Suchergebnisse

Currently, over a third of children not in school live in countries considered being as fragile. These countries, which are mainly located in sub-Saharan Africa, will not reach the objectives of Education For All for 2015. This thesis covers approaches across comparative education, political science and sociology of organizations. It explores empirically the condi¬tions of achievement of EFA within the contexts of fragility. Despite its ambiguities, the notion of fragile states was adopted in 2005 as an operational concept by most of aid agencies. Definitions of fragile state converge on a set of specific criteria (dysfunctional institutions, chronic socio-political instability, limited access to social services). Nevertheless, the former also cover various and related dimensions, whose severity makes universal primary education achievement particularly hazardous. Therefore, the in¬junction made to states to provide homogenous basic education for their population, espe¬cially in the poorest ones, may indeed encounter difficulties in the particular contexts of fragile states (chapter 1). Armed conflicts are certainly the most obvious cause of the fragility of states and countries. The effects of these conflicts undermine the educational system and destroy any prospect of education for a difficulty measurable proportion of children, especially those in poor and isolated environments. Periods of instability can also be seen in the impact of public finances policies and the failure of governments to invest in social areas such as education. The latter being an element that contributes to the emergence of values of a democratic political system (chapter 2). Insofar as investment in education is perceived as a necessary, if not sufficient, to vanquish poverty, the option to stimulate and accelerate the development of education constitutes an opportunity for the international community. Even if it means that the latter also has to ex¬ercise some forms of interference. The findings of our empirical analysis show, that within fragile states, the emergence of a current contradiction between the inclusive nature of the EFA goals and the exclusionary nature of the paradigms on which foreign aid is based (effec¬tiveness and results). This situation leads us to question the approach of aid which is torn morally between the consequences of individual actions or common actions where the finan¬cial criteria and instruments are clearly not adapted to situations of fragility (chapter 3). ; Plus du tiers des enfants non scolarisés dans le monde vit actuellement dans des pays considérés comme fragiles. Principalement localisés en Afrique subsaharienne, ces pays, pour la plupart, ne seront pas en mesure de réaliser les objectifs de l'Éducation Pour Tous d'ici 2015. Se situant à la croisée de l'éducation comparée, des sciences politiques et de la sociologie des organisations, cette thèse explore empiriquement les conditions d'achèvement de l'EPT dans les contextes de fragilités.Malgré les ambigüités qui l'entourent, la notion d'État fragile a été adoptée en 2005 en tant que concept opérationnel par la plupart des organismes d'aide. Si les définitions de l'État fragile convergent sur un ensemble de critères spécifiques (institutions dysfonctionnelles, instabilité sociopolitique chronique, accès limité aux services sociaux), la fragilité revêt des dimensions variées et connexes dont la sévérité rend la réalisation de la scolarisation primaire universelle singulièrement aléatoire. Dès lors, l'injonction faite aux États de fournir une édu-cation de base homogène aux populations, notamment aux plus pauvres, peut rencontrer des difficultés d'adaptation dans les contextes particuliers des États fragiles (chapitre 1). Les conflits armés constituent certainement la plus évidente origine de la fragilité des États et des pays. Les effets de ces conflits mettent à mal le développement éducatif et anéantissent toute perspective d'éducation pour une proportion d'enfants difficilement mesurable, parti-culièrement ceux issus de milieux pauvres et isolés. Les périodes d'instabilité signalent égale-ment l'impact des politiques des finances publiques ainsi que l'échec d'un gouvernement à investir dans des domaines sociaux tels que l'éducation, élément contribuant à l'émergence des valeurs d'un système politique à tendances démocratiques (chapitre 2). Dans la mesure où l'investissement éducatif est perçu comme une condition nécessaire, sinon suffisante, de sortie de la pauvreté, l'option d'impulser et d'accélérer le développement éducatif s'impose comme un critère d'opportunité pour la communauté internationale, quitte à exercer des formes d'ingérence. Les conclusions de notre analyse empirique montrent, dans la problématique des États fragiles, l'émergence d'une contradiction actuelle entre le caractère inclusif des objectifs de l'EPT et la nature excluante des paradigmes sur lesquels se fondent l'aide extérieure (efficacité et résultats). Cette situation conduit alors à s'interroger sur une approche de l'aide liée à une analyse morale écartelée entre les conséquences des actions individuelles ou communes et dont les critères et instruments financiers ne sont visiblement pas adaptés aux situations de fragilité (chapitre 3).

Maps are effective tools for communicating information to the general public and help people to make decisions in, for example, navigation, spatial planning and politics. The mapmaker chooses the details to put on a map and the symbols to represent them. Not all details need to be geographic: thematic maps, which depict a single theme or attribute, such as population, income, crime rate, or migration, can very effectively communicate the spatial distribution of the visualized attribute. The vast amount of data currently available makes it infeasible to design all maps manually, and calls for automated cartography. In this thesis we presented efficient algorithms for the automated construction of various types of thematic maps. In Chapter 2 we studied the problem of drawing schematic maps. Schematic maps are a well-known cartographic tool; they visualize a set of nodes and edges (for example, highway or metro networks) in simplified form to communicate connectivity information as effectively as possible. Many schematic maps deviate substantially from the underlying geography since edges and vertices of the original network are moved in the simplification process. This can be a problem if we want to integrate the schematized network with a geographic map. In this scenario the schematized network has to be drawn with few orientations and links, while critical features (cities, lakes, etc.) of the base map are not obscured and retain their correct topological position with respect to the network. We developed an efficient algorithm to compute a collection of non-crossing paths with fixed orientations using as few links as possible. This algorithm approximates the optimal solution to within a factor that depends only on the number of allowed orientations. We can also draw the roads with different thicknesses, allowing us to visualize additional data related to the roads such as trafic volume. In Chapter 3 we studied methods to visualize quantitative data related to geographic regions. We first considered rectangular cartograms. Rectangular cartograms represent regions by rectangles; the positioning and adjacencies of these rectangles are chosen to suggest their geographic locations to the viewer, while their areas are chosen to represent the numeric values being communicated by the cartogram. One drawback of rectangular cartograms is that not every rectangular layout can be used to visualize all possible area assignments. Rectangular layouts that do have this property are called area-universal. We show that area-universal layouts are always one-sided, and we present algorithms to find one-sided layouts given a set of adjacencies. Rectangular cartograms often provide a nice visualization of quantitative data, but cartograms deform the underlying regions according to the data, which can make the map virtually unrecognizable if the data value differs greatly from the original area of a region or if data is not available at all for a particular region. A more direct method to visualize the data is to place circular symbols on the corresponding region, where the areas of the symbols correspond to the data. However, these maps, so-called symbol maps, can appear very cluttered with many overlapping symbols if large data values are associated with small regions. In Chapter 4 we proposed a novel type of quantitative thematic map, called necklace map, which overcomes these limitations. Instead of placing the symbols directly on a region, we place the symbols on a closed curve, the necklace, which surrounds the map. The location of a symbol on the necklace should be chosen in such a way that the relation between symbol and region is as clear as possible. Necklace maps appear clear and uncluttered and allow for comparatively large symbol sizes. We developed algorithms to compute necklace maps and demonstrated our method with experiments using various data sets and maps. In Chapter 5 and 6 we studied the automated creation of ow maps. Flow maps are thematic maps that visualize the movement of objects, such as people or goods, between geographic regions. One or more sources are connected to several targets by lines whose thickness corresponds to the amount of ow between a source and a target. Good ow maps reduce visual clutter by merging (bundling) lines smoothly and by avoiding self-intersections. We developed a new algorithm for drawing ow trees, ow maps with a single source. Unlike existing methods, our method merges lines smoothly and avoids self-intersections. Our method is based on spiral trees, a new type of Steiner trees that we introduced. Spiral trees have an angle restriction which makes them appear smooth and hence suitable for drawing ow maps. We study the properties of spiral trees and give an approximation algorithm to compute them. We also show how to compute ow trees from spiral trees and we demonstrate our approach with extensive experiments.

The Republic of Daghestan is the largest of the North Caucasian republics in terms of territory (50.3 thousand sq km) and population size (2.1 million). It borders on five states in the south of Russia: Azerbaijan and Georgia on land and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran across the Caspian. It has administrative borders with the Stavropol Territory, Kalmykia, and Chechnia. The incredible confessional and ethnic diversity of Daghestan is also a result of its very specific history and no less specific geographic location. There are 2,451 religious units in the republic: 2,396 of them are Muslim; 50 Christian; and 5 Judaic. The Christian communities are Orthodox (19 in all), Old Believer (1), Armenian (2), and Protestant (28, 6 of which are Seventh Day Adventists; 5 are Pentecostals; 5 are Baptists of the Union of the Evangelical Baptist Christians of Russia; 5 are Baptists of the Council of the Churches of the Evangelical Christian Baptists of Russia; 1 is Good Tidings Evangelicals; and 6 are Jehovah's Witnesses). The majority of the republic's population are Muslims; the structural diversity of Islam, the predominant religion, is present in all spheres of social life. Standard Islam, which has accumulated all types of knowledge about the Muslim religion and is dealing with all sorts of questions related to the sphere of religious consciousness at the level of religious reflection, has acquired a very specific regional form. It is a result of its interconnection with a spiritual substructure of national cultures and is based on the polyethnic nature of the Caucasian Muslims and the fact that they belong to different Islamic schools intimately intertwined with local traditions and customs. In the past, Soviet ideology, which promoted the idea of the world as a global society with its members devoid of national identity, allowed the government to coordinate and harmonize, to a certain extent, the interests of the Soviet ethnicities. The death of the Soviet Union buried the ideology of interethnic relations stemming from the principles of multisided fraternal cooperation and mutual assistance (the ideology of communist internationalism). Today, the post-Soviet polyethnic society has no regulator of any sort; this has become especially obvious in the Muslim regions, in the North Caucasian republics where Islam has become much more active than before. Islam's unifying and regulatory role is easily explained by the fact that it does not divide people into ethnic groups. Indeed, after losing their old ideals and finding themselves in a hostile and incomprehensible environment people are looking for a way out of their disagreement with the world and religion provides them with all answers. They can either live in peace with the world around them or oppose it: this reveals the axiological value of the object rather than its properties. At all times, people have turned to religion in search of answers to the questions about the meaning of life, duty, happiness, the value of human life, etc. In his Heroes and Heretics, Barrows Dunham pointed out that if "a movement toward social reforms" fails and if for a while problems cannot be resolved through social reforms "attention turns toward psychological problems," which become more acute. The evil which underlies social relations complicates individual lives and affects the moral side of human behavior. Islam provides the foundation of the Muslims' identity and loyalty; furthermore, most of the large-scale political and social movements in the recent history of the Muslim world are based on Islam as the unifying and motivating force. Today, when it is hard to discern the "meaningful code" of the cultural transformation in world outlook and when it is even harder to place these changes in a spiritual context, Islam is doing a lot to supply adequate answers to the political, economic, and social questions within the umma's own tradition. In fact, the greater role of religion contains no negative elements if it is based on the principles of humanism and the priority of human values. We should not exclude the possibility that social changes might be misinterpreted, however we should not exclude the possibility of changes that might provide important impulses of further development, the fruits of which will be reaped many years later. The bridges which tie together different philosophical points of view decrease the disproportions in the development of human society, which, to a certain extent, is a self-unfolding process calling for humanistic ideals. In Daghestan (and elsewhere), there are certain public and political forces and national movements trying to saddle religious revival and consolidate spiritual life (closely associated with popular national customs and rites) to pursue their own interests. This is true of Christianity and Islam, the republic's two most popular religions. An analysis of the Islamic renaissance in Daghestan reveals three major stages with fairly conventional boundaries and chronology. The same is true of the driving forces, which differ by the degree of their involvement.

La tesi intende analizzare il significato di un sintagma che compare nel decreto legislativo 24 febbraio 1998, n. 58 – Testo unico della Finanza ("TUF"): l'integrità del mercato (o dei mercati), ed al quale appare possibile imputare la natura di principio ordinante sia nell"ambito della disciplina dei mercati finanziari, la revisione della quale è ormai al centro del dibattito dottrinale dopo la crisi che ha colpito il settore, sia nell"ambito dei rapporti tra consumatori e risparmiatori da un lato e istituti di credito, intermediari ed emittenti quotati dall"altro. L'integrità del mercato appare, infatti, principio generale nel quale può risolversi, da un canto, l"attività del legislatore e dei regolatori volta a preservare (o meglio contribuire alla costruzione) di mercati efficienti e pienamente concorrenziali; dall"altro canto, l"individuazione dei più opportuni rimedi, pubblicistici e privatistici a un tempo, volti a tutelare la libertà di scelta degli attori deboli del mercato, i consumatori-investitori. Quanto appena affermato, vale a dire il ruolo bifronte che occorre assegnare all'integrità del mercato, è reso del resto palese anche dalla sua collocazione topografica, all"interno del TUF. Si vedano ad esempio: i. l"art. 6, comma 02, TUF (rubricato "Vigilanza regolamentare") dispone che "Per le materie disciplinate dalla direttiva 2006/73/CE, della Commissione, del 10 agosto 2006 [in tema di requisiti di organizzazione e condizioni di esercizio dell"attività delle imprese di investimento, n.d.a.], la Banca d"Italia e la Consob possono mantenere o imporre nei regolamenti obblighi aggiuntivi a quelli previsti dalla direttiva medesima solo nei casi eccezionali in cui tali obblighi sono obiettivamente giustificati e proporzionati, tenuto conto della necessità di fare fronte a rischi specifici per la protezione degli investitori o l'integrità del mercato" (enfasi aggiunta); ii. l"art. 21, comma 1, lett. a), TUF (rubricato "Criteri generali" e collocate nell"ambito della disciplina delle attività e dei servizi di investimento) prevede che "Nella prestazione dei servizi e delle attività di investimento e accessori i soggetti abilitati devono: a) comportarsi con diligenza, correttezza e trasparenza, per servire al meglio l"interesse dei clienti e per l"integrità dei mercati; […]" (enfasi aggiunta). Nella prima delle disposizioni considerate l'integrità del mercato segna l"obiettivo che le autorità di vigilanza possono porre a fondamento di interventi regolatori straordinari sui mercati; nella seconda, l"integrità dei mercati segna invece lo scopo al quale debbono conformarsi le condotte delle imprese di investimento nell"esercizio della loro attività. In questa prospettiva, l"indagine è stata, quindi, indirizzata a cogliere le potenzialità della integrità del mercato, quale norma di principio o clausola generale dell"ordinamento del mercato. Alla luce del quadro normativo di riferimento, in particolare, la prima alternativa che si è tentato di sciogliere è nella qualificazione da attribuire all"espressione integrità del mercato in termini, appunto, di clausola generale o norma di principio. Sciolta questa alternativa, l"indagine prosegue con una rassegna di economia, oltre che di diritto, allo scopo d"intendere al meglio, e riempire di contenuto, la nozione di mercato e di mercato integro, nonché dei soggetti che ne sono i protagonisti. L"analisi continua poi con una disamina dei fondamentali profili civilistici e regolatori interessati dalla nozione di integrità del mercato e, dunque, sia degli effetti che, sul piano dei rapporti interprivati discendono dalla messa in pericolo o dalla lesione dell"integrità dei mercati; sia delle misure che, sul piano pubblicistico dell"attività di vigilanza, le autorità hanno adottato o possono adottare per assicurare la conservazione dell'integrità del mercato. A questo fine, una volta compiutamente articolato il significato della nozione in parola, si è tentato di verificare se e in che termini l'integrità del mercato necessiti di essere tutelata attraverso i rimedi e le tecniche di tutela proprie del diritto privato accanto agli strumenti tipici di public enforcement per assicurarne l"effettività. Anche in considerazione della novità della tematica affrontata, a conclusione della presente trattazione – e questo è evidentemente il senso della sua titolazione – si è inteso proporre una serie di tematiche utili ad un"agenda di ricerca. A questo scopo l"indagine prova ad evidenziare le interrelazioni sistematiche tra tutele civilistiche e disciplina della vigilanza che sembrano potere discendere dalla analisi del significato di integrità del mercato, ossia di quella che, come detto, può a mio avviso essere definita come norma di principio dell"ordinamento dei mercati, cui regolazione, comportamenti degli emittenti e degli intermediari e più in generale delle imprese, debbono ispirarsi a tutela dei consumatori-investitori e, in definitiva, del nostro attuale sistema economico-politico.

AbstractThis dissertation integrates policy analysis, archival research, ethnographic field work, GIS mapping and statistical analysis to build a broad geo-historical understanding of the role of planning, policy, capital and race in the production of the foreclosure crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area. It begins from the premise that an explanation of the foreclosure crisis that focuses solely on either finance capital or the action of homeowners misses the critical importance of history, geography and planning to the production of crisis. The specific and racialized historical geography of the initial wave of foreclosure in the Bay Area, which like in Southern California is particularly concentrated in newly built suburban and exurban areas which are exceptionally diverse, is evidence of the deeper role of two generations of urban development, regional economics and planning politics in what is too often cast as a `housing problem.' This dissertation argues that thinking about the current problem as an urban crisis forces us to reexamine the dysfunctionality of planning politics at every scale and the reality of a metropolitan geography where hyper-diverse demographic and economic sprawl and geopolitical fragmentation is a historical fact rather than a pending reality. What emerges is an understanding of fragmentation which pushes beyond the state, forcing us to confront a deeper set of divisions based on race, class, environmentalism and capitalist development, divisions which have undermined the urban project that is California and raised serious questions about both resilience and citizenship in the 21st century.The text is constructed in a way that the form itself works to develop a more holistic and grounded way of approaching the regional nature of urban development and the complex politics of regional governance. It begins with a historiography of the Bay Area, one that challenges conceptions of sprawl and fragmentation. It then examines the demographic restructuring of the region through a combination of census data analysis using GIS and ethnographic interviews, arguing that the changes in the region both blurred the lines of traditional American racial segregation which simultaneously producing a more "mobile" form of segregation on a megaregional scale. From this historical and geographic foundation, the argument is built to mimic, in a sense, the scales of the crisis itself. Chapter Three begins a more intense focus on planning institutions, the politics of development and shifting urban economics to show the interaction between decisions and events in eastern Contra Costa County, a portion of the region that saw dramatic growth and a stunning collapse over the past thirty years. This chapter focuses intently on planning, both on the plans that were approved and implemented and ones that died before either approval or implementation, with an eye for the vastly different playing field that these communities faced compared with ones which developed during earlier eras. This focus remains in Chapter Four, which examines the often ignored scale of the county to better understand the production of "edge cities" in Contra Costa County, developments which both restructured the region's labor markets and helped contribute to the growing stagnation of the politics of development. Chapter Five returns to the regional scale, focusing on race and the collective failure of both regional and local institutions to adequately solve the problems of inner core poverty inherited from the postwar era, problems which provided the demographic push for much of eastern Contra Costa County's demographic growth. Chapter Six focuses on the megaregional scale beyond the formal confines of the Bay Area, a challenging level of analysis because of its physical and human scale and lack of political and planning institutions, but made necessary by the fact that this is where the growth - and the foreclosures - are most notable. Finally, the conclusion examines the politics of race and development in the state of California, an analysis which illustrates and critiques the narrowed possibilities inherent to planning during this era. This scalar approach illustrates the broad collective responsibility for the production of crisis, where public and private, local and nonlocal, individual and collective actors all played a role in bringing the Bay Area to this point. It also points to three linked conclusions critical to the future of planning: the need to rethink the state-centered conception of planning, which has never held in the United States; the need to accept and work within the historically fragmented and multi-polar system of cities which has defined places like the San Francisco Bay Area since their founding; and the need to push for a broader and deeper conception of institutional responsibility, where institutions involved in the intentional production of space at all scales and in all sectors - i.e. planners - take responsibility for the "common purpose" that is urbanization and development.

The paper is aimed at provision of legal assessment of the Latgalian language as a variant of Latvian, using mainly the analytical and historical method.Notwithstanding the fact that the Official Language Law recognizes that the Latgalian language is a variant of the Latvian language, there is no absolute clarity with regard to the status of this language and its practical use in formal communication. Also the attitude from public authorities is inexcusably inappropriate – as far as declaring the Latgalian language to be a foreign language. However, from historical point of view the Latgalian language was recognised and applied in official communication, including also judicial proceedings, in Latgale.Positive evaluation has to be given to the discussion, which has been opened with regard to the Latgalian language and its legal status. It should be noted with satisfaction, that their significant contribution is provided also by Latvians from other regions, and edition of "Jurista Vārds" ("Lawyer's Word"), dated 25 October 2011, is a good confirmation. However, the practice is indicative that there is no clarity with regard to legal status of the Latgalian language and its practical use in formal communication. Currently existing approach of the approved establishments on Latvia results from historical prejudices and ignorance.Existence of a number of languages as official state languages is nothing exceptional, and also the dialects or vernaculars may be constitutionally protected and their use can be defined. In evaluation of the constitutional framework also in other countries, a conclusion should be drawn that proper normative strengthening and daily use of the Latgalian language constitutes no threat to the official language. On the contrary, it could be a basis for raising confidence in Latgale, as well as in other regions. Linguistic diversity is the national cultural and historical heritage, which is worth a special appreciation and protection.Although nomenclative designation of the Latgalian language (language of Latgale) should be specified, it is much more important to come to understand the content of this concept in order to clearly denote the language, which is spoken not only in the region of Latgale of the contemporary Latvia, but also beyond, preserving for the language its historic roots.The Latgalian language was recognized to be one of the cornerstones in foundation of the Latvian state when the Latvian state was founded, and it was consistently respected also after the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed. In the normative field forgetting or disregarding of the Latgalian language has started to be present only after K. Ulmanis' coup, while depriving the Latgalian language of its legal status and regulation.With the Official Language Law the Republic of Latvia in a normative way has demonstrated its special attitude towards the Latgalian language. The State has determined not only to protect and at the same time to regulate the Latgalian language, but has assumed even larger active obligation to maintain and to develop the Latgalian language.There are neither legal nor linguistic or logical grounds to declare the Latgalian (Latgale) language (not to say the dialect!) to be a foreign language. The claim that the Latvian literary language is the only one to be recognized as the official language would have to be considered erroneous, because it has no normative basis. Latgalian language meets all requirements for a literary language, i. a., it has approved orthography rules in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Republic of Latvia.Conclusions made by the decision of Senate in case No. A42571907 S–596/2009, dated 18 August 2009, cannot be construed to be legitimate, because these are not only discrepant with legal method, but also clearly contrary to the logic. Declaring the Latgalian language, as well as any dialect to be a foreign language causes great damage to statehood of Latvia, first of all, to the local self-confidence.There is no legal basis to prevent contacts with governmental and local authorities in any vernacular or dialect of Latvian, still less there is a legal basis to limit communication in officially recognised variant of the official language – Latgalian (of Latgale) language.The State in the nearest future should enforce in practice the obligation undertaken by the Official Language Law – "maintenance, protection and development of the Latgalian written language as a historic variant of the Latvian language". Including practical use of the Latgalian language as a variant of the Latvian language should be ensured in communication with governmental and local authorities in the Republic of Latvia according to the existing law. The State should ensure obligations undertaken by the Official Language Law and should guarantee possibilities to apply to the authorities with a document, drawn up in Latgalian. However, the State should not confine itself only to provision of the document circulation in Latgalian, but it should also carry out a series of other real activities, including allocation of necessary funds from the State budget in order to maintain, to protect and to develop the Latgalian language.

于一个国家而言,民众抗争不仅是一个政府治理和治安问题,也是一个战略沟通问题。本研究即选取社会沟通的视角研究当代中国的社会抗争,旨在了解当代中国逐渐开放的抗争话语的演变、产生条件及其深刻意义。 ; 于定量与定性相结合的研究方法,本文分析了1990至2010年间中国政治社会精英关于民众抗争的话语。研究发现在抗争数量和规模不断增长的同时,抗争的话语环境发生了显著变化并向日趋宽松的方向发展。中国的政治领导人正逐步正视民众抗争,官方话语也开始同情抗争者。从对抗争的报道来看,以往严密的媒体审查制度逐渐放宽,重大事件的详细报道得以频见于报端。与此同时,越来越多的人士加入到抗争的公开讨论中,社会抗争成为激烈的社会争论的焦点。 ; 于以上分析,本文认为政治领导人的话语转变可以被理解为执政当局在一党执政和官民矛盾日益激化的特定条件下为促进政策实施和维持政权合法性而采取的手段,知识分子越来越直言不讳地提出批评意见则源于"话语机会结构的扩展。结合这些见解与已有文献表明,当代中国公民抗争和公共话语似乎彼此促进,形成了一个自我强化的循环。 ; 研究意义而言,本研究首先探讨了"话语机会这一概念的价值及其局限性,继而指出民众抗争,精英话语和政权演变之间存在重要的联系。本文发现,只要能够触动社会精英阶层并激起他们的回应,即使是非持续性的,非跨区域性的公民抗争也会带来抗争政治参与空间隐性但却显著的扩展,以及政治话语实践的转变。因此,虽然抗争者没有直接挑战共产党政权,但他们的行动已经从某种程度上促进了中国的政权演变。 ; For the state, popular protest is not merely a problem of governance and policing, but also an issue of strategic communication. Investigating protest in contemporary China from a communicative and elite-centered perspective, this dissertation shows that in parallel to the constantly growing number and scale of protests, the communicative environment of citizen resistance over the last two decades was significantly transformed and liberalized. Based on a mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis of political discourse between 1990 and 2010, the study seeks to understand the evolution, conditions, and significance of this widening discursive opening. ; The research reveals that the Chinese political leadership gradually addressed the problem of popular protest in the open and shifted its discourse towards more protester-sympathizing assessments. Moreover, tight censorship was gradually lifted and detailed accounts of major protest events emerged in the news media. In parallel to these developments, the topic became accessible to a growing circle of speakers and eventually emerged at the center of a lively and increasingly critical public debate. ; Based on this assessment, the present study argues that the political leadership's discourse can be rendered intelligible as a policy endeavor and a regime-legitimating instrument under the particular conditions of one-party ...

本文回顧了前近代時期中國傳統婦產科一門的醫學沿革與歐美產科醫學的「現代化」過程,追溯了西方婦產醫學自19世紀中期以來傳入廣州的發展軌跡。同時將目光聚焦於傳統醫學與19世紀傳入廣州的西方醫學,並將兩種體系進行比較。發現在不同的情況下二者表現出不同的利弊,無法評價其各自方法之優劣。而由傳教士所帶來的西法接生因為其統一、規範的操作被務實的廣州人所接受,並被善堂採用而作為慈善服務的一種,從而在廣州傳播並得到普及。可見,在廣州的西化過程中,是國人將適合自身的西方事物融入到本地社會生活中,並在不斷的磨合中完成「現代化」,而非國人克服種種困難,不斷地追求科學等現代指標。 ; 此外,本文描繪廣州社會在20世紀初期接納「西法接生」,並將其作為一種摩登的接生方法而運用的歷史。受教會訓練的「女醫生」已成為一種正當的職業在社會上存在,「西法接生」這種由西醫外科衍變而來的技術為女醫生所利用,成為她們執業的亮點。通過善堂的贈接生善舉,「西法接生」在廣州的認知度得以提升,直至政府將婦女生產納入其衛生行政體系,並對接生從業者加以規管。可見,廣州婦女分娩的「現代化」並非得力於政府衛生行政的推動,而是在更早時期自發出現的。 ; 通過比較香港、北京、廣州、上海四地政府對助產人員的規管條例,不同城市顯示出各自的特色。北京、上海借助西方公共衛生行政管理方法,集中對產婆進行培訓、登記,使其接生操作符合衛生行政要求,從而建立出一套適應中國社情的混合式制度,並以這一模式進行婦女生產的「現代化」。在中國醫療西化的過程中,不同的地方社會有著不同的衛生行政管理軌跡。 ; This article examines the introduction, development, and proliferation of western Obstetrics, in particular the Midwifery, in Canton from 1860s to 1930s. By comparing and contrasting treatment of childbirth by traditional Chinese Midwifery in pre-modern period, especially the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Western Midwifery brought to Canton in this period, it is concluded that, subscribed to each distinctive medical theories, the two applied different views and strategies on the course of childbirth. Nevertheless, from an overall perspective, western Midwifery didn't display obvious advantages compared with the Chinese traditional one. During the period of 1890s and 1920s, local philanthropic organizations actively promoted the approach and benefits of western midwifery to the local community to the childbirth modernity. ; In addition, the modernization on childbirth in Canton was different to which in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In Beijing and Shanghai, the Municipal Governments established a new blended system legislating the centralized training and registration of traditional midwives to archive childbirth modernization with the application of western public health methods. In Canton, on the contrary, a large number of young women who have had more systematic classes and professional western medical training actively in missionary or local ...

Der Beitrag ist die erste detaillierte Untersuchung der "Richtlinien für die außergerichtliche Novation bei Einzelschuldnern" (fortan: Richtlinien) und ergänzt eine vorläufige Übersetzung der japanischen Originalversion ins Englische durch die Autoren. Unmittelbarer Auslöser für die Veröffentlichung der Richtlinien im August 2011 war die sog. "Doppelkreditkrise", womit die Lage bezeichnet wird, in der sich einige Opfer des großen Erdbebens in Ostjapan befinden, die der doppelten Belastung ausgesetzt sind, bestehende Kredite zurückzahlen zu müssen und sich gleichzeitig um Mittel für ihren Lebensunterhalt und zum Wiederaufbau ihrer Unternehmen und Eigenheime bemühen müssen. Die Richtlinien sind darauf angelegt, natürlichen Personen (kojin) die Überwindung solch harter finanzieller Umstände zu erleichtern. Sie wurden rasch geschnürt und gelten seit dem 22. August 2011, aber bauen auf anderen, in Japan bestehenden außergerichtlichen Verfahren auf, die sich mit der Insolvenz von Unternehmen befassen, einschließlich der "Richtlinien für die außergerichtliche Novation bei Gläubigermehrheit" (fortan: Unternehmensrichtlinien), des Verfahrens von Japans "Industrial Revitalization Commission" und der "Enterprise Revitalization ADR Procedure". Das Verfahren und der Wortlaut der Richtlinien basieren weitgehend auf den Unternehmensrichtlinien und enthalten Änderungen, um den Schwerpunkt der Richtlinien auf die Privatinsolvenz sowie ihren Bezug zu den Auswirkungen der Katastrophe widerzuspiegeln. Der Beitrag kommentiert die einzelnen Vorschriften der Richtlinien ausführlich und vergleicht sie mit den bereits bestehenden, förmlichen Insolvenzverfahren in Japan. Die Richtlinien spiegeln typisch japanische Techniken der Gesetzesabfassung und die Meinungsvielfalt unter den Verfassern wider. Einige Probleme waren wohl zu umstritten, um endgültige und definitive Antworten zu geben, andere scheinen absichtlich unklar belassen worden zu sein, um es den Marktteilnehmer zu überlassen, die Richtlinien an individuelle Fälle anzupassen. Der Beitrag untersucht auch die politische Dynamik und die Akteure, die auf die Schaffung der Richtlinien hingewirkt haben, und vertritt die Auffassung, dass deren eingeschränkter Erfolg nicht nur auf eine mangelhafte Öffentlichkeitsarbeit zurückzuführen ist. Zwar schätzt die Regierung, dass bis zu 20.000 Bürger zur Inanspruchnahme der Richtlinien berechtigt sind, tatsächlich haben aber nur sehr wenige sie bislang in Anspruch genommen: Obwohl über 2000 Beratungen stattfanden, wurden in den ersten zwölf Monaten nur 300 individuelle Fälle eingereicht. Der Beitrag untersucht den Stand der Umsetzung der Richtlinien und vertritt die Auffassung, dass solcherlei informelle Mechanismen trotz ihrer anfänglichen "Kinderkrankheiten" in einem funktionierenden Insolvenzrechtssystem eine wichtige Rolle spielen müssten. Sie gäben den modernen japanischen Insolvenzverfahren zusätzliche Flexibilität und spiegelten die globalen Tendenzen im Umgang mit in finanziellen Schwierigkeiten befindlichen Schuldnern wider. Japans Gerichte bauten ebenso auf einer Tradition der flexiblen Lösung praktischer Probleme auf, die sich aus bestimmten Umständen der Insolvenz ergeben, was sich für die Opfer der Katastrophe positiv auswirken sollte. Gläubiger haben angesichts der Tatsache, dass sie rechtlich keinesfalls zur Zustimmung zu einer Reduzierung oder einem Erlass der Schuld verpflichtet sind, bei der Anwendung der Richtlinien wenig zu verlieren. Jedoch gibt es vereinzelte Berichte, nach denen Kreditinstitute Novationen individuell mit den Schuldnern aushandeln und so vorteilhaftere Bedingungen erzielen, als sie im Rahmen der Richtlinien erreichbar wären. Möglicherweise werden sich Kreditinstitute in Zukunft mit gesellschaftlichem und politischem Druck konfrontiert sehen, die Katastrophenopfer über die Existenz der Richtlinien besser zu informieren und Ratenzahlungsvereinbarungen häufiger zuzustimmen.(dt. Übers. durch d. Red.) ; This article presents the first detailed English-language analysis of the Guidelines for Individual Debtor Out-of-Court Workouts ('Guidelines') and complements a tentative translation of the original Japanese version translated into English by the authors. The immediate catalyst for the publication of the Guidelines in August 2011 was the socalled 'double loan crisis', which refers to the situation where some victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake are suffering from the double hardship of paying out existing loans whilst seeking new finance to rebuild lives, businesses and homes; the Guidelines are designed to help individuals (kojin) overcome such financial hardship. The Guidelines were pulled together very quickly and commenced operation on 22 August 2011, but they build on other established out-of-court procedures in Japan dealing with corporate insolvency, including the Guidelines for Multi-Creditor Out-of-Court Workouts ('Corporate Guidelines'), the operation of Japan's Industrial Revitalization Commission and the Enterprise Revitalisation ADR Procedure. The procedure and wording of the Guidelines are closely based on the Corporate Guidelines with amendments to reflect the Guidelines' focus on personal insolvency and dealing with the aftermath of a disaster. The article gives a detailed commentary of the Guidelines' provisions and compares them to existing formal Japanese insolvency procedures. The Guidelines reflect typical Japanese legislative drafting techniques and the variety of opinions held by the diverse group of drafters. Some issues may have been controversial for the drafters to provide final and definitive pronouncements, and others may have been left deliberately ambiguous to allow market participants the chance to adapt the Guidelines to individual cases. The article also examines the drivers and stakeholders which led to the Guidelines' creation, and argues that their limited success is not just due to a failure in public relations. The government estimated that up to 20,000 people might be eligible for the Guidelines, but very few people have benefited from the Guidelines. Only 300 individual plans were filed in the first 12 months of the Guidelines operation, despite over 2000 consultations being facilitated. The article examines the current status and operation of the Guidelines and argues that these types of informal mechanisms have an important role to play in a functioning insolvency regime, despite some initial teething problems. They also provide additional flexibility to Japan's modern insolvency procedures and reflect global trends for dealing with debtors in financial hardship. Japanese courts are also building on a tradition of flexibly resolving practical issues arising out of specific insolvency circumstances, which should lead to better outcomes for disaster victims. Creditors have little to lose in utilising the Guidelines given that they are under no legal obligation to consent to any debt reduction or release, but there is anecdotal evidence that financial institutions are individually negotiating workouts directly with debtors and obtaining terms more favourable to the institutions than what they might otherwise achieve under the Guidelines. Financial institutions may find themselves under social and political pressure to highlight the existence of the Guidelines to disaster victims and agree to more payment plan proposals in future.

Nuestra investigación se centró fundamentalmente en las distintas formas en que las derechas respondieron a los conflictos suscitados en el mundo del trabajo durante el período de entreguerras. En primer lugar, advertimos que la cuestión social fue adquiriendo un rol protagónico en la agenda nacionalista tal como puede verse, por ejemplo, a través del análisis de los periódicos. En efecto, los diarios más importantes adscriptos al nacionalismo desarrollaron un discurso radical respecto a los problemas sociales e incluyeron secciones específicas para tratar estas cuestiones y expresar una posición al respecto. Las respuestas del nacionalismo argentino frente a la cuestión obrera han sido múltiples y han abarcado distintas esferas de la vida social. Lejos de esperar que la solución a los problemas sociales proviniera exclusivamente de las medidas restrictivas y represivas hacia el movimiento obrero, los nacionalistas elaboraron programas sociales, políticos, económicos y culturales que formaron parte de su proyecto de nación autoritaria y jerárquica. Los proyectos sociales y las propuestas de organización sindical fueron en gran parte inspirados por los fascismos europeos los cuales incluyeron programas de contención social dentro de un orden político totalitario. En este sentido los nacionalistas argentinos intentaron mediante sus propuestas imponer un orden que contemplara las necesidades básicas de los sectores populares y que preservara las jerarquías sociales limitando la participación política o sindical de los trabajadores y eliminando definitivamente alas fuerzas de la izquierda revolucionaria. Las organizaciones obreras nacionalistas incluyeron todo tipo de trabajadores en sus filas y procuraron captar tanto a los afiliados de los sindicatos autónomos como a los trabajadores socialistas. Algunas de estas organizaciones fueron efímeras mientras que otras tuvieron más éxito y lograron atraer adherentes. Las mismas conformaron la corriente que hemos denominado nacionalismo sindicalista, la cual desarrolló su propia doctrina social fuertemente influenciada por las encíclicas papales. Las manifestaciones nacionalistas en el espacio público porteño han sido también analizadas in extenso. Existieron distintos tipos de manifestaciones para movilizar a los seguidores del nacionalismo y para captar nuevos adherentes, especialmente aquellos provenientes de los sectores populares. Las manifestaciones se convirtieron en el escenario de las disputas ideológicas mantenidas tanto contra la política liberal como contra la revolucionaria. La "revolución nacionalista", según la formulaban sus partidarios, implicaba trascender los aspectos políticos y económicos incorporando transformaciones en otras áreas de la vida social: las costumbres, las formas de vida, los gustos culturales, los valores. Los nacionalistas advirtieron que para lograr este tipo de "revolución" debían hacer usa de los medios de comunicación masivos y diseñar proyectos para regular las industrias culturales. El objetivo de representar a los sectores populares fracasó rotundamente. El discurso nacionalista que condenaba la diversidad étnico-religiosa, que amenazaba con eliminar las distintas voces políticas existentes, y que expresaba un odio visceral a sus enemigos (ya fueran judíos, anarquistas, comunistas, o liberales) fue extremadamente desafortunado para quienes procuraron ensanchar las bases de un movimiento antidemocrático originalmente elitista que, a la luz del contexto internacional y de las condiciones locales, devino en populista. ; Our research is mainly focused on the different ways in which the right addressed the conflicts arising in the labor world during the interwar period. Firstly, it was observed that the social question developed a leading role in the nationalist agenda, as can be seen, for example, through the newspapers analysis. In fact, major newspapers appointing to nationalism developed a radical speech on social problems and included specific sections to deal with these issues and to express their position on the matter. The Argentine nationalism achieved several responses to the social question, including various aspects of the social life. Rather than waiting for a solution to social problems coming exclusively from the restrictive and repressive measures toward the labor movement, nationalists developed social, political, economic and cultural programmes which were part of their project towards an authoritary and hierarchical nation. Social projects and proposals for union organization were largely inspired by the European fascism, which included social care programmes within a totalitarian political order. The Argentine nationalists tried to impose an order taking into account the basic needs of the popular sectors and keeping social hierarchies, limiting workers political or union participation, and eliminating definitively the leftist revolutionary forces. National labor organizations included all types of workers into their ranks and sought to capture both the autonomous trade union members and the socialist workers. Some of these organizations were short-lived while others were more successful and managed to capture adherents. They formed the so called labor nacionalism union current, which developed its own social doctrine, strongly influenced by the papal encyclicals. The nationalist demonstrations in public spaces have also been largely analysed. (CONTENIDO PARCIAL) ; Fil: Rubinzal, Mariela. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Nuestra investigación se centró fundamentalmente en las distintas formas en que las derechas respondieron a los conflictos suscitados en el mundo del trabajo durante el período de entreguerras. En primer lugar, advertimos que la cuestión social fue adquiriendo un rol protagónico en la agenda nacionalista tal como puede verse, por ejemplo, a través del análisis de los periódicos. En efecto, los diarios más importantes adscriptos al nacionalismo desarrollaron un discurso radical respecto a los problemas sociales e incluyeron secciones específicas para tratar estas cuestiones y expresar una posición al respecto. Las respuestas del nacionalismo argentino frente a la cuestión obrera han sido múltiples y han abarcado distintas esferas de la vida social. Lejos de esperar que la solución a los problemas sociales proviniera exclusivamente de las medidas restrictivas y represivas hacia el movimiento obrero, los nacionalistas elaboraron programas sociales, políticos, económicos y culturales que formaron parte de su proyecto de nación autoritaria y jerárquica. Los proyectos sociales y las propuestas de organización sindical fueron en gran parte inspirados por los fascismos europeos los cuales incluyeron programas de contención social dentro de un orden político totalitario. En este sentido los nacionalistas argentinos intentaron mediante sus propuestas imponer un orden que contemplara las necesidades básicas de los sectores populares y que preservara las jerarquías sociales limitando la participación política o sindical de los trabajadores y eliminando definitivamente alas fuerzas de la izquierda revolucionaria. Las organizaciones obreras nacionalistas incluyeron todo tipo de trabajadores en sus filas y procuraron captar tanto a los afiliados de los sindicatos autónomos como a los trabajadores socialistas. Algunas de estas organizaciones fueron efímeras mientras que otras tuvieron más éxito y lograron atraer adherentes. Las mismas conformaron la corriente que hemos denominado nacionalismo sindicalista, la cual desarrolló su propia doctrina social fuertemente influenciada por las encíclicas papales. Las manifestaciones nacionalistas en el espacio público porteño han sido también analizadas in extenso. Existieron distintos tipos de manifestaciones para movilizar a los seguidores del nacionalismo y para captar nuevos adherentes, especialmente aquellos provenientes de los sectores populares. Las manifestaciones se convirtieron en el escenario de las disputas ideológicas mantenidas tanto contra la política liberal como contra la revolucionaria. La "revolución nacionalista", según la formulaban sus partidarios, implicaba trascender los aspectos políticos y económicos incorporando transformaciones en otras áreas de la vida social: las costumbres, las formas de vida, los gustos culturales, los valores. Los nacionalistas advirtieron que para lograr este tipo de "revolución" debían hacer usa de los medios de comunicación masivos y diseñar proyectos para regular las industrias culturales. El objetivo de representar a los sectores populares fracasó rotundamente. El discurso nacionalista que condenaba la diversidad étnico-religiosa, que amenazaba con eliminar las distintas voces políticas existentes, y que expresaba un odio visceral a sus enemigos (ya fueran judíos, anarquistas, comunistas, o liberales) fue extremadamente desafortunado para quienes procuraron ensanchar las bases de un movimiento antidemocrático originalmente elitista que, a la luz del contexto internacional y de las condiciones locales, devino en populista. ; Our research is mainly focused on the different ways in which the right addressed the conflicts arising in the labor world during the interwar period. Firstly, it was observed that the social question developed a leading role in the nationalist agenda, as can be seen, for example, through the newspapers analysis. In fact, major newspapers appointing to nationalism developed a radical speech on social problems and included specific sections to deal with these issues and to express their position on the matter. The Argentine nationalism achieved several responses to the social question, including various aspects of the social life. Rather than waiting for a solution to social problems coming exclusively from the restrictive and repressive measures toward the labor movement, nationalists developed social, political, economic and cultural programmes which were part of their project towards an authoritary and hierarchical nation. Social projects and proposals for union organization were largely inspired by the European fascism, which included social care programmes within a totalitarian political order. The Argentine nationalists tried to impose an order taking into account the basic needs of the popular sectors and keeping social hierarchies, limiting workers political or union participation, and eliminating definitively the leftist revolutionary forces. National labor organizations included all types of workers into their ranks and sought to capture both the autonomous trade union members and the socialist workers. Some of these organizations were short-lived while others were more successful and managed to capture adherents. They formed the so called labor nacionalism union current, which developed its own social doctrine, strongly influenced by the papal encyclicals. The nationalist demonstrations in public spaces have also been largely analysed. (CONTENIDO PARCIAL) ; Fil: Rubinzal, Mariela. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Capítulo de un libro editado por el profesor José Luis Rodriguez. En proceso de publicación (2012). ; Las relaciones entre el ejército y la sociedad, entre los soldados y las mujeres, entre la escena internacional y las funciones de género, tienen en el mundo contemporáneo y occidental una larga tradición de usos difíciles e insanos. De entre ellos no ha sido menor la condición largamente pasiva de las mujeres en las acciones ofensivas y defensivas de los modernos Estados-Nación. Si la cultura del patriotismo – en ocasiones mal entendido - de las mujeres fue intensamente fomentada en los Imperios de Centro Europa, también lo fue la radical dicotomía ochocentista entre lo privado y lo público que hacía uso del ejército como herramienta cercenadora, entre hombres y mujeres: a cada cual su parte en el esfuerzo. En el siglo XX, mujeres y ejércitos tuvieron no obstante que trabar acuerdos, en origen imprecisos ciertamente. Véanse los intereses compartidos al hilo de los puntuales esfuerzos de guerra como consecuencia del estallido de las dos conflagraciones mundiales. De dichos tratos las mujeres apenas si sacaron en limpio unas cofias de enfermera, unos uniformes de telegrafista y, lo más frecuente, unos mandiles de cocinar con que protegerse de las salpicaduras tras el mostrador de las cantinas. La vocación femenina contemporánea de incorporación a la soldadesca fue temprana y se había consumado inicialmente bajo engaños o argucias no muy lucidos – con uniformes, barbas y bigotes que cubrían el curvilíneo cuerpo de las chicas en las guerras del XIX, por ejemplo en la de Secesión Americana - y, solo en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, auspiciada por el avance de las legislaciones internacionales a propósito de la igualdad entre las personas con independencia de su raza o sexo. Ya en el terreno de la sociedad internacional de las últimas décadas las mujeres han encontrado un ámbito propicio al desarrollo pleno de sus intereses profesionales, también en el ejército. Siendo este un campo de estudio muy vasto en otras academias universitarias, especialmente en la anglosajona, en España es aún un área de estudio de escaso recorrido entre los historiadores contemporaneistas si bien con un enorme potencial. En las páginas que siguen se aborda alguna de las cuestiones referidas: feminismos y militarismos, mujeres en los ejércitos, sociedad internacional y mujeres a propósito de las misiones internacionales, con alusiones concretas al caso español. ; Relationship between the army and society, between soldiers and women, between the international scene and gender roles have, in contemporary western world, a long tradition of difficult and insane uses. The long tradition of women passiveness about the offensive and defensive actions at modern States has not been a minor topic in history. If the culture of women patriotism –often misunderstood- was intensely promoted by the Center Europe Empires States at 19th, also there was a radical dichotomy between the private and the public sphere that used armies as cutting tools: men and women each one on their own way and doing their own part in the common effort. In the 20th century women and armies have been forced nevertheless to unite agreements. For example they had to share interests at punctual efforts because of war, as a consequence of the snap of the both World Wars, the firth and the seconds one. Because of the above mentioned treatments, women got just a few advantages: a nurse's head-dresses, a few telegrapher's uniforms and, the most frequent thing, a few aprons of cooking to be protected with from the splashes in the soldier canteens. The feminine contemporary vocation of incorporation to the military profession was early and initially completed under deceptions -by uniforms, beards and moustaches, that were covering the curvilinear body of the girls in the 19th wars, for example in that of American Secession- and, just in the second half of the 20th century, supported by the advance of the international legislations about the equality between people with independence of his race or sex. During the last decades international society, women have found a propitious area to the full development of their professional interests, also in the army. Being this a field of very vast study in other university academies and cultures, especially in the Anglo-Saxon ones, in Spain it is nevertheless still a scanty tour area of Modern and Recent History, so there is a wide future about these studies. In the pages that continue there is an approach to someone of the above-mentioned questions: feminisms and militarisms, women in the armies, international society recent history and women in the international missions for peace, looking indeed at the Spanish modern experiences.

Services based on information technology in public and private sectors are growing. Therefore, the energy demand is more and more important to supply computer equipments within organizations and data-centers. So, environmental impacts of ICT are mostly "delocalised" and "invisible" from the end user.Gradually, the environmental issue takes place in the sector of information technology resulting in the new concept of the "Green IT". Nowadays, designers and users are seeking to assess the environmental impacts of information technology. In a context of environmental assessment for decision-making, the objective of this thesis is to assess the environmental impacts of devices of an organization. For this, we consider an approach to combine a product LCA approach with an inventory of data specific to a site.Literature searches have highlighted the specific and methodological needs in terms of impact assessment. Thus, a methodology for the expression of local and global environmental impacts associated with the production and use stages of information technology present within an organization is proposed. Applied in a partnership with a multinational society and validated by its application in a research laboratory, this methodology centralizes both generic data available in databases and specific data collected from users of the organization studied. This phase, key point of the methodology, provides firstly an inventory of present equipments and secondly the knowledge and comprehension of the actual behavior of users by the way of both a survey plus power and electric consumption measurements of representative equipments of the panel inventoried (use of acquisition boxes of values known as "energy meter").The environmental assessment approach developed in this work aims to highlight the environmental impact of the information technology's equipments within an organization. One of the main results shows that the most environmental impacts are due to the production phase than the use phase. Moreover, the method helps to identify areas for improvement: selection and equipment management, individual behavior, usage policy, choice of an eco-friendly policy. So, by a calculation of eco-efficiency involving environmental and economic gains, solutions responding to the development strategy of the organization studied can be selected. ; Les services basés sur les technologies de l'information dans les secteurs publics et privés sont en pleine croissance. Par conséquent, la demande énergétique est de plus en plus importante pour alimenter les équipements informatiques au sein des établissements utilisateurs et dans les data-centres. A cette phase de consommation, facilement identifiable par les utilisateurs, s'ajoute la phase de production des équipements dont les conséquences sur l'environnement sont difficilement perceptibles par les utilisateurs. Ainsi, les impacts environnementaux des TIC paraissent principalement « délocalisés » et « invisibles » par rapport à l'utilisateur final.Progressivement, l'enjeu environnemental prend sa place dans la logique du secteur des technologies de l'information, aboutissant au concept de « Green IT ». Concepteurs et utilisateurs cherchent désormais à évaluer les impacts environnementaux des technologies de l'information. Dans un contexte d'évaluation environnementale pour l'aide à la décision, l'objectif de cette thèse est d'évaluer les impacts environnementaux des équipements informatiques d'une organisation. Pour cela, nous envisageons une démarche qui vise à enrichir l'approche produit de type ACV par l'ajout de données spécifiques à l'organisation étudiée.Les recherches bibliographiques ont permis de dégager les spécificités et les besoins méthodologiques en termes d'évaluation des impacts. Ainsi, une méthodologie permettant l'expression des impacts environnementaux locaux et planétaires liés à la fabrication et à l'utilisation des technologies de l'information au sein d'une organisation est proposée. Appliquée lors d'un partenariat avec une entreprise multinationale de la grande distribution et validée par son application dans un centre de recherche, cette méthodologie centralise à la fois des données génériques disponibles dans des bases de données et des données spécifiques recueillies auprès des utilisateurs de l'organisation étudiée. Cette étape de terrain, point central de la méthodologie, permet dans un premier temps d'obtenir l'inventaire des équipements présents et dans un second temps de connaître et de comprendre le comportement réel des utilisateurs via une enquête et des mesures de puissances et de consommations électriques des équipements représentatifs du panel inventorié (utilisation de boitiers d'acquisition de valeurs dits « économètre »).L'approche d'évaluation environnementale des systèmes informatiques développée au cours de ce travail a pour objectif de mettre en exergue les répercussions sur l'environnement que peuvent avoir les technologies de l'information au sein d'une organisation. Un des résultats principaux montre que la majorité des impacts environnementaux sont plus liés à la phase de production qu'à la phase d'utilisation. De plus, cette méthode aide à l'identification des pistes d'améliorations : choix et gestion des équipements, comportement individuel, charte d'utilisation, choix d'une politique éco-responsable… Ainsi, par un calcul d'éco-efficience mettant en jeu les gains environnementaux et économiques, les solutions répondant à la stratégie de développement de l'organisation étudiée peuvent être sélectionnées.

Despite the well-known importance to human society and environment, the deforestation and degradation of forests continues at an alarming rate. The many efforts made in the past to reduce the loss and destruction of forests, have had no significant impact on the negative development of forest areas. In the light of global climate change, the role of forests as the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir and in the global carbon cycle has gained relevance. A new mechanism to reduce the deforestation and degradation of tropical forests called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) was introduced to the climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Montreal in 2005. REDD aims to assign a monetary value to the carbon stored in forests and to reward developing countries for the reduction of their deforestation and forest degradation rates. Since the first submission, the debate on scientific, political and public levels has led to many valuable amendments to the initial proposal, including the integration of the conservation of forest carbon stocks, the sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks, nowadays termed REDD+. While the initial concept of REDD appears simple, its implementation requires the careful harmonization of a multitude of topics. The following comprehensive summary presents the major topics that need to be considered for a successful implementation of REDD+. One of these topics is the establishment of a Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system. The three articles that constitute this cumulative dissertation focus on the development and characteristics of a MRV system to assess changes in forest area and forest carbon stock. The first part of the comprehensive summary presents the thematic context of the three articles. This thematic context consists of the major topics associated with the implementation of REDD+. It introduces the initial concept of REDD and presents main terms and definitions. Then, the 'Framework of REDD+' focuses on the 'Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation', the implementation of REDD+ as a 'Phased Approach', the 'Financial Aspects of REDD+', the possibilities and implications of setting 'Forest reference (emission) levels' and the 'Safeguards', concluded by explanations of 'Additionality, Permanence and Leakage'. After this, the summary presents the 'Core issues of REDD+ for the thesis'. These are 'Deforestation', 'Forest Degradation', 'Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) for REDD+' and 'Uncertainties'. These issues form the pillars on which the three articles of this cumulative dissertation are based. The second part of the comprehensive summary integrates the three articles into the thematic context. The first article focusses on the development and implementation of a combined inventory approach for REDD+. It demonstrates how reliable estimates of forest carbon stocks and its changes over time can be made with the introduced methodology. The second article analyses the influence of uncertainties and monitoring costs on the accountability of emission reductions. It shows that uncertainties may outweigh successful efforts in the reduction of emission and that the influence of uncertainties on the successful implementation of REDD+ is higher than the influence of the price paid per ton of carbon. The third article focuses on the influence of uncertainties at two points in time and different sizes of forest degradation areas on accountable emission reductions. It shows that rules for the propagation of uncertainties from one period to another are needed and that the size of forest degradation areas has a major impact on the accountability of emission reductions. Each article is presented with a short summary of the applied methods and gained results, followed by a discussion of the respective article in the thematic context, showing the implications and recommendations of the findings for the issues presented in the first part. On the basis of the articles and their discussion in the thematic context, specific conclusions on the capabilities and the deficiencies of terrestrial forest inventory systems in the assessment of forest degradation in the scope of REDD+ are drawn. The first part of the conclusions shows that terrestrial forest inventory techniques are capable of assessing and estimating forest degradation, and readily available for the implementation of a MRV system. The second part shows that there are deficiencies in the applicability of these techniques such as high costs or difficulties in assessing remote areas and that terrestrial forest inventories alone cannot provide the required level of completeness for a credible MRV system. The comprehensive summary is completed by a general conclusion on ways to overcome the remaining deficiencies. The complete versions of the three articles are attached in the Annex.

The winter months of 2011/2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of full-scale warfare in the highlands of Nagorno-Karabakh, de jure an Azerbaijani enclave inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and controlled by the latter and an unrecognized republic that has essentially been claiming independence since the final days of the Soviet Union. The armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas, which with various levels of intensity lasted from the end of the 1980s until 1994 when a ceasefire brokered by Moscow was signed, has greatly shaped the post-Soviet independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan, contributing to the long-term fragmentation of the Southern Caucasus and complicating its integration into world affairs. Indeed, the fundamentals of the regional power constellation that has endured since then were laid down at the beginning of the 1990s, with the Karabakh conflict playing a significant role in it. As of yet, years after the end of the Karabakh war, a definite solution to the conflict still seems to be out of sight, with both the Azerbaijani and the Armenian governments occasionally making use of militarist rhetoric in order to either reverse the current status quo in their favor or ensure it, respectively. Small-scale fighting in the borderline areas of the disputed territory has never completely stopped, and every year hundreds of Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers fall victim to occasional positional warfare. Importantly, the foreign political agendas of Baku and Erevan have been heavily centered on the Karabakh issue, with Azerbaijan routinely investing billions of dollars of its oil and natural gas revenues in the improvement of its military capabilities and advocating on the international scene for regaining the territories lost in the conflict. Like other post-Soviet states, Armenia has also recently been experiencing what a number of commentators both inside and outside this South Caucasian country regard as a certain reduction in the nation's economic independence in favor of Russia. Vis-à-vis Baku's prospective attempts to restore its territorial integrity by launching a renewed war effort in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenians consider the rather significant concessions the Armenian Republic has made to its major ally north of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range with respect to its economic and political autonomy to be instrumental in containing the Azerbaijani (and Turkish) threat. As a "lesser evil," they are still being accepted by mainstream Armenian public opinion, even though opposition opinions are articulated from time to time by local intellectuals. Interestingly, many Armenian politicians tend to point at Moscow's stance in the 2008 Russo-Georgian war over South Ossetia; according to the prevailing view, it indicated the Kremlin's commitment to defend its remaining bastions in the Southern Caucasus providing full-scale support of its allies. However controversial Russia's role in the current stage of conflicts on the Georgian and Azerbaijani periphery, the details of the Nagorno-Karabakh war with regard to Russia's involvement in it still remain largely unclear. Yet an understanding of Moscow's policy toward the chronologically first armed conflict that occurred in the Soviet Union and continued following its dissolution is instrumental in realizing Russia's attitude toward the Southern Caucasus in general and Armenia and Azerbaijan in particular. However, Russian policy in the Southern Caucasus cannot be viewed separately, as it is interconnected with the policies of the other geopolitical actors in the region. Historically, the struggle for the Southern Caucasus has been among Turkey, Iran, and Russia. Due to Iran's recent more passive policy, Turkey and Russia were regarded as the main contenders for the status of regional superpower. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Turkey's South Caucasian policy was significantly activated, which in turn was conditioned by several factors. First of all, Russia's political impact on the former "Soviet territories" was sensibly reduced, which gave other "interested parties" an opportunity to realize their geostrategic plans. Besides the traditional regional players, the West, especially the United States, also began actively showing its interests in the strategically vital regions of the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. NATO member and pro-Western Turkey was regarded as the best counterbalance to Russia's influence and Islamist Iran's possible political comeback. This is the reason Turkey was heavily supported by the West in its attempts to become a regional superpower. However, Turkey itself had its own interests and plans, which in some respects coincided with those of the West. The dispute around Nagorno-Karabakh was used effectively by all the regional rivals, including Turkey and Russia, as grounds for realizing their strategic goals. This article is an attempt to shed light on the evolution of Russian and Turkish policy toward the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between 1991 and 1994 and show how it has affected these countries' attitude toward the post-Soviet nations of Armenia and Azerbaijan.