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Recent years have witnessed an expanding body of peri-urban and urban scholarship. However, recent scholarship has yet to adequately address the central role of politics and power shaping water quality decline. The article focuses on the trans-Hindon region which is part of Ghaziabad city, close to India's capital, Delhi. We draw upon urban political ecology and peri-urban scholarship to explain the role of politics and power shaping water quality decline. We argue in favour of creating stronger synergy between peri-urban and UPE debates as part of conceptualising water quality decline. The article shows that as a complex socio-political challenge, water quality decline is centrally shaped by the intensifying linkages between urban and peri-urban forms of development and as a result deserves central attention as part of both these debates.

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limits and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals. Traditionally indeed, personas and the associated scenarios are created by focusing on needs and goals of the target users. This focus, while helping designers, also obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will of personas to take action. We argue that it would be possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios too) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs. We suggest that drawing on phenomenography will allow to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation.

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation .

In this article I argue for the role that approaches such as Socially Acute Questions (SAQs) can play in confronting the STEM discourse in the curriculum. For SAQs and similar approaches to be effective in enacting issues of social justice educators need to take account of local political contexts, the ethical and political assumptions which underpin values appertaining to social justice, such as concepts of communalism and libertarianism, and democratic practise in the school classroom where the students become co-enquirers in generating knowledge which aims to improve material realities. This is not a straightforward but one that demands reflection and critique throughout the process.

The article refers to the process of consolidation of the democracy and the economy of the free market in Latin America, from the changes experienced in the continent in the last three decades of the twentieth century. Though the final results of the political and economic system success remain open, it is possible to observe a majority adhesion of the governments to the electoral processes, the state of law, and to economic responsibility.

The study is concerned with multimedia design and development competencies among computer science lecturers in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 39 Computer Science lecturers and was all studied without sampling as the population was small. A structured questionnaire was used in collecting data for the study. Data collected were analyzed using mean scores and ranked according to the level of ratings on each option. Result from the data analyzed showed that Computer Science Lecturers are competent in textual creation and less competent in audio editing, graphic design and animation creation. With respect to these findings, the researcher recommended that Computer Science lecturers in federal universities should engage in continuous training in the design and development of multimedia technologies. University administration should provide Computer Science lecturers adequate funds and incentives to enable them attend capacity building programmes such as Conferences, Seminars and Workshops on the design and development of multimedia courseware for effective instructional delivery. Federal Ministry of Education and relevant government agencies should fund Computer Science programme in federal universities and ensure that computer laboratories of those universities are fully equipped with computers and appropriate multimedia technologies.

« Qu'est-ce que la vérité ? »: comment répondre à cette question à partir de notre discipline, la science politique ? Telle sont les deux questions qui nous sont posées à l'occasion d'un séminaire multidisciplinaire. Nous y répondrons en trois étapes. D'emblée, précisons que la vérité (seule, en soi) est davantage de l'ordre des valeurs que des faits, ce qui pourrait nous amener en science politique à lui préférer la notion de « réalité ». Toutefois, nous baserons le déroulement de notre réflexion sur la définition que Mellos donne de la vérité (2009 : 577), à savoir : « la connaissance objective des lois naturelles qui gouvernent les processus naturels et sociaux systématiques ». Est-il possible d'atteindre une connaissance objective des phénomènes ? Est-il possible de produire des lois en science politique ? Ces lois révèleraient-elles que les phénomènes politiques comportent une dimension systématique ? En reprenant les éléments eux-mêmes de la définition, on comprend que répondre à la question « qu'est-ce que la vérité ? » implique de la décliner dans sa complexité. Nous avons choisi de nous saisir de cette complexité, et de la réduire, en attaquant la question par un angle surtout méthodologique.

« Qu'est-ce que la vérité ? »: comment répondre à cette question à partir de notre discipline, la science politique ? Telle sont les deux questions qui nous sont posées à l'occasion d'un séminaire multidisciplinaire. Nous y répondrons en trois étapes. D'emblée, précisons que la vérité (seule, en soi) est davantage de l'ordre des valeurs que des faits, ce qui pourrait nous amener en science politique à lui préférer la notion de « réalité ». Toutefois, nous baserons le déroulement de notre réflexion sur la définition que Mellos donne de la vérité (2009 : 577), à savoir : « la connaissance objective des lois naturelles qui gouvernent les processus naturels et sociaux systématiques ». Est-il possible d'atteindre une connaissance objective des phénomènes ? Est-il possible de produire des lois en science politique ? Ces lois révèleraient-elles que les phénomènes politiques comportent une dimension systématique ? En reprenant les éléments eux-mêmes de la définition, on comprend que répondre à la question « qu'est-ce que la vérité ? » implique de la décliner dans sa complexité. Nous avons choisi de nous saisir de cette complexité, et de la réduire, en attaquant la question par un angle surtout méthodologique.

A large literature has emerged in political science that studies the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This article summarizes the lessons learned from this literature, both theoretical and practical. To put this emerging knowledge base into perspective, we review findings along two dimensions of conflict: factors influencing whether states or substate groups enter into conflict in the first place and variables affecting the intensity of fighting at particular times and places once war has started. We then discuss the external validity issues entailed in learning about contemporary wars and insurgencies from research focused on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars during the period of US involvement. We close by summarizing the uniquely rich qualitative and quantitative data on these wars (both publicly available and what likely exists but has not been released) and outline potential avenues for future research.

A large literature has emerged in political science that studies the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This article summarizes the lessons learned from this literature, both theoretical and practical. To put this emerging knowledge base into perspective, we review findings along two dimensions of conflict: factors influencing whether states or substate groups enter into conflict in the first place and variables affecting the intensity of fighting at particular times and places once war has started. We then discuss the external validity issues entailed in learning about contemporary wars and insurgencies from research focused on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars during the period of US involvement. We close by summarizing the uniquely rich qualitative and quantitative data on these wars (both publicly available and what likely exists but has not been released) and outline potential avenues for future research.

A conceptual framework for the analysis of global political change is presented and illustrated with examples drawn from the Cold War. The most important issues on an agenda, the critical issues, go through identifiable stages: genesis, crisis, ritualization, dormancy, decision making, and authoritative allocation. The effects of the different stages on behavior of international actors is examined in a preliminary fashion, and a theoretical rationale is offered. Each stage, treated in detail, relates to the others in terms of differences in behavior associated with each stage, the evolving of relationships among actors, and the resolution of issues. The concluding section elaborates the research implications.