Polítics

Does the interaction between context and individual-level features affect political attitudes? By using the case of Catalonia, a receiver municipality of international and national migration since the fifties, this paper intersects a classic acculturation model and a newly reemerging literature in political science on contextual determinants of political behaviour to analyze how context affects subjective national identity. Results reveal that environment matters. The Percentage of Spain-born population in the municipality is statistically significant to account for variance in the subjective national identity, even after controlling for age, sex, origin, language and left–right orientation and other contextual factors. This conclusion suggests that researchers should not underestimate the direct effect of the environment on feelings of belonging in contexts of rival identities.

The time has come for Sindhi, especially Sindhi in Diaspora, to seriously opt for taking the formal case of Sindh in the United Nations on the basis of historical treaties signed between sovereign country of Sindh and the Britain before Britain's invasion of Sindh as well as crimes committed by the State of Pakistan and its ethno-communal mercenaries against Sindhi. This has become necessary especially after the recent blackmailing attempts by the sate-cronies.

The year 2011 turned out to be an extraordinary one. The clustering of insurgencies around time and geography gave a political ring to the seasons: commentators spoke of the Arab Spring, the European Summer, and the U.S. Fall. TIME magazine even named “the protester” person of the year. Similar revolts emerged in the following years in Mexico, Turkey, and Brazil. Some faulted them for their lack of plans and proposals, a criticism that misses the point by confusing the disruption of the given with the task of reconfiguring it. Insurgencies are not standard political practices or policy-making exercises. They are about saying “enough!” and refusing to go on as before. They are in fact operators of difference: insurgencies are the plan in the sense that a medium can be the message. I argue that they open up possibilities that may or may not prosper but that nonetheless allow us to glimpse something other to come; that they are political performatives—participants start to experience what they strive to become; and that they function as vanishing mediators that put different worlds in contact with one another. I address these points in a discussion about the material remainder of the Arab Spring and the student mobilizations in Chile.

In spite of compelling calls for postponement, the Malian interim authorities have remained firm on their commitment to hold presidential elections on Sunday 28 July. Pressured by the agendas of its international donors, the Traoré administration has struggled to prepare for a hastily organized poll. Despite the recent deployment of the U.N. Stabilization Mission, looming security threats prevail whilst an estimated 500,000 Malians remain displaced amid difficulties in distributing the biometric ID cards required for voting. As a result of prevalent technical deficiencies, the elections are likely to suffer from low voter turnout. This may undermine the legitimacy of the outcome and potentially propel a new cycle of instability at the heart of a region plagued by weak governance and armed insurgencies.

Parmi les modèles utilisés pour penser l’Église, la cité est souvent présente, qu’elle soit décrite selon la vision d’une Jérusalem céleste, ou selon les modalités bien concrètes de la vie des chrétiens au sein d’une entité civile réelle. Si le texte d’Augustin a compté dans l’élaboration de ce modèle, il s’agit plus largement d’examiner, autour d’Étienne Gilson (Les métamorphoses de la cité de Dieu, 1952) et de Joseph Ratzinger (Volk und Haus Gottes in Augustins Lehre von der Kirche, 1954), sa postérité doctrinale et historiographique aux XIXe-XXe siècles, et la manière dont l’ecclésiologie utilise et transforme ses aspects politiques et sociaux.

Through the case of the Helix_T wind turbine project, this article sets out to argue two points: first, on a theoretical level, that Commons-based peer production, in conjunction with the emerging technological capabilities of three-dimensional printing, can also produce promising hardware, globally designed and locally produced. Second, the Commons-oriented wind turbine examined here is also meant to practically contribute to the quest for novel solutions to the timely problem of the need for (autonomous) renew- able sources of energy, more in the sense of a development process than as a ready-to-apply solution. We demonstrate that it is possible for someone with partial initial knowledge to initiate a similar, complex project based on an interesting idea, and to succeed in implementing it through collaboration with Commons-oriented communities, while using peer-produced products and tools. Given the trends and trajectories both of the current information-based paradigm and the problems of the predominant industrial modes of production with all the collateral damage they entail, this may be considered a positive message indeed.

A students' union government is a student organization present in many tertiary institutions which protects and defends the right of students on campus. Depending on the country: the purpose, assembly, method and implementation of the group might vary. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students in some fashion. In some cases students' unions are run by students, independent of the educational facility. The purpose of these organizations is to represent students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students' unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Depending on the organization's makeup students can get involved in the union by becoming active in a committee, by attending councils and general meetings, or by becoming an elected officer. Some students' unions are politicized bodies, and often serve as a training ground for aspiring politicians. The combination of the youthful enthusiasm of the various members, a general lack of serious consequences for decisions, and a student media(if any) that is itself often partisan, inexperienced, and under no financial pressure to slant coverage to please a broad readership encourages very vigorous campaigning, debate, and political gamesmanship. Students' unions generally have similar aims irrespective of the extent of politicization, usually focusing on providing students with facilities, support, and services.This reviews how the students union governments (SUG) can be deployed as a training ground for youths an upcoming politicians in  order to entrench true democratic values lacking in our society today.