authors: Fiorenza Misale 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
U. Beck and Giddens play a leading role in the development of new academic research field called 'theory of the risk society' that studies the risk in the light of social, economic and political contexts in which it manifests itself. The German sociologist Ulrich Beck starts from the assumption that globalization and technological progress are changing not only the way of understanding and addressing the risk but also its very nature. In postmodern society, rapid technological progress, coupled with an increasingly dense network of global connections, goes hand in hand with the production of new risks, such as those generated by atomic, genetic and chemical. Anthony Giddens, like Ulrick Beck, believes that modernity has led to a deep uncertainty that previous eras had never known. The prospect of Giddens differs from that of Beck in relation to the concept of trust that the British sociologist reserves particularly important, according to him, the global expert knowledge must regain the lost confidence, considering the fact that the risk can also be understood as opportunities, such as stakes in order to achieve certain results. Confidence is a psychological condition necessary to cope with risks, which otherwise would stop the action, making anxiety attack.
Problems Encountered in High School Pupils, Who Have Divorced Parents
Authors: Kollçaku Merita 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
Adolescence and the problems teenagers face during this phase have a great impact in the teaching process. Divorce is one of the problems I have chosen to treat. This is due to the fact that divorce impacts the social-psychological-educational process of teenagers. The ways they experience the divorce of their parents are various. This depends on the area they live, their parents’ educational level, the relationship between parents after the divorce, the kind of relationship they had before, economic level, etc. Teenagers can display aggressive behaviour, disengage from learning, use various substances, etc. as a reaction to their parents. This is the object of my study. This research will use the qualitative method. The qualitative methods will consist in direct interviews with teenagers of the age-group of 14-18 years old, with teachers, psychologists and parents. Also consider those problems I might face during my study, on which the teenagers, or even their parents, might not express their opinion. As a conclusion we can say that based on the interviews it results that divorce has a great impact on the social-educational behaviour of teenagers.
The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Social Support
Authors: Metaj-Macula Albulena 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
The studty aims at examining and understanding the relation between Emotional Intelligence and Perceived social support in a sample of 525 students of the University of Prishtina. Great number of studies in the field of Emotional Intelligence, have shown that that this new construct of Intelligence, (EI), operates within the social context, therefore the examination of socially relevant variables is crucial for personal and social context. It has been hypothesised that Emotional Intelligence and it’s dimensions correlate positively with the Perceived Social Support and the relation between these two variables is a great predictor of positive interactions, interpersonal relationships and is very relevant for the educational context as well. The study is based on the ability and competency based model of the Emotional Intelligence construct. Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., Hall, L. E., Haggerty, D. J., Cooper, J. T., Golden, C. J., & Dornheim, L. (1998) and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farely, 1998) were administered to gather data in order to test the hypotheisis. The preliminary findings support theoretical and empirical perspective, and appear to be promising by emphasizing the Emotional Intelligence consutruct as an added value for the educational context, in specific for youth interactions and their wellbeing.
Social and Regional Policies of the European Community for an Integrated Equilibrium
Authors: Bekteshi Enertila 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
EC is considered a «bridge» between Europe and civil society. The councilors represent directly the interest of EC’s civil society. The Committee plays either the role of the welcoming structure for some forums of the participating democracy or the role of warrantor for a pluralist model that strengthens the legitimacy of the decision-making process. Thanks to the role granted by the Treaty, its structure and competences, ESC comprises a privileged place for the representation, information and expression of the organized civil society; by this, it admits the operation of the only “field” of its kind between Europe and the citizens. In case the Committee of the Regions represents whether originally or not a fundamental step in the development of the “Europe of the Regions” it is not very clear. The example of federal states of Germany used by the Committee of the Regions as an expression tool of their opinion at European level, is successful. However, it should be mentioned that CoR has achieved to be an independent body in a short period of time, able to reflect essential influencing opinions on regional issues.
Total Factor Productivity and Most Favored Nations Tariffs: Evidence from Croatia
Authors: Gjini Kladiola 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
One of the most important topics in empirical trade research is the link between productivity and trade liberalization. In this paper we will focus on the effect of MFN tariffs in the total factor productivity of Croatian firms over the period 2003-2012. This period is characterized by an increased openness toward European Union for Croatian firms. The aim of this paper is to present evidence on the negative link between productivity and tariffs by using the Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) method to estimate productivity of firms. Then we will use TFP as a dependent variable for firm characteristics and trade policy indicator (MFN tariffs). The results are in line with most other studies, confirming the negative relationship between TFP and tariffs. The results show that exporting firms have a higher productivity than non-exporting. We also conclude that up to a certain age productivity increases and then decreases.
The Impact of EU Political Conditionality on Minority Rights in Western Balkans: Insights from the Croatian Enlargement
Authors: Berberi Odeta 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
The present paper addresses the following questions: In what way have the European Union (EU) political conditionality affect minority rights in the Western Balkan (WB) region? Did the EU political conditionality on minority issues succeed in addressing the stateness problems in Croatia? With the term “impact” I mean the absorption of formal and informal rules, procedures, norms and practices and I am going to analyze the relation European Union/Western Balkans as unidirectional i.e. the transposing of EU rules on accession countries. In the first part of this work I will analyse the EU standard of minority rights (internal dimension) and compare it with the norm ‘content’ in its external dimension. In the second part, the EU approach concerning minority rights toward the WB region, will be explored. In order to do so I will analyse the Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges produced by the European Commission (EC) from 2004. In the above document the EC emphasize the main challenges and set out the priorities for the whole region, considered as a single entity. In Western Balkans region we do have an example of recent accession. For this reason, the empirical analysis of this paper will focus on the pre-accession process of one of the new member states, Croatia. In the end I will draw some conclusions concerning the future prospects of the WB region concerning the EU conditionality and the real impact of minority right in the process.
Multidimensional Poverty in Côte d'Ivoire: A Measure by the Fuzzy Set Theory
Authors: Kouassi Patrick Franklin , Seka Anderson Stéphane 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
Poverty is a complex concept, whose multidimensional aspect in Côte d’Ivoire. We rely on the Study of Living Standards (LSMS. 2008) allows us to understand the phenomenon by an approach of fuzzy sets. The results show that by measuring the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 45.36% of Ivoirians are structurally poor households in 2008, with differences at the departmental level, the place of residence and gender of household head, and at the nine (9) dimensions. Furthermore, examination of one-dimensional poverty indices by dimension contributing to the state of household deprivation, shows different profiles. This implies that strategies of poverty reduction cannot rely on a single instrument, or to cover a single area, but must use a set of measures affecting its different dimensions.
Microfinance, the Role and Impact on Macroeconomic Indicators of the Country. Case study: Albania
Authors: Doçi Esmeralda 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
Microcredit or microfinance are one of the most important novelties on development policy in the last 25 years. Most of the recent studies are based on the impact that microfinance has on poverty reduction or on the income on macroeconomic level. Due to lack of data on microfinance on a macro level, studies of their impact on poverty are limited. However, they have recently analysed the link between microeconomics and microfinance activity, which has shown significant connectivity between the operations of Micro Financial Institutions and Macroeconomic indicators.Microfinance in Albania has developed and this is demonstrated by the presence of Micro Financial Institutions which have contributed to poverty reduction and to economic development in general, and to agricultural development in particular. The purpose of the study is to analyse the importance and the relationship between microfinance and macroeconomic indicators, the impact that microfinance has on macroeconomic indicators. Based on previous literature researchers and empirical studies, this study aims to analyse empirically the relationship between the gross portofolio of MFIs and macroeconomic factors. Specifically, to analyse whether a country with high level of credit portfolio provided by Micro Financial Institutions has low poverty and macroeconomic factors taken into analysis, considering the endogeneity of the gross portfolio of Micro Fianancial Institutions. The empirical evaluation and analysis is carried out through econometric evaluation using the EViews program.
Execution of Sentence of Life Imprisonment in Albania, in Violation of Fundamental Human Rights
Authors: Thomai Esmeralda 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
The goal of this article and of the analysis itself on which it is based, is to identify weaknesses in penitentiary legislation in force in the Republic of Albania, in order that the penal policy of the Albanian state, should respect the principles on which will be based to be effective. At the end of 2015 the number of persons who have been sentence to life imprisonment in Albanian prisons has been 159 people, convicted in 2895 of the total prison who were serving a sentence in Albanian prisons. The number of those sentenced to capital punishment has increased, compared with the statistics of 3-4 years ago. Albanian law on the punishment of life imprisonment presents serious problems in the modalities of execution of the punishment, violating the right and fundamental freedom of man, that lives in liberty, and break up the Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits placing under cruel punishments, inhuman and degrading. The Republic of Albania will need as soon as possible to change its legislation concerning the category of persons sentenced to life imprisonment. Condemned to life imprisonment, according to each individual case and referred to progress in the sentence, in view of the disappearance of the potential for recidivism and in view of correction, after the expiry of a time limit prescribed by law,they should have the right and opportunity in court jurisdiction to address the real execution of criminal sentences for the benefit of supervised freedom or conditional one. In this way, the hope of life again in freedom, will make the convicts to life imprisonment interested to educate themselves, by all the values that will be in accordance with social rules.
The Justice System in Albania – Analysis of Progress Report 2016
Authors: Hasmuça Gerta 
Published: February 2017

Abstract
Albania is one of the new democracies in the South-Eastern Europe which hopes to be granted the status of membership to the European Union. Since June 2014, Albania is a candidate for accession to European Union, after it fulfilled the requirements based on Stabilization and Association Agreement the negotiations of whom started in 2003 and was signed in 2006. Even though the formal application of Albania is dated in 2009, the country has undergone through a difficult process in order to fulfill the pre-requirements especially in the justice system in Albania. The level of corruption is considered the main problem which was highlighted also in the other Progress Reports of Albania and it is still considered to be an important impediment to Albanian accession to EU. Differently from the other progress reports, in the progress report 2016 (Albania 2016 Report), there are noted some improvements consisting mainly in the adoption of a set of constitutional amendments which was the starting point to thorough justice reform. Even though initially such process was faced with the severe diversion of opinions of Albanian main parties, they finally reached an agreement with the recommendations provided by the Venice Commission at the Council of Europe. The report considers as a positive step the newly adopted law on the re-evaluation of judges, prosecutors and legal advisors. Another positive aspect of the law is the re-evaluation (vetting) based on 3 criteria: integrity through assets assessment, background assessment (inappropriate links with organized crime) and professional competence. Such improvements weren’t sufficient enough to permit to Albania to start negotiations with EU as there are still many obstacles to overcome.