Suchergebnisse

Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales. Maestría en Derecho de la Información ; The right to information is a fundamental human right that is enshrined in Article 6 of the Constitution of the United Mexican States, as such the State is obliged to ensure that right. But what's the most effective way to ensure the right to information In Mexico there have been some measures to facilitate the exercise of the right to information, but the legislative and institutional developments that have been achieved have produced quite widespread awareness of this right and what is clear from some international indicators have not produced the expected results. Ignorance of the law is a reality in Mexico despite protecting a fundamental aspect of the human being as is the ability to achieve communication with peers and a right that is not known or not understood simply can not be exercised so adequate. Human rights exist to enforce them, is so important theoretical development and its implementation and effectiveness, " in order to engage individuals in the defense of their rights, they know it must be organized and thus must know before their rights and know and be able to use them. From these it is concluded that it is necessary to disseminate notions of Rights and its different types. "There is no way a human right, in this case the right to information, effective without going through a process of socialization. From this point the importance of the present research that addresses the right to information from another perspective, assessing the current level of socialization of the right to information in Mexico in order to propose the means to achieve it is clear that this right is a matter of public domain and be assimilated by members of a community making own rule of life. ; El derecho a la información es un derecho fundamental del ser humano que se encuentra consagrado en el artículo 6º de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, como tal el Estado está obligado a garantizar ese derecho. Pero ¿cuál es la manera más efectiva de garantizar el derecho a la información? En México se han realizado algunas acciones encaminadas a facilitar el ejercicio del derecho a la información, sin embargo los avances legislativos e institucionales que se han logrado no han producido del todo un conocimiento generalizado de este derecho y por lo que se desprende de algunos indicadores internacionales tampoco se han producido los resultados esperados. El desconocimiento de este derecho es una realidad en México a pesar de que protege un aspecto primordial del ser humano como lo es la capacidad de lograr una comunicación con sus pares y un derecho que no se conoce o no se comprende simplemente no puede ejercitarse de manera adecuada. Los derechos humanos existen para hacerlos valer, es tan importante su desarrollo teórico como su implementación y eficacia, "con el fin de lograr la participación de los individuos en la defensa de sus derechos, es forzoso que sepan organizarse y para ello deben conocer antes sus derechos, así como saber y poder utilizarlos. De estos se concluye que es preciso difundir las nociones sobre los Derechos y sus diferentes tipologías." No hay manera de que un derecho humano, en este caso el derecho a la información, sea eficaz sin pasar por un proceso de socialización. De este punto se desprende la importancia de realizar el presente trabajo de investigación que aborde el derecho a la información desde otra perspectiva, evaluando el grado de socialización actual de derecho a la información en México para posteriormente proponer los medios adecuados para lograr que dicho derecho sea un tema de dominio público y que sea asimilado por los miembros de una comunidad convirtiéndolo en propia regla de vida.

Alasdair Gray is now an established figure in the Scottish literary scene and has numerous claims to be considered an important voice writing in English. First Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981) and then 1982 Janine (1984) contributed to the recognition of Gray as one of the founding fathers of the new Scottish writing and as a figure of importance in international contemporary fiction due to his innovative, experimental and postmodernist novels. As the title of this dissertation - "Alasdair Gray's 1982 Janine (1984): A Postmodernist Scottish Novel" - suggests, it aims at analysing the author's second novel, 1982 Janine (1984), in a thematic and formal perspective, in order to justify the choice of the terms - Postmodernist and Scottish - to classify this novel. 1982 Janine projects a world through Jock McLeish's mind and is a powerful stream-of-consciousness narrative. Jock is an alcoholic who lives a personal crisis and, therefore, tries to escape from his depressing reality through sexual fantasies and political diatribes. During a single night in a Scottish hotel room, he drinks and dreams, and spends the whole night alone with his fantasies and fears, his memories and hopes. In Chapter 11, the most daring experimental section of the novel, Jock attempts to commit suicide by taking an overdose of tablets with alcohol but fails. Following this, he decides to review his life and make for a new beginning; the novel thus closing with an optimistic note. Also, the narrative is based on a constant interweaving of sex fantasy with political satire, that is, it is through his protagonist that Gray manages to convey the state of Scotland as well as the concerns and aspirations of the Scottish people and then, proceed to a political and social critique. This dissertation appears structured in three chapters. In Chapter I - "Alasdair Gray: A Postmodernist Scottish Writer" - I present Gray as a powerful postmodernist writer who also sees himself as a Scottish author, and more particularly as a Glaswegian, who concentrates on Scottish subject matter in his literary work. In a first section, I offer a brief survey of the Scottish literary scene from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, in order to understand Gray's choice of setting and themes and to check his influence or indebtedness to previous Scottish authors. As 1982 Janine is also a good example of selfconscious experimental writing, in a second section, I present various seminal fictional works that introduced and developed experimentalism in British fiction, in order to evaluate the influence of modernist developments in form and technique on recent experimental writing. The third section consists of an introduction to Gray's work for he is not only a novelist, but also an artist, a playwright, a poet, an activist and a scholar. Chapter II - "Postmodernist Features in 1982 Janine" - aims at listing and examining the postmodernist devices that the novel includes, in what content and form are concerned. On the one hand, the use of a developed type of the modernist stream of consciousness, the presence of a protagonist who feels entrapped in a specific system, the quest for freedom, the incoherence and fragmentation of time, the nonchronological order of the narrative, the blending of fantasy and "reality", as well as the importance of the Scottish material are definitely current aspects within postmodernist literature that can be found in Gray's novel. On the other hand, the handling of literary self-conscious devices, such as typographical experimentation, presence of metafiction and intertextuality, and inclusion of an Epilogue, are likewise among recurrent postmodernist features. As the title - "A Narratological Analysis of 1982 Janine" - evidences, Chapter III offers a description of the mechanics of the narrative and its functioning in order to better understand the narrative technique of postmodernist fiction. This study is based primarily on Gérard Genette's theoretical framework and terminology, presented in Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, an analytical tool that allows me to provide a more objective and scientific analysis. Hence, I follow the Genettian division of narrative discourse in Time, Mood and Voice while examining the novel. Finally, I proceed to a description of the intertextual relationships 1982 Janine establishes with other texts. ; Universidade da Madeira

En Colombia, la Contribución de Valorización ha sido definida como un "recurso de orden tributario, ubicado dentro de las llamadas contribuciones especiales cuya característica más significativa es la relación de causalidad entre el beneficio específico que se recibe de la administración pública y el tributo que debe pagarse"1. En esencia, se trata de un tributo que se orienta a recobrar los gastos en los cuales han incurrido las entidades públicas para el desarrollo de obras públicas establecidas en la ley en razón al beneficio que éstas aportan a la propiedad raíz. Entre nosotros, el antecedente más remoto lo encontramos en la Ley 23 de 1887, normativa que exigía el pago de expensas para la realización de obras necesarias para impedir o mitigar las inundaciones que pudieran sufrir los propietarios de los predios contiguos a los ríos y cuerpos de agua que bañaran dos o más departamentos. En la actualidad, el concepto se ha extendido a un número mayor de obras y constituye para muchas entidades territoriales, una excelente forma de apalancar su desarrollo en materia de infraestructura que, de otra forma, serían imposible de financiar; caso específico, se enseña en la ciudad de Bogotá, eje central de nuestro estudio. En efecto, el presente trabajo se propone revisar los componentes básicos de la Contribución de Valorización en el Distrito Capital y en ello analizar las consecuencias de orden jurídico que se originan a propósito de la aplicación del silencio administrativo positivo como forma de sancionar la administración morosa en su tarea de resolver los recursos presentados por los contribuyentes en vía gubernativa en igual forma a la establecida en el Estatuto Tributario Nacional; evento introducido en el Distrito Capital en el Acuerdo 180 de 2005 y que plantea serios reparos en términos de eficacia jurídica en la medida que los objetivos propuestos en la norma se ven alterados en su aplicación por parte de la administración pública o vía interpretación del poder jurisdiccional en claro detrimento de los derechos del contribuyente y en suma del Estado Social de derecho que nos rige. ; Abstract.In Colombia, the "special assessment tax" has been defined as a financial charge whose most significant feature is represented by the causal nexus between the specific benefit which is adquired by the property owner from government actions and the tribute to be paid". In essence, it is a tribute laid to recover the expenses and actions undertaken by public entities for the development of public works due to the benefit they provide to real estate. "Special assessment tax" in Colombia comes from Law 23 of 1887. This legislation required the payment of expenses for carrying out works to prevent or mitigate flooding that could suffer the owners of the properties adjacent to rivers and water bodies that bathe two or more departments. Today, the concept has been extended to a larger number of works and is, for many authorities, a great way to leverage its infrastructure development that otherwise would be impossible to finance as it happens in Bogotá city, the core of our studio. Indeed, this research review the structural aspects of "special assessment tax" in Bogotá city and the analysis of the consequences that occur with the implementation of positive administrative silence as a way to punish the administration's negligence as it happens in national tax code. That situation brought about with the 180 Agreement of 2005 and has showed serious objections in terms of legal effect due to disuse of the law objectives which have been altered in their application by the public administration or misunderstanding by jurisdictional power in detriment of the rights of taxpayers and the rule of law that governs us. ; Maestría

Mediante la sanción del decreto legislativo nº 104 del 2 de julio de 2010 Italia ha puesto en vigencia, desde el 16.9.2010, su primer Código Procesal Administrativo. Hubieron de transcurrir 120 años para que las reglas dispersas e incompletas de la materia, encontraran el marco orgánico imprescindible para sustanciar un proceso justo, impuesto fundamentalmente por el artículo 111 de la Constitución de 1948: imparcialidad del juez, igualdad de las partes y duración razonable del juicio. La independencia de los jueces administrativos (Tribunales Administrativos Regionales y Consejo de Estado) se encuentra garantizada por el control que lleva a cabo el Consejo de Presidencia de la Justicia Administrativa. Su imparcialidad se asegura por las disposiciones sobre excusación y recusación. En cuanto respecta a la igualdad de las partes el Código, en línea con las disposiciones constitucionales y comunitarias, contiene disposiciones que la consagran sin cortapisas. Existen, empero, algunos aspectos que generan reparos. La ausencia del juez hasta la vista de "discusión final" genera el riesgo de que se advierta recién en ese momento que la fase de instrucción está incompleta y que se presenten excepciones que obliguen a retroceder el trámite provocando demoras. Las acciones que puede intentar el actor son: declarativa de nulidad, constitutiva y de condena; correspondiendo resaltar la existencia de disposiciones que habilitan al juez para designar un "comisario" que, en caso de no acatamiento de lo resuelto, procederá a ejecutar la sentencia en forma directa. Se ahorra, de esta manera, el tiempo y los gastos que insume la promoción de un juicio ejecutivo. Conforme lo ha destacado el Consejo de Estado en fecha reciente, el Código ha significado un extraordinario adelanto que deja atrás el juicio limitado a la pretensión impugnatoria de actos oficiales, comprendiendo una pluralidad de acciones, que incluyen las condenas de reintegración y de resarcimiento. Se trata, a no dudarlo, de una profunda y saludable transformación del proceso administrativo acorde a las exigencias de una tutela del ciudadano completa y efectiva. ; Through the enactment of the legislative Decree Nº 104 on July 2, 2010 Italy has enforced, since September 16, 2010, its first Administrative Procedural Code. It had to pass 120 years so that scattered and incomplete rules of matter find the necessary organic framework to substantiate a fair process, primarily imposed by article 111 of the Constitution of 1948: impartiality of the judge, equality of the parts and reasonable duration of the trial. The independence of administrative judges (Council of State and Regional Administrative Courts) is guaranteed by the control carried out by the Presidency Council of Administrative Justice. Impartiality is ensured by provisions on exculpation and recusation. As regards the equality of the parts, the Code, in line with the constitutional and community provisions, contains dispositions which enshrine it without restrictions. However there are some aspects that generate objections. The absence of the judge till sight of "final discussion" creates the risk of warning at that moment that the preliminary stage is incomplete and it submits exceptions that oblige to roll back the procedure, causing delays. The actions that the actor can try are: declaration of nullity, constitutive and condemnation declaration; corresponding highlight the existence of provisions which empower the Court to assign a "commissary", who in the case of non compliance of resolution, will proceed to execute the statement directly. In this way, it saves the time and expense that takes the promotion of an executive process. According the State Council has emphasized recently, the Code has meant an extraordinary advancement that leaves behind the trial that limited pretension of impugnation of official acts, comprising a plurality of actions, including sentences of reintegration and recovery. This is, no doubt, a deep and healthy transformation of the administrative process according to the requirements of a guardianship of citizens complete and effective. ; Publicado en la sección Derecho Administrativo. ; Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased strongly since 2003, especially into the agribusiness sector. This development has rarely been analysed in recent literature. Therefore, this thesis aims at analysing different aspect connected with FDI flows in the Agribusiness sector such as the different mechanisms that lead to the appearance of FDI flows and the impacts that they can have on host countries in particular on their agribusiness sector. Africa and South America are chosen as major host regions and the EU15 as a major region which invests abroad. The study is structured in four main parts. First a general introduction on the global development of FDI flows and the theoretical placement of this study is given. The objectives of the thesis are stated and the three main analyses are shortly summarised regarding the motivation, the approach and the main results as well as the specific limitations. Key findings regarding the overall scope of the thesis are derived and general limitations identified. Finally, the perspectives for further research are stated. Following, the specific performance characteristics of European agribusiness firms are identified through which a differentiation between firms that invest abroad and those that do not is possible. It is concluded that European Multinational Enterprises are characterised through a higher productivity and lower labour and input costs. Further, they are larger in size and have a higher debt to equity ratio. The subsequent analysis identifies the host country characteristics necessary for attracting a certain form of FDI flows (either vertical or horizontal). Thereby, the Mediterranean and the Mercosur countries are chosen as host countries for EU15 investment flows. The regression results indicate that mainly vertical FDI flows (efficiency seeking) appear between the EU15 and the Mediterranean countries whereas horizontal FDI flows (market seeking) dominate into the Mercosur countries. The implications on the trade flows between the home and host countries seem to be complementary for the Mediterranean countries and substitutional for the Mercosur countries. Finally, an analysis on the impact of highly increasing FDI inflows on a specific host country – Ethiopia – is carried out. Theory points out that depending on the existence of transmission mechanisms FDI flows can lead to economic growth and through this to the reduction of poverty. The economic and social impact of FDI inflows on Ethiopia is mainly positive. Poverty can be reduced through high FDI inflows. Existing environmental conflicts on land and water are bound to increase if no policy framework is implemented. ; Ausländische Direktinvestitionen in der Agrarindustrie Seit 2003 ist weltweit ein deutlicher Anstieg ausländischer Direktinvestitionen (FDI) zu beobachten. Dies trifft vor allem für den Agrarsektor zu. Eine detaillierte Analyse dieser Entwicklung hat bislang in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur nur begrenzt stattgefunden. Aus diesem Grund beabsichtigt die folgende Arbeit, verschiedene Aspekte von FDI im Agrarsektor zu analysieren. Dabei wird unter anderem auf die verschiedenen Mechanismen, die zu einem verstärkten Auftreten von FDI im Agrarsektor führen, sowie die (sozio-)ökonomischen Effekte, welche diese in den Zielländern hervorrufen, eingegangen. Als Zielregionen im Agrarsektor werden Afrika und Südamerika identifiziert. Dem entgegen stellt sich die EU15 als einer der bedeutendsten Investoren im Agrarsektor dar. Die folgende Abhandlung ist in vier Abschnitte unterteilt. Zu Beginn wird eine allgemeine Erläuterung zur globalen Entwicklung von FDI gegeben, welche durch eine theoretische Einordnung der Arbeit, deren Zielsetzung und der darin enthaltenen Analysen ergänzt wird. Abschließend werden die Ergebnisse der Arbeit und die zugrunde liegenden Einschränkungen der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungsmethoden diskutiert. Darauf folgend werden Eigenschaften europäischer Agrarunternehmen identifiziert, welche eine grundsätzliche Differenzierung zwischen Unternehmen, die FDI tätigen (multinationale Firmen) und solchen, die keine FDI tätigen, ermöglichen. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass multinationale Firmen durch eine höhere Produktivität und geringere Lohn- und Inputkosten gekennzeichnet sind. Des Weiteren sind sie größer und haben einen höheren Fremdkapitalanteil. Die daran anschließende Analyse identifiziert die Eigenschaften verschiedener Zielregionen von FDI Strömen, welche den Anreiz für FDI geben (sowohl vertikal als auch horizontal). Dabei werden die Mittelmeer- und Mercosur-Länder als Zielregionen für FDI aus der EU15 untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Regressionsanalyse weisen darauf hin, dass vor allem vertikale FDI Flüsse (efficiency seeking) zwischen der EU15 und den Mittelmeerländern stattfinden, wohingegen horizontale FDI Flüsse (market seeking) im Falle der Mercosur-Länder dominieren. Die Einflüsse auf den Handel zwischen den Ursprungs- und Zielregionen scheinen daher komplementär für die Mittelmeer- Länder und substitutional für die Mercosur-Länder zu sein. Der letzte Analyseaspekt beleuchtet den Einfluss stark steigender FDI Ströme auf eine spezifische Zielregion: Äthiopien. Die zugrunde liegende Theorie deutet darauf hin, dass, abhängig von der Existenz von Transmissionsmechanismen, FDI zu ökonomischem Wachstum und dadurch zur Reduktion von Armut beitragen können. Die detaillierte Betrachtung von Äthiopien bestätigt diese These. Armut kann durch FDI Ströme reduziert werden und die ökonomischen Effekte sind überwiegend positiv. Demgegenüber treten verstärkt Umweltkonflikte auf und werden sich weiter verstärken, falls kein entsprechendes politisches Rahmenwerk implementiert wird.

Die mit dem Reaktorunglück von Fukushima zusammenhängenden haftungsrechtlichen Fragen hat Julius Weitzdörfer in ZJapanR 31 (2011) eingehend untersucht. In Ergänzung seiner Überlegungen werden in diesem Beitrag die internationalen Aspekte des Haftungsfalls dargelegt. Auf der Grundlage der internationalen Atomhaftungsübereinkommen (Pariser Übereinkommen, Wiener Übereinkommen, Übereinkommen überergänzende Entschädigung für nuklearen Schaden) ist das Atomhaftungsrecht eine inhaltlich international weitgehend vereinheitlichte Rechtsmaterie. Zwar gehört Japan keinem der Übereinkommen an, aber deren Grundsätze haben Eingang in die nationale japanische Gesetzgebung und in die Gesetzgebungen zahlreicher anderer Nicht-Vertragsstaaten gefunden. Das japanische Atomhaftungsrecht ist auch ohne förmliche vertragliche Einbindung ein substantiell integrierter Bestandteil des internationalen Atomhaftungsregimes. Die Abwicklung der Fukushima-Schadensfälle ist somit zugleich ein Testfall für die internationalen Haftungsgrundsätze. Zu den tragenden internationalen Haftungsprinzipienzählen u.a. die einheitliche Definition des die Haftung auslösenden nuklearen Ereignisses, der Grundsatz der Haftung ohne Verschulden des Inhabers einer Kernanlage und die ausschließliche Haftung des Inhabers der Kernanlage (rechtliche Kanalisierung der Haftung). Betrachtet man die Entsprechungen dieser und der übrigen Haftungsgrundsätze im japanischen Recht genauer, so können sich Zweifel ergeben, ob der japanische Gesetzgeber diese Grundsätze tatsächlich in jeder Hinsicht so versteht, wie sie international ausgelegt werden. So schließt offenbar der Grundsatz der ausschließlichen Haftung des Inhabers der Kernanlage im japanischen Recht Haftungskonkurrenzen nicht vollständig aus, obwohl gerade das der Zweck des Grundsatzes der rechtlichen Haftungskanalisierung ist. Problematisch ist der Haftungsausschluss des japanischen Rechts für Schäden, die Folgen einer schweren Naturkatastrophe außergewöhnlicher Art sind. Dieser Haftungsausschluss ist ebenso wie der für kriegerische Ereignisse rechtlich zweifelhaft und praktisch wertlos. Er sollte aus dem japanischen Recht und auch aus den Übereinkommen gestrichen werden. International beispielhaft für nukleare Massenverfahren kann dagegen das im japanischen Recht angebotene institutionalisierte Streitschlichtungsverfahren bei der Geltendmachung von Schadensersatzansprüchen werden. Es kann die Ersatzleistung beschleunigen und so zur Wiederherstellung des sozialen und politischen Friedens beitragen. Japan scheint den Beitritt zu dem Übereinkommen über ergänzende Entschädigung für nuklearen Schaden zu erwägen. Dieser wäre nur möglich, wenn sich die japanische Gesetzgebung im Einklang mit dem Annex zu dem Übereinkommen befindet. Ob das der Fall ist, ist fraglich. ; In ZJapanR/J.Japan.L. 31 (2011), Julius Weitzdörfer published a thorough treatise on the liability issues connected with the Fukushima nuclear accident. As a complement to his considerations, this article deals with the international aspects of the liability case. Nuclear liability law is based on the international nuclear liability Conventions (i.e. the Paris Convention, the Vienna Convention, and the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage) and is thus a field of law that is internationally harmonized to a great extent. Japan is not a party to any of the Conventions, but those principles nevertheless became elements of the national legislation of Japan and of numerous other non-contracting states. Even without formal treaty obligations, the Japanese nuclear liability law forms an integral part of the international nuclear liability regime. Compensating Fukushima claims at the national Japanese level also means testing the international liability principles. Among the leading international liability principles are a unified definition of the 'nuclear incident' that triggers liability, the principle of liability without fault on the part of the operator of a nuclear installation, and the principle of exclusive liability of the operator of a nuclear installation (legal channelling of liability). If one looks at the corresponding concepts of the Japanese law a little more closely, there might be doubts as to whether the Japanese legislator understands these principles identically to the international interpretation. In particular, the exclusive liability of the operator of a nuclear installation does not entirely exclude claims for compensation based on other liability provisions. But that is exactly the purpose of legal channelling of liability. The exoneration under Japanese law from liability for damage caused by a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character is problematic. This exoneration and the exoneration from liability for damage due to hostilities, etc. are both legally unsound and, from a practical and political point of view, without any use. They should be deleted from both the Japanese law and the international conventions. The Japanese nuclear liability law, on the other hand, provides a claims handling procedure that might be used as an example at the international level. The law establishes a Claims Reconciliation Committee to optionally settle claims out of court. Especially in mass tort litigations, such a procedure might speed up the payment of compensation and contribute to regaining social and political peace. There are signals that Japan will adhere to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage in the near future. This would require its nuclear liability legislation to comply with the Annex to that Convention. It is questionable whether there is such compliance.

In the last two decades, many cities have faced changes in their economic basis and therefore adopted an entrepreneurial approach in the municipal administration accompanied by city marketing strategies. Brazilian cities have also adopted this approach, like the case of Florianópolis. Florianópolis has promoted advertising campaigns on the natural resources of the Island of Santa Catarina as well as on its quality of life in comparison to other cities. However, due also to such campaigns, it has experienced a great demographic growth and, consequently, infrastructural and social problems. Nevertheless, it seems to have a good image within the national urban scenario and has been commonly considered an "urban consumption dream" for many Brazilians. This paradoxical situation is the reason why it has been chosen as the research object in this dissertation. Thus, the questions of this research are: is there a gap between the promise and the performance of the city of Florianópolis? If so, can tourists and residents recognize it? And finally, how can this gap be demonstrated? Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to propose a conformity assessment approach applicable to cities, by which the content of city advertisement campaigns can be compared to its performance indicators and satisfaction degree of its consumers. Therefore, this approach is composed by different methods: literature and legislation reviews, semi-structured and structured interviews with experts and inhabitants, an urban centrality development analysis, a qualitative discourse analysis of advertising material (including images), a qualitative content analysis of newspaper reports and a questionnaire survey. Finally, the theses are: yes, there is a gap between promise and performance of Florianópolis; this promise is a result of city marketing campaigns which advertise its natural features and at the same time hiding its urban aspects, supported by some political and private actors, mainly interested in the development of tourism and real estate market in the city; this gap has been already recognized by tourists and more intensively by residents; the selected methods worked as a kind of conformity assessment for cities and tourist destinations; and last but not least, since there is a gap, it designates the practice of "make-up urbanism". Research limitations are the short time frame covered by this analysis and small and non-representative samples. However, its relevance lies in the attempt to fill in two disciplinary lacunas: a conformity assessment approach for cities and the creation of knowledge about Florianópolis and its further presentation at an international level, on the one hand. On the other hand, the transfer of this approach to other cities would help explaining a (common) contemporary urban phenomenon and appeal for more ethical conduct and transparency in the practices of city marketing. ; In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten sahen sich viele Städte zunehmend einer Veränderung ihrer ökonomischen Basis ausgesetzt, was zum Aufgreifen unternehmerischer Ansätze mit Strategien des Stadtmarketings führte. Brasilianische Städte wie Florianópolis haben diesen Ansatz ebenfalls adaptiert, u.a. durch Werbekampagnen über die natürlichen Ressourcen der Insel Santa Catarina und eine höhere Lebensqualität. Diese trugen allerdings auch zu einem demografischen Wachstum mit begleitenden infrastrukturellen und sozialen Problemen bei. Dennoch scheint Florianópolis insgesamt ein gutes Image zu haben. Diese paradoxe Situation ist der Grund, weshalb die Stadt als Fallstudie für die vorliegende Dissertation ausgewählt wurde. Die Forschungsfragen sind deshalb folgende: Gibt es eine Diskrepanz zwischen dem Versprechen und der tatsächlichen Performanz der Stadt Florianópolis? Falls ja, können Touristen und Einwohner diese wahrnehmen? Der Hauptfokus liegt auf dem Erarbeiten einer auf Städte anwendbaren Konformitätsbewertung, durch die der Inhalt von städtischen Werbekampagnen mit ihren tatsächlichen Performanzindikatoren und dem Zufriedenheitsgrad ihrer Konsumenten verglichen werden kann. Der Ansatz basiert dabei auf mehreren Methoden: der Auswertung von Literatur und Gesetzen, halbstrukturierten und strukturierten Interviews mit Experten und Einwohnern der Stadt Florianópolis, einer Analyse über die Entwicklung der Stadtzentralität, der qualitativen Diskursanalyse von Werbematerial (inkl. Bildern), der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse von Zeitungsartikeln sowie einer Umfrage mittels Fragebogen. Die Thesen sind dabei folgende: 1. Ja, es gibt eine Diskrepanz zwischen Versprechen und tatsächlicher Performanz der Stadt Florianópolis. 2. Dieses Versprechen ist das Resultat von Stadtmarketingkampagnen, welche ihre natürlichen Eigenschaften bewerben, dabei aber gleichzeitig urbane Aspekte verbergen. 3. Die ermittelte Diskrepanz wurde bereits von Touristen und Einwohnern wahrgenommen. 4. Die ausgewählten Methoden stellen eine Konformitätsbewertung für Städte und Touristenziele dar. 5. Da es eine Diskrepanz gibt, ist diese bestimmend für die Praxis einer 'Make-up-Urbanistik'. Als Forschungsgrenzen sind der enge analysierte Zeitraum sowie verhältnismäßig kleine und nicht repräsentative Beispiele zu benennen. Die Relevanz der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt jedoch in dem Versuch, zwei disziplinäre Leerräume zu füllen: Zum einen durch den Ansatz einer Konformitätsbewertung für Städte im Allgemeinen mit der Generierung von Wissen über Florianópolis im Besonderen sowie zum anderen durch den Vorschlag einer weiterführenden Übertragung dieses Ansatzes auf andere Städte, um ein allgemeines urbanes Phänomen dieser Zeit zu erklären und dadurch Anreize zu schaffen für mehr Ethik und Transparenz in der Praxis des Stadtmarketings.

Цикл «Образ Неаполя в творческом сознании А.С. Пушкина» состоит из четырех статей. В нем предпринята попытка реконструировать персональный неаполитанский миф А.С. Пушкина и описать неаполитанский текст его письменного наследия на основании прямых и косвенных упоминаний топонима в пушкинских текстах (лирика Южного периода и конца 1820-х гг., поэма «Бахчисарайский фонтан», десятая глава романа «Евгений Онегин», замысел поэмы о Клеопатре, повесть «Египетские ночи»). К исследованию широко привлекаются материалы русской периодики 1810-1830-х гг. и русско-неаполитанские травелоги (Ф.П. Лубяновский, А.А. Шаховской, В.Б. Броневский, Н.В. Всеволожский, М.П. Погодин, Н.И. Греч и др.), а также эпистолярные свидетельства о Неаполе русских писателей 1820-х гг. ; The third paper of the cycle is devoted to Egyptian Nights, which is one of the selected A.S. Pushkin's narratives featuring the toponym of Naples in the open text of an anthropological manuscript where one of the main characters is a Neapolitan improvisator. By presenting the main character as a native of Naples rather than a mere Italian, Pushkin provided the text with essential characterological meaning, which, in its turn, did not impede further generation of meaning in its various forms. The paper focuses on reconstruction of meaning concerning associative overtones of the toponym of Naples in creative consciousness of the Russian poet. Therefore, ethnographic and folkways descriptions of Russian travelogues can serve as reliable and expressive evidence of psychological characteristics of Pushkin's hero. As to the ideological aspect, automatically assumed in a merely political context where the first associative chains of meaning were generated in connection with the sound of the word "Naples" in Pushkin's consciousness, it is necessary to explain the historical time of creation of Egyptian Nights. This question may help to shed light on this unfinished piece of Pushkin's writing, at least, in the hypothetical modality, which, for some reason, seems to be avoided by contemporary researchers. It is a question of principle with reference to Pushkin not only as a person keen on "iteming time in the calendar" but also as the author operating the category of historical time as an important associative sense-bearing factor. Characterological details of the image of the Neapolitan communicated in Pushkin's narrative and analysed against the associative background of folkways fragments of the Russian Neapolitana of 1800-1825 (Ch. Dupaty's, F.P. Lubyanovsky's, V.B. Bronevsky's, A.A. Shakhovskoy's itineraries) reveal undeniable conformity to the common opinion of Russian travellers about the Neapolitan variant of the Italian national character. On the basis of the dates of time of action in works of Russian Pushkinists, the text analysis of Egyptian Nights (comparing it to Chapter 1 of Eugene Onegin) and mentions of Angelica Catalani's tours in the Russian periodical press, (whom Pushkin knew as reports bout her tour were published in the Syn Otechestva (The Son of the Fatherland) in the issues the poet read to follow the polemics concerning his poem Ruslan and Lyudmila), the article makes the conclusion that the time of action is likely to be limited to the time interval between 1824 and 1826. Thereupon, the autobiographical data of the Neapolitan improvisator make it possible to interpret him as a political insurgent compelled to emigrate after the Carbonari defeat (in particular, he informs Charsky that he has been compelled to leave his homeland and desperately needs money to improve his financial situation). Thus, the image of the Neapolitan topos personified in Pushkin's hero having unambiguous social and political denotation in its primary version and organised by the concept of political freedom in the middle of 1830s, comes back through its aesthetic representation in freedom of creativity to the same political motive at an incomparably higher anthroposophical level, which makes it possible to establish bilateral ambivalent connections among the character, the topos and the epoch, where all components are regarded as interdependent and inseparable structural elements.

In the last two decades, many cities have faced changes in their economic basis and therefore adopted an entrepreneurial approach in the municipal administration accompanied by city marketing strategies. Brazilian cities have also adopted this approach, like the case of Florianópolis. Florianópolis has promoted advertising campaigns on the natural resources of the Island of Santa Catarina as well as on its quality of life in comparison to other cities. However, due also to such campaigns, it has experienced a great demographic growth and, consequently, infrastructural and social problems. Nevertheless, it seems to have a good image within the national urban scenario and has been commonly considered an "urban consumption dream" for many Brazilians. This paradoxical situation is the reason why it has been chosen as the research object in this dissertation. Thus, the questions of this research are: is there a gap between the promise and the performance of the city of Florianópolis? If so, can tourists and residents recognize it? And finally, how can this gap be demonstrated? Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to propose a conformity assessment approach applicable to cities, by which the content of city advertisement campaigns can be compared to its performance indicators and satisfaction degree of its consumers. Therefore, this approach is composed by different methods: literature and legislation reviews, semi-structured and structured interviews with experts and inhabitants, an urban centrality development analysis, a qualitative discourse analysis of advertising material (including images), a qualitative content analysis of newspaper reports and a questionnaire survey. Finally, the theses are: yes, there is a gap between promise and performance of Florianópolis; this promise is a result of city marketing campaigns which advertise its natural features and at the same time hiding its urban aspects, supported by some political and private actors, mainly interested in the development of tourism and real estate market in the city; this gap has been already recognized by tourists and more intensively by residents; the selected methods worked as a kind of conformity assessment for cities and tourist destinations; and last but not least, since there is a gap, it designates the practice of "make-up urbanism". Research limitations are the short time frame covered by this analysis and small and non-representative samples. However, its relevance lies in the attempt to fill in two disciplinary lacunas: a conformity assessment approach for cities and the creation of knowledge about Florianópolis and its further presentation at an international level, on the one hand. On the other hand, the transfer of this approach to other cities would help explaining a (common) contemporary urban phenomenon and appeal for more ethical conduct and transparency in the practices of city marketing. ; In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten sahen sich viele Städte zunehmend einer Veränderung ihrer ökonomischen Basis ausgesetzt, was zum Aufgreifen unternehmerischer Ansätze mit Strategien des Stadtmarketings führte. Brasilianische Städte wie Florianópolis haben diesen Ansatz ebenfalls adaptiert, u.a. durch Werbekampagnen über die natürlichen Ressourcen der Insel Santa Catarina und eine höhere Lebensqualität. Diese trugen allerdings auch zu einem demografischen Wachstum mit begleitenden infrastrukturellen und sozialen Problemen bei. Dennoch scheint Florianópolis insgesamt ein gutes Image zu haben. Diese paradoxe Situation ist der Grund, weshalb die Stadt als Fallstudie für die vorliegende Dissertation ausgewählt wurde. Die Forschungsfragen sind deshalb folgende: Gibt es eine Diskrepanz zwischen dem Versprechen und der tatsächlichen Performanz der Stadt Florianópolis? Falls ja, können Touristen und Einwohner diese wahrnehmen? Der Hauptfokus liegt auf dem Erarbeiten einer auf Städte anwendbaren Konformitätsbewertung, durch die der Inhalt von städtischen Werbekampagnen mit ihren tatsächlichen Performanzindikatoren und dem Zufriedenheitsgrad ihrer Konsumenten verglichen werden kann. Der Ansatz basiert dabei auf mehreren Methoden: der Auswertung von Literatur und Gesetzen, halbstrukturierten und strukturierten Interviews mit Experten und Einwohnern der Stadt Florianópolis, einer Analyse über die Entwicklung der Stadtzentralität, der qualitativen Diskursanalyse von Werbematerial (inkl. Bildern), der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse von Zeitungsartikeln sowie einer Umfrage mittels Fragebogen. Die Thesen sind dabei folgende: 1. Ja, es gibt eine Diskrepanz zwischen Versprechen und tatsächlicher Performanz der Stadt Florianópolis. 2. Dieses Versprechen ist das Resultat von Stadtmarketingkampagnen, welche ihre natürlichen Eigenschaften bewerben, dabei aber gleichzeitig urbane Aspekte verbergen. 3. Die ermittelte Diskrepanz wurde bereits von Touristen und Einwohnern wahrgenommen. 4. Die ausgewählten Methoden stellen eine Konformitätsbewertung für Städte und Touristenziele dar. 5. Da es eine Diskrepanz gibt, ist diese bestimmend für die Praxis einer 'Make-up-Urbanistik'. Als Forschungsgrenzen sind der enge analysierte Zeitraum sowie verhältnismäßig kleine und nicht repräsentative Beispiele zu benennen. Die Relevanz der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt jedoch in dem Versuch, zwei disziplinäre Leerräume zu füllen: Zum einen durch den Ansatz einer Konformitätsbewertung für Städte im Allgemeinen mit der Generierung von Wissen über Florianópolis im Besonderen sowie zum anderen durch den Vorschlag einer weiterführenden Übertragung dieses Ansatzes auf andere Städte, um ein allgemeines urbanes Phänomen dieser Zeit zu erklären und dadurch Anreize zu schaffen für mehr Ethik und Transparenz in der Praxis des Stadtmarketings.

Since the turn of the millennium, the city of Bangalore (officially Bengaluru) has experimented with a series of neoliberal, market-oriented reforms to overhaul the institutional, pricing, and financial aspects of its urban services. The city's water, in particular, long considered a service that must be subsidized by the state, has been targeted under interventions that seek to commercialize, rationalize, and privatize delivery, while simultaneously deepening certain forms of regulatory oversight. Supported by a melee of international development actors and administered by state-level experts, these policy changes have been especially focused on reforming the city's outskirts, where unruly growth and conflicting governance arrangements have produced highly differentiated patterns of land tenure and water access. Analysis of why certain water policy imaginaries are ascendant today, how programs of reform are conceived of and by whom, and to what ends they proceed in this dynamic peri-urban frontier landscape is essential to an understanding of metropolitanization in the Global South more generally. Yet, critical scholarship on Bangalore and elsewhere has largely neglected the articulations between new infrastructure policies and the local politics of peri-urban frontiers. This dissertation addresses this gap through a multi-sited ethnographic study of policy-making and practice affecting the governance of drinking water at Bangalore's peripheries. It investigates two case studies: (1) a program that sought to reengineer municipal management of citizen complaints, and (2) a project that aimed to extend piped water to residents financed, in part, through the debt market and upfront cash contributions from peripheral residents. The study draws on archival research, in-depth interviews, and participant observation to interrogate the underlying logic, material significance, and political contestation surrounding these projects in the peripheral localities of Bommanahalli, Byatarayanapura, and KR Puram. This research argues, first, that reforms derive not only from the fiscal concerns of the current moment, but also from a preoccupation with disciplining the conduct of local government and citizens in line with market principles. Crucially, this is a regime of rule that is deeply inflected with the enduring legacies of state-led development. It is the concoction of the developmental approaches of yesterday and the pro-market approaches of today that marks the homegrown logic of neoliberalism in India. Second, for all the rhetoric purporting to have overcome the incompetencies of a previous era, today's neoliberal interventions are marked by profound contradictions and limitations. A narrow focus on financial criteria, for instance, has resulted in a disconnect between the promise and material reality of water several years after new market-based policies and programs were instituted. Third, the grounded workings of new water policies cannot be understood without grasping the politics of the peripheralized middle class--a sizeable cross-section of the middle class that is propertied, but that nonetheless does not enjoy the same degree of tenure security as its elite counterparts. Through collective organizing, members of this social grouping contest and ultimately compromise over cost recovery-focused water pricing policies in order to legitimate their property claims in this globalizing and increasingly exclusionary city. The research thus reveals that the outcomes of water policies are contingent on historical geographies of struggle and insurgent claims to space in the places where they unfold. Overall, this dissertation elucidates how neoliberal hegemony in the urban waterscape is fluid and mutable--prone to becoming imbued with a diverse set of interests and to taking shape in and through a terrain of citizenship politics.These findings, relevant for other rapidly urbanizing regions of the world, point to the need to rethink urban water praxis such that it valorizes diverse ways of knowing, anticipates the points of friction between water and spatial policies, and is sensitive to how and why institutionalized top-down schemes actually take root at the grassroots level.

In today's world, consumerism is dominating all the aspects of our life. In society, life follows the pattern of the capitalist culture where the human values have a different measure. We do live in a branded world. There is no doubt about it. We all make product decisions every day. We probably all have certain types of products of which we like only one or two brands, while we buy other things based on what is on sale on a given day. This inclination to buy branded products is rooted in two basic things: recollection and satisfaction. We remember which one we like by brand name. A survey by the Henley Centre revealed that the public trust brand names such as Kellogg's, Heinz and Marks & Spencer more than Parliament, the police and the legal system (Sunday Times, "A can of worms is a bad diet", 5 April 1998). This research highlights the importance of the relationship between consumers and key brands; and shows that it has strengthened to such an extent that it is now healthier than the relationship with our social structures. This is evidence of the power of consumer culture and the liberal free market economics of the westernized world. The Brands not just represent the symbol of the company but also to a greater extant defines lives people in the society. What a person uses can reflect his taste, his or her status in the society, his / her economic background as well. This makes a deep connection between the company and its brand, with the consumer. In this two way relation both the company and consumers are dependent on each other. The salient of purpose of our study was to find out to what extent brand names influence the consumers' purchase decisions with regard to high-involvement products. We conducted this study based on theories and survey. We reviewed a good number of relevant theories of brand and consumer decision making process. We also conducted a survey among the students. The respondents of our survey were those students who own a notebook PC, a high involvement product. We used convenience sampling for our survey. We analyzed the data of the survey in order to be able to draw conclusions and find answers to our questions. On analysis of the collected data, we came to a conclusion that brand names have an influence on the consumer decision not only in case of notebook PC, but also in other product categories. The overall means of brand equity for male and female student are 3.64 and 3.66 respectively. Both the means are considerably higher than the average of 2.5 on the Likert Scale. So, it is reasonable to say that both male and female students' purchase decisions are influenced by the brand equity to an extent. The consumers are very conscious about branded products because they have the view that well-known brands are more reliable. This study also explains that customers trust the branded products. Before purchasing a notebook PC people do not consider the lesser known brands. Our survey results show that the respondents previously automatically knew which brand of Notebook PC to buy. The mean of the statement "I automatically knew which brands of this product to buy" was much higher than average indicating that respondents had only a few brands in their evoked set and they ended up buying their top-of-the-mind brand. Consumers opined that well-known brand companies maintain quality of their product. Which is why, brand name affects the customer choice while making a purchase decision. Moreover, consumers also tend to trust well-known branded products. The mean of the statement "When I see an advertisement of this brand I believe the information in it is accurate" was much higher than the average which testifies to the fact that consumers usually trust the brands.

"La desertificación es un problema ambiental que afecta los ecosistemas áridos, simiáridos y secos- subhúmedos de todo el mundo. En México el sobrepastoreo y la conversión a terreno agrícola aunando a los largos y más frecuentes periodos de sequía, han conducido a la degradación del suelo, afectando entre otros su capacidad de almacén de carbono y fertilidad, ambos consideran servicios ambientales de soporte para el funcionamiento del ecosistema y la subsistencia de los habitantes de zonas rurales en sistemas humano-ambientales. El DDP es un marco conceptual integral que explora simultáneamente las dimensiones ambientales y socioeconómicas de la desertificaicón. En este estudio de caso en la comunidad La Amapola, en San Luis Potosí, México, se aplicó el DDP para examinar simultáneamente los efectos de la deforestación, la producción ganadera, la agricultura de temporal, el clima, el régimen de tenencia de la tierra, y el acceso a subsidios, como un conjunto de factores complejos que afectan la calidad del suelo y así la productividad sustentable y el bienestar a nivel loca. En este estudio se identificaron 1) los conductores, tales como mercado regional, tenencia de la tierra, subsidio al campo y educación (formal e informal), 2) las variables socioeconómicas lentas clave (conocimiento ambiental local) y biofísicas (cobertura vegetal, materia orgánica del suelo) y 3) las variables socioeconómicas rápidas (tamaño del hato, especies de cultivo) y biofísicas (variación temporal de la concentración del NH4+ Y NO3-). El estudio se enfocó tanto en la escala de parche como de paisaje, para examinar las diferencias en la calidad del suelo en los distintos tipos de cobertura vegetal presentes en la comunidad (bosque de pino - encino, tierras de cultivo con/sin subsidio y pastizal), en los hogares y la comunidad para evaluar aspectos socioeconómicos. Los habitantes proporcionaron información de las actividades actuales e históricas en estos sitios y se complementó con bases de datos y documentos de archivos históricos. Se encontró que las actividades humanas que favorecen el sobrepastoreo y la agricultura intensiva se ven reflejados en una reducción de la fertilidad del suelo. Los resultados también sugieren que estas actividades son directamente controladas por mercados internacionales y programas gubernamentales." ; "Desertification is a critical environmental problem in global drylands. In México, livestock production, land conversion to farming systems, and long periods of drought have led to severe land degradation in large areas of these areas. This in consequence has provoked a steadily decline in soil carbon stocks and fertility. Both are considered to be key ecosystem services supporting ecosystem functioning and sustainable livelihoods in coupled human-ecological systems. The DDP is an integrated framework to explore simultaneously the environmental, economic and social dimensions of desertification. We present a case study in the rural community of La Amapola in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. We applied the DDP in this regional landscape where the combined effects of deforestation, livestock production, rain-fed agriculture, land tenure, subsidies and decades of drought have led to a complex suite of factors affecting regional soil fertility, resulting in lower productivity and regional levels of well-being. In this research I identify 1) drivers incuding; regional markets, land tenure, subsidies and education; 2) slow socio-economic key variables (local environmental knowledge) and biophysical (vegetation cover, soil organic matter) and 3) fast socio-economic key variables (crops species, livestock size) and biophysical (temporal variation in NH4 + and NO3 - concentration). We use landscape and patches scales to examine the differences in soil fertility for distinct vegetation cover patches in the community (pine-oak forest, rain-fed agriculture with and without subsidy and grassland), the household and the community to evaluate the socio-economic aspects. The inhabitants provided information about their activities. The information about past activities was complemented with archives of historical documents and databases. We found that overgrazing and intensification of agriculture reduced soil fertility in these patches. These activities were controlled by both regional and international markets as well as governmental agriculture subsidies."

This thesis is concerned with institutional arrangements and empirical tools that may be used to assess the impact of regulation on the economy, and thereby improve regulatory policymaking. We start in Chapter 2 with a qualitative introduction to regulatory impact assessment, highlighting some of the challenges facing small regional governments wishing to improve the quality of regulation they enact. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts. Part 1 considers and evaluates the optimal design of tests aimed at discovering specific classes of regulatory impact. Our particular example is a negative clearance test for the effect of regulations on competition. One such tool, the UK competition filter, has been in operation in the UK since 2002. Applying it to case studies from Ireland (in Chapter 3), we show that particular design features may easily lead to excessive false negative results. We then propose a more appropriate structure for tests of this kind. A paper based on this chapter is forthcoming in the Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. The analysis is extended in Chapter 4 to show that the UK filter is also prone to give excessive false negatives in its own jurisdiction; a paper drawing on these results and co-authored with my supervisor, Dr. Francis O?Toole, is under review by the Journal of Competition Law and Economics. Part 2 focuses on empirical studies of regulatory impact. Two of the three chapters in this part are concerned with aspects of mobile telephony regulation. The first of these, Chapter 5, notes that an increasing number of countries require mobile telephone networks to offer mobile number portability (MNP), which allows customers who wish to switch mobile operator to keep their mobile numbers (including the prefix) and avoid the costs of switching to new numbers. Ex ante assessments suggest that MNP should reduce switching costs and strengthen competition. We construct a new international dataset that allows us to estimate econometric models of the benefits of MNP and we test MNP?s impact on market outcomes using this international time-series cross-section data. The results show that MNP reduces average prices and encourages churn (a proxy for switching) when the switching process is rapid (e.g. less than 5 days) but not when it is slower. A paper based on the research in Chapter 5 is under review by Information Economics and Policy. Chapter 6 also employs the mobile telephony dataset introduced in Chapter 5, focusing this time on a metric popular among regulators and market analysts: average revenue per user, or ARPU. This chapter, which draws on a co-authored paper forthcoming in Telecommunications Policy, develops an econometric model of the determinants of ARPU and shows that this statistic may not be a good indicator of competitive conditions. ARPU proves to be better explained by subscribers? incomes than by market concentration measures. In Chapter 7, we ask how far the constraints perceived and reported in surveys of small businesses (e.g. excessive regulation, access to capital) are reflected in such firms? subsequent survival rates. There appears to be a relationship, but it is neither as strong nor as straightforward as the popularity of this sort of evidence among policymakers might lead us to expect. Indeed, the perceived barriers expected to be most significant on the basis of previous research ? excessive regulation and constrained access to finance ? show no significant relationship to survival rates. Until more convincing evidence is found showing that this type of survey evidence helps explain market outcomes, using it in the assessment or design of public policy may be problematical. The chapter suggests ways of enhancing surveys so that the real effects of perceived constraints can be more clearly identified. A paper drawing on it is currently under review by Small Business Economics. ; TARA (Trinity?s Access to Research Archive) has a robust takedown policy. Please contact us if you have any concerns: rssadmin@tcd.ie

Значение цивилизационного фактора в контексте концепции С.Хантингтона о межцивилизационных столкновениях – реализованной на практике в виде противостояния США-Исламский мир – за последнее десятилетие существен- но возросло. Таким образом, в современных условиях вопрос сохранения аутентичности той или иной нации сместился в политическую плоскость. Анализ истории и сегодняшних реалий указывает на то, что Армения и ар- мянство обладают необходимыми цивилизационными ресурсами для успеш- ного функционирования в условиях политической конкуренции. Взаимо- действие армянской цивилизации с внешним миром базируется на двух принципах: национально-защитном, или «закрытом», и глобально-коммуни- кационном – «открытом». Подобная концепция позволяет применять скоор- динированные и осмысленные подходы к проблемам в сфере информацион- но-духовной безопасности. ; The actual problems connected with information security have considerably increased with the advent of the conception of information wars, operating terminologies, accepted in historical and culturological and, in connection with the latter, «civilization sphere». The formal conception of «civilization» acquired a political ground with the theory of S. Huntington «Clashes of Civilizations», according to which «…central and more dangerous aspect born in global policy will become the conflict among the groups of different civilizations». The conception of Huntington, together with the other ones, became the basis of the strategy of «antiterrorist war», which, at the moment, is accepted as a war between the West and the Islamic World and may include other civilization groups as well. Meanwhile, the conceptions circulated by the US, dictate «the rules of the game», which all the subjects of international policy have to take into account. Yielding to this logic, «civilization» factor was introduced into political language and the issues relating to the nations of this or that civilization community acquired a defining role. However, a number of countries and nations lack exact notions of their own civilization identity. Such countries are defined by Huntington as «torn» and are foretold to face inevitable collapse. It's worth mentioning that the issue of belonging to this or that civilization model in Armenian elite is also quite contradicting. It is conditioned by the fact that geopolitical realities require from the Armenian governing body to carry out flexible foreign policy. As a result, some groups are formed in the elite, which are the advocates of this or that geopolitical direction. In its turn such a situation forms situation notions about the necessity of this or that civilization orientation. The situation was almost suchlike in Diaspora, the representatives of which, as a rule, identify their civilization aspirations with the country they are inhabited in. However, such tendencies have opportunistic character and are not adequate to objective realities. In comparison with some other communities, the Armenians and Armenia have all the necessary cultural and other resources of civilization character, which allow us to perceive Armenia and the Armenians as a carrier of unique, self-dependent civilization. The following facts have come to prove it: the Armenians have a special place in the group of Indo-European by their ethnogeny and language. The Armenian Apostolic Church, in the context of foundation of the first Christian State, has a special place in Christian world; the Armenian script and culture as a whole are also unique. It's worth mentioning that the uniqueness of the Armenian civilization is not a mere element of historical memory: according to the results of survey conducted among different social groups, most of the responders acquire uniqueness and self-dependence of the Armenian civilization. At the same time the Armenian civilization is an «open» system. Spiritual values inherent to our civilization model are universal in many respects and it is able to efficiently interact with other civilizations. The perception of the Armenian civilization by the Armenian elite, as a harmonic unanimity of national («closed») and global, communicable («open») systems, let us avoid contradictions in the issues of civilization orientations in Armenia and optimize mutual relations with Diaspora. Such an approach allows us to construct the system of information security correctly and without selfcontradictions.

More than Meets the Ear: The Culture behind the Music is a traveling exhibit that was designed and created over more than a year's time at Utah State University's museum of anthropology. As one member of a team of interns, I helped decide on an exhibit focus, its audience, content, and design. We started from the ground up as inexperienced undergraduates under the tutelage of the museum's curator, Lara Petersen, and the museum's director, Dr. Bonnie Pitblado. As the project gradually progressed and was honed to the subject of ethnomusicology, I took on the responsibility of the educational aspect of the exhibit. We had decided as a team that our audience would be middle and high school students since they had the least opportunity to visit the museum; elementary students came often on field trips. As an anthropology major, I did not know anything about how to go about creating an exhibit that would actually appeal to and teach adolescents. I spent hours reading books about education and was able to conduct an interview with Victoria Rowe, the Nora Eccles Harrison Art Museum's director. Since students all over the valley visit the art museum, she had experience in teaching all age groups. With research and her help, I was able to direct the creation of the exhibit so that it would appeal to and teach its audience. I also received input from Cache Valley teachers. I designed and mailed a front-end analysis to the valley's schools. Teachers were able to make suggestions about the exhibit content as well as additional resources that they would like to travel with the exhibit. All of them agreed that they wanted additional resources so that they could incorporate the exhibit into their classrooms rather than just visiting it at their media center. I set about collecting information that would be useful for a wide variety of teachers-from the social studies teacher to the music teacher to the arts and crafts teacher. It was a rather challenging and ambitious endeavor but well worth the effort. When the exhibit was finally completed-after midnight trips to Lowe's and midnight work sessions on campus during finals week-we held an open house at the anthropology museum, allowing teachers to preview the exhibit. Professors, students, and many government officials also came to the event. Planning the open house was a lot of work in itself. Thankfully, it was a great success. We had local musicians playing different music from around the world and several journalists reporting on the exciting event. The best part, however, was the exhibit itself. It was a huge success. The area's teachers and students loved it! It traveled far longer than we had planned because more and more teachers kept requesting that it come to their school. We even received thank-you letters from students and teachers. To top it off, the exhibit had the privilege of being displayed at the state capitol building. Now the ethnomusicology exhibit sits proudly in the anthropology museum after its successful tour. I visited it not long ago and could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Maybe I am overly sentimental, but I must admit that some tears came to my eyes as I thought of all my hard work, what became of it, and how I was able to contribute in a small way to the valley. In this binder, I have included copies of the invitations we sent for the open house, the open house program, the exhibit introduction, photos of the exhibit and open house, newspaper articles written about the exhibit, and a reproduction of the teachers' packet that accompanied the exhibit. Unfortunately, due to the nature of some of the resources in the teachers' packet, not everything can be included.