Suchergebnisse

Aquest número comença amb l´article de Mireia Alcón i José Luis Menéndez sobre el paradigma de l´avaluació autèntica i la contribució específica de les rúbriques al disseny i implantació de sistemes d´avaluació coherents amb el paradigma esmentat. La literatura especialitzada ha insistit en la vinculació de l´avaluació autèntica amb la idea d´una avaluació posada al servei de l´aprenentatge. Així ho demostra l´èmfasi en que l´avaluació se centri en l´acompliment dels estudiants respecte de problemes rellevants en entorns socials i professionals. També, l´èmfasi en que l´avaluació estigui alineat amb els altres components del context educatiu donat que, sense aquesta coherència, és impossible aconseguir els aprenentatges que suposa una educació basada en competències. Tanmateix, hom ha insistit menys en el potencial que té l´avaluació autèntica per reorganitzar l´activitat docent del professorat i per a la millora dels currículums. Aquest model requereix una reflexió compartida del professorat sobre l´àmbit professional i la pròpia cultura acadèmica de la disciplina, sobre el perfil del titulat, sobre els objectius d´aprenentatge i llur integració coherent en el pla d´estudis, i sobre els entorns didàctics més adequats per tal que l´estudiant assoleixi els resultats previstos. Perquè només des d´aquesta perspectiva pot implantar-se una avaluació autèntica. En l´article, els autors insisteixen en una idea similar en relació amb les rúbriques. A banda d´ésser instruments d´avaluació, aquestes han d´ésser considerades també recursos educatius que permetin a l´estudiant enjudiciar i resoldre problemes importants del seu àmbit disciplinari en diàleg constant amb els seus companys i professors. Pel professorat, el disseny i la utilització de rúbriques són un motiu d´anàlisi i discussió concret, però activen simultàniament una consciència més profunda i una major responsabilitat sobre la seva pràctica professional. L´autenticitat segueix present en l´article d´Eva Gregori sobre la validesa d´un model de carpeta d´aprenentatge utilitzat en el grau de Belles Arts. La validesa no és una condició suficient per afirmar l´autenticitat d´un sistema d´avaluació, però sí que en constitueix una de les seves condicions necessàries. Un sistema d´avaluació pot ésser perfectament vàlid perquè les inferències que genera respecte els aprenentatges dels estudiants són adequades i útils per aconseguir aquests aprenentatges. No obstant, aquest sistema d´avaluació pot valorar resultats d´aprenentatge que no són rellevats en contextos socioprofessionals reals. De fet, la transferència i generalització dels judicis vàlids sobre l´aprenentatge dels estudiants depèn de la pertinença, importància, amplitud i profunditat dels citats aprenentatges, cosa que confereix interès a aquells judicis vàlids en contextos educatius més amplis. L´autora aborda l´assumpte des de la perspectiva contrària: d´acord amb la literatura especialitzada, reconeix l´autenticitat de la carpeta per ser un recurs en el que l´estudiant justifica i exemplifica el seu procés i resultats d´aprenentatge per, acte seguit, demostrar la validesa del model de carpeta emprat. L`anàlisi inclou un examen dels constructes en els quals es va organitzar la carpeta i de la seva consistència interna, per demostrar la coherència amb els objectius d´aprenentatge i la seva adequació al context educatiu. Un examen de la càrrega de treball dels estudiants en llur elaboració i de les qualificacions obtingudes li serveixen per justificar la seva adequació al perfil de l´estudiant de nou ingrés en la titulació analitzada. L´assumpte de l´avaluació autèntica està també implícit en l´article de María Isabel Arbesú i Leticia Reyes sobre l´eficàcia docent. Per bé que l´article se circumscriu a un estudi de la percepció que tenen estudiants de grau i postgrau de ciències i arts per al disseny, aquest estudi forma part d´una investigació més àmplia que involucra altres actors del sistema educatiu. Investigacions d´aquesta mena són encara més importants en l´actualitat, quan la literatura especialitzada ha plantejat seriosos dubtes sobre la validesa i fiabilitat de les enquestes habituals sobre la qualitat docent, i quan hom reafirma la tendència a descarregar exclusivament en les espatlles del professorat la responsabilitat d´uns resultats educatius insuficients. És significatiu que l´anàlisi no versi sobre l´eficiència del professor sinó sobre l´eficàcia; és a dir, l´adequació dels resultats de l´activitat del professorat al paper que han de jugar en la institució educativa, i que no és altre que el de generar oportunitats d´aprenentatge pels seus estudiants. En aquest sentit, és de particular interès que els propis estudiants identifiquin dimensions d´avaluació que no acostumen a recollir-se en els qüestionaris. De confirmar-se això, aquests resultats subratllarien un cop més el risc cert d´incórrer en insuficiències que posarien en entredit la validesa d´aquests instruments. D´aquesta manera, hom posa de manifest com els problemes de validesa menyscaben l´autenticitat del sistema avaluador. Els dos darrers articles provenen de l´àmbit de la Teoria de l´Art. El signat per Bibiana Crespo realitza un decurs històric del concepte de dibuix des de l´antiguitat greco-romana fins a les avantguardes històriques. No s´ha de cercar una anàlisi exhaustiva de les reflexions d´artistes i teòrics sobre el tema, cosa impossible en un article; l´autora es basa en una selecció de textos de diferents èpoques per a demostrar la presència d´un fil condcutor en la idea de dibuix com activitat intel•lectual i com aquesta idea va evolucionant en els diferents períodes de la història de l´art. Sobre aquesta base, s´afirma el valor específic del dibuix com a art, però també el seu paper rellevant com activitat artística i, en aquest sentit, la seva contribució a la resta de les arts plàstiques. En l´article s´observen les relacions canviants entre els diferents aspectes del dibuix segons hom consideri la seva relació amb la naturalesa; la seva relació amb les altres arts plàstiques; amb la pròpia activitat mental de l´artista i el seu correlat amb el procés d´ideació, d´una banda, i amb el d´execució de l´altra; amb el seu vincle amb diferents facultats mentals –sigui l´intel•lecte, la intuïció, la imaginació, l´enginy o el sentiment–; o amb la seva pròpia naturalesa lingüística que esdevé motiu central de reflexió en el tram final de la modernitat. L´article de Ricard Ramon adopta l´enfocament més sociològic dels estudis de cultura visual per examinar el paper desenvolupat per l´art i el discurs artístic en les estratègies de legitimació i en les campanyes publicitàries de les principals empreses i corporacions. L´autor presenta el cas de l´empresa de ceràmica Lladró per a plantejar l´existència de relacions entre la seva activitat industrial i comercial, el seu interès en el col•leccionisme d´obres d´art, la col•laboració amb reconeguts especialistes del camp de la història de l´art i la creació del propi museu Lladró. L´interès de l´article rau en que el seu objecte d´estudi està molt poc tractat en el camp de la Història de l´Art perquè, des d´una concepció tradicional de la disciplina, aquest objecte queda fora del seu àmbit. És innegable que una de les funcions que l´art ha exercit històricament és ser mitjà de representació i legitimació pública dels valors i grups de poder dominants. Tanmateix, en les societats democràtiques avançades, concorren aspectes nous que suposen un salt qualitatiu. La qüestió rau en el procés d´acceleració històrica, les conseqüències de la naturalesa tecnològica de la societat de la informació i comunicació, i la crisi d´altres metarelats que fan de contrapès als arguments exclusivament econòmics. Tot plegat explica la proliferació de les interferències entre els discursos i fenòmens artístics, aquells altres que es desenvolupen en el disseny i la publicitat, i els interessos comercials i financers del món dels negocis. Aquest fet dóna especial rellevància al debat sobre els límits i les juxtaposicions entre aquests discursos i interessos, sobre llurs diferències i finalitats respectives, i sobre les repercussions recíproques que tindran en cadascun d´aquests àmbits. ; This issue begins with an article by Mireia Alcón and Jose Luis Menendez on the paradigm of authentic assessment and the specific contribution of rubrics to the design and implementation of assessment systems within this paradigm. The specialist literature strongly advocates the linking of authentic assessment with the idea of assessment at the service of learning. For example, it emphasizes the fact that assessment should focus on students' performance with respect to relevant problems in social and professional settings, and also that assessment should be closely aligned with the other components of the educational context because otherwise it is impossible to achieve the learning that a competency-based education requires. However, less attention has been paid to the potential of authentic assessment to reorganize teaching activities and improve curricula. A model of this requires a shared reflection of teachers on their professional environment and the academic culture of the discipline, on the graduate profile, on learning objectives and their integration into the curriculum, and on the learning environments that can help students to obtain the desired results. Only from this perspective can an authentic assessment be put in place. In the article, the authors put forward a similar idea in relation to rubrics. Besides being assessment tools, rubrics should be considered as educational resources that allow students to tackle important problems in their discipline, in constant dialogue with peers and teachers. For teachers, the design and use of rubrics is a source of analysis and discussion, but simultaneously activates a deeper awareness and a greater collective responsibility for their professional practice. The question of authenticity is also present in the article by Eva Gregori on the validity of a learning portfolio model used in the degree of Fine Arts. Validity is not a sufficient condition to affirm the authenticity of an assessment system, but it is a necessary component. An assessment system can be perfectly valid because the inferences it generates regarding students' learning are appropriate and useful for this learning; however, it may evaluate learning outcomes that are not relevant to real socioprofessional contexts. The transfer and generalization of valid judgments on students' learning depends on the relevance, breadth and depth of this learning. The author addresses the issue from the opposite perspective: in accordance with the specialist literature, she recognizes the authenticity of the portfolio as a resource in which students justify and exemplify the learning process and results, and then demonstrates the validity of the portfolio model used. The analysis includes an examination of the constructs in which the portfolio was organized and its internal consistency in order to demonstrate its suitability with regard to the learning objectives and its relevance in the educational context. On the basis of a review of students' workload in the preparation of the portfolio and of the test scores obtained, the author concludes that the portfolio is a highly useful instrument for students in the first years of the Fine Arts degree. The issue of authentic assessment is also implicit in the article by Maria Isabel Arbesú and Leticia Reyes on teacher effectiveness. Although the article is limited to a study of the perceptions of science and fine arts undergraduates and graduates, the study is part of a wider investigation involving other actors in the education system. Investigations of this type are particularly important today, at a time when the specialist literature has raised serious questions about the validity and reliability of the surveys currently used to assess teaching quality, and when there is a tendency to lay all the responsibility for poor educational outcomes at the door of the teachers. Significantly, the analysis does not focus on teachers' efficiency but on their effectiveness; that is, the relevance of the results of their activity to the role they should play in the school, that is, to generate learning opportunities for their students. In this context, it is particularly important that the students themselves identify dimensions of assessment which are not usually included in questionnaires. If confirmed, these results underline once again the risk of certain deficiencies that call into question the validity of these instruments. Thus, it becomes clear how problems of validity undermine the authenticity of the assessment system. The last two articles are from the field of art theory. The piece by Bibiana Crespo takes a historical view of the concept of drawing, from the Graeco-Roman world until the early-20th-century avant-garde movement. An exhaustive analysis of the reflections of artists and theorists on the subject would be beyond the scope of the article; the author bases her contribution on a selection of texts from different periods to demonstrate the presence of an underlying thread in the idea of drawing as an intellectual activity and to trace the evolution of this in different periods of art history. On this basis, she affirms the specific value of drawing as art, but also stresses its important role as an artistic activity and, in this respect, its contribution to the rest of the Fine Arts. The article reflects the changing relationships between different aspects of drawing according to a consideration of their relationship with nature; its relationship with the other arts; its relationship with the artist's mental activity and its correlation with the process of ideation on the one hand and with the process of execution on the other; its link with various mental faculties such as the intellect, intuition, imagination, ingenuity or feeling; and with its own linguistic nature which becomes the central cause for reflection in the final stage of modernity. Ricard Ramon article adopts a more sociological approach to the studies of visual culture to examine the role of art and artistic discourse in the strategies of legitimation and advertising campaigns of major companies and corporations. The author presents the case of Lladró, the ceramics company, to exemplify the existence of relations between its industrial and commercial activities, its interest in collecting works of art and in collaborating with renowned experts in the field of art history, and the creation of the Lladró museum. The article is important because its subject lies outside the scope of the traditional conception of art history and has been largely neglected inside the discipline. It is undeniable that one of art's historical functions has been as a means of representation and public legitimation of the dominant values and power groups inside a community. However, in advanced democratic societies, new aspects come together that represent a qualitative leap forward. The key lies in the process of historical acceleration, the consequences of the technological nature of the information and communication society, and the crisis of other metanarratives that act as a counterweight to the purely economic arguments. All this explains the proliferation of interferences between artistic discourses and phenomena, other discourses that are at work in design and advertising, and the commercial and financial interests of the business world. This confers special relevance on the debate about the limits and juxtapositions between these discourses and interests, their differences and their respective aims, and on the reciprocal repercussions that they have in each of these areas. ; Este número comienza con el artículo de Mireia Alcón y José Luis Menéndez sobre el paradigma de la evaluación auténtica y la contribución específica de las rúbricas al diseño e implantación de sistemas de evaluación coherentes con dicho paradigma. La literatura especializada ha insistido en la vinculación de la evaluación auténtica con la idea de una evaluación puesta al servicio del aprendizaje. Así lo demuestra el énfasis en que la evaluación se centre en el desempeño de los estudiantes respecto de problemas relevantes en entornos sociales y profesionales. También, el énfasis en que la evaluación esté alineada con los otros componentes del contexto educativo puesto que, sin esta coherencia, es imposible alcanzar los aprendizajes que supone una educación basada en competencias. Sin embargo, se ha insistido menos en el potencial que tiene la evaluación auténtica para reorganizar la actividad docente del profesorado y para la mejora de los currículos. Dicho modelo requiere una reflexión compartida del profesorado sobre el ámbito profesional y la propia cultura académica de la disciplina, sobre el perfil del egresado, sobre los objetivos de aprendizaje y su integración coherente en el plan de estudios, y sobre los entornos didácticos más adecuados para que el estudiante alcance los resultados previstos. Porque solo desde esta perspectiva puede implantarse una evaluación auténtica. En el artículo, los autores insisten en una idea similar en relación con las rúbricas. Además de ser instrumentos de evaluación, estas deben ser consideradas también recursos educativos que permitan al estudiante enjuiciar y resolver problemas importantes de su ámbito disciplinario en diálogo constante con sus compañeros y profesores. Para el profesorado, el diseño y la utilización de rúbricas son un motivo de análisis y discusión concreto, pero activan simultáneamente una conciencia más profunda y una mayor responsabilidad colectiva sobre su práctica profesional. La autenticidad sigue presente en el artículo de Eva Gregori sobre la validez de un modelo de carpeta de aprendizaje utilizado en el grado de Bellas Artes. La validez no es una condición suficiente para afirmar la autenticidad de un sistema de evaluación, pero sí que constituye una de sus condiciones necesarias. Un sistema de evaluación puede ser perfectamente válido porque las inferencias que genera respecto de los aprendizajes de los estudiantes son adecuadas y útiles para conseguir tales aprendizajes. Sin embargo, ese sistema de evaluación puede valorar resultados de aprendizaje que no son relevantes en contextos socioprofesionales reales. De hecho, la transferencia y generalización de los juicios válidos sobre el aprendizaje de los estudiantes depende de la pertinencia, importancia, amplitud y profundidad de tales aprendizajes, lo que confiere interés a aquellos juicios válidos en contextos educativos más amplios. La autora aborda el asunto desde la perspectiva contraria: de acuerdo con la literatura especializada, reconoce la autenticidad de la carpeta por ser un recurso en el que estudiante justifica y ejemplifica su proceso y resultados de aprendizaje para, a continuación, demostrar la validez del modelo de carpeta empleado. El análisis incluye un examen de los constructos en que se organizó la carpeta y de su consistencia interna, para demostrar su coherencia con los objetivos de aprendizaje y su adecuación al contexto educativo. Un examen de la carga de trabajo de los estudiantes en su elaboración y de las calificaciones obtenidas le sirven para justificar su adecuación al perfil del estudiante de reciente ingreso en la titulación analizada. El asunto de la evaluación auténtica está también implícito en el artículo de María Isabel Arbesú y Leticia Reyes sobre la eficacia docente. Aunque el artículo se circunscribe a un estudio de la percepción que tienen estudiantes de grado y posgrado de ciencias y artes para el diseño, dicho estudio forma parte de una investigación más amplia que involucra otros actores del sistema educativo. Investigaciones de este tipo son aun más importantes en la actualidad, cuando la literatura especializada ha planteado serias dudas sobre la validez y fiabilidad de las encuestas al uso sobre la calidad docente, y cuando se reafirma la tendencia de descargar exclusivamente en los hombros del profesorado la responsabilidad de unos resultados educativos insuficientes. Es significativo que el análisis no verse sobre la eficiencia del profesor sino sobre la eficacia; esto es, la adecuación de los resultados de la actividad del profesorado al papel que deben desempeñar en la institución educativa, y que no es otro que generar oportunidades de aprendizaje para sus estudiantes. En este sentido, es de particular interés que los propios estudiantes identifiquen dimensiones de evaluación que no acostumbran a estar recogidas en los cuestionarios. De confirmarse, estos resultados subrayarían una vez más el riesgo cierto de incurrir en insuficiencias que pondrían en entredicho la validez de estos instrumentos. De este modo, se pone de manifiesto cómo los problemas de validez menoscaban la autenticidad del sistema evaluador. Los dos últimos artículos provienen del ámbito de la Teoría del Arte. El firmado por Bibiana Crespo realiza un decurso histórico del concepto del dibujo desde la antigüedad greco-romana hasta las vanguardias históricas. No hay que buscar un análisis exhaustivo de las reflexiones de artistas y teóricos sobre el tema, cosa imposible en un artículo; la autora se basa en una selección de textos de diferentes épocas para demostrar la presencia de un hilo conductor en la idea de dibujo como actividad intelectual y como esta idea va evolucionando en los diferentes períodos de la historia del arte. Sobre esta base, se afirma el valor específico del dibujo como arte, pero también su papel relevante como actividad artística y, en este sentido, su contribución al resto de las artes plásticas. En el artículo se observan las relaciones cambiantes entre los diferentes aspectos del dibujo según se considere su relación con la naturaleza; su relación con las otras artes plásticas; con la propia actividad mental del artista y su correlato con el proceso de ideación, por un lado, y con el de ejecución por el otro; con su vínculo con diferentes facultades mentales –sea el intelecto, la intuición, la imaginación, el ingenio o el sentimiento–; o con su propia naturaleza lingüística que pasa a ser motivo central de reflexión en el tramo final de la modernidad. El artículo de Ricard Ramon adopta el enfoque más sociológico de los estudios de cultura visual para examinar el papel desempeñado por el arte y el discurso artístico en las estrategias de legitimación y en las campañas publicitarias de las principales empresas y corporaciones. El autor presenta el caso de la empresa de cerámica Lladró para plantear la existencia de relaciones entre su actividad industrial y comercial, su interés en el coleccionismo de obras de arte, la colaboración con reconocidos especialistas del campo de la historia del arte y la creación del propio museo Lladró. El interés del artículo radica en que su objeto de estudio está muy poco tratado en el campo de la Historia del Arte porque, desde una concepción tradicional de la disciplina, dicho objeto queda fuera de su ámbito. Es innegable que una de las funciones que el arte ha desempeñado históricamente es ser medio de representación y legitimación pública de los valores y grupos de poder dominantes. Sin embargo, en las sociedades democráticas avanzadas, concurren aspectos nuevos que suponen un salto cualitativo. La clave radica en el proceso de aceleración histórica, las consecuencias de la naturaleza tecnológica de la sociedad de la información y comunicación, y la crisis de otros metarrelatos que actúan de contrapeso ante los argumentos exclusivamente económicos. Todo ello explica la proliferación de las interferencias entre los discursos y fenómenos artísticos, aquellos otros que se desarrollan en el diseño y la publicidad, y los intereses comerciales y financieros del mundo de los negocios. Este hecho confiere especial relevancia al debate sobre los límites y las yuxtaposiciones entre estos discursos e intereses, sobre sus diferencias y fines respectivos, y sobre las repercusiones recíprocas que tendrán en cada uno de estos ámbitos.

Interview with Fred Mastrangelo. Topics include: The history of the Mastrangelo name. How his father immigrated to the United States from Italy and became a tailor in Fitchburg, MA. What Fitchburg was like when Fred was growing up with a diverse population. His father and uncle's carpentry business. Fred's education. The Angel Hotel in Hyannis, MA. The different businesses Fred has started. How kitchens in America are different from those in Europe and how European kitchens have changed over time. Fred's children and their occupations. The traditions Fred carried on with his family. Memories from his childhood. The house his father built. What his parents were like. ; 1 LINDA ROSE: Okay. This is Linda Rose and we're on at the Center for Italian Culture. FRED MASTRANGELO: That's right. LINDA ROSE: Right? FRED MASTRANGELO: Mm-hmm. LINDA ROSE: And [unintelligible - 00:00:10]. FRED MASTRANGELO: It's Mastrangelo. It's just the way it sounds, M-A-S-T-R-A-N-G-E-L-O. LINDA ROSE: So can you give me a little bit of a history. FRED MASTRANGELO: Obviously when my dad emigrated here to the United States and attempted to get assimilated into society, he felt that in business purposes that a shorter name would be much better because he was competing with the Browns and the Whites and the Smith, and so he just took the last part of the name and called it Angel and used it as his business name. We in turn carried it on. We've never changed it legally to Angels, you know, but it's an alias that makes it easy, because Angel or Angel with tailor, which is what he started his business, so it's a lot easier to say and anybody to know. That's the reason for the Angel name. LINDA ROSE: Okay. Now can you give me… FRED MASTRANGELO: Interesting story. He emigrated over here in the late 1890s, young man, 21 years old. He had $21 in his pocket when he landed in New York and obviously moved in with friends from the old country. And like all immigrants, he had to learn the trade. His trade was a tailor and so he worked as a tailor in the Bronx in New York for a number of years, but becoming independent – now you got to know that my dad had no education, you know, relatively speaking. He's a very smart man, and I'm not saying that 2 lightly because he had to cope with all of the language difficulties in a whole bit. After a few years in the Bronx, he went… he started to feel his oats, as all young men did and wanted to become independent, and then he realized how life in the country was. He analyzed it as he tell us and says, "Look if I – look, for example, I settled in Florida and they had a [unintelligible - 00:01:55], no one would buy my suits. If I went to Pennsylvania and joined the Lewis [coal] mine strike, the miners wouldn't buy my suits." So somebody told him in New York that there was a little town known as Fitchburg, Mass that was diversified, even at that time was very diversified. They had paper mills. They had industrial complexes. They had their [unintelligible - 00:02:14]. They had a fantastic ethnic background made up of Italians, Jews, Irish, French, all in their own colonies, and it was a such diversification that my dad said, "Gee, if, you know, everyone else go down, at least [unintelligible - 00:02:30] the guys will buy my suits, so independent [unintelligible - 00:02:34] group will buy. So that up to business per se, in the community, if one segment or area dropped, at least I have an opportunity to market my product." So he moved to Fitchburg and started Angel Tailor in Main Street. That tailor shop right now is presently occupied by Mario the Tailor, whose family also came from the same part of Italy that my dad did. So, that was the start of Angel. As my mother says, your father wasn't a very good tailor but he was a hell of a businessman – and that's true; he was. He was extremely marketing-oriented and he employed at the time, at the height of his career, somewhere in the 19… part of the World War I, at least six or seven tailors, so he was doing a 3 very lucrative business. That was the start of the tailor shop. LINDA ROSE: Okay, just getting back, when did he come to Fitchburg? FRED MASTRANGELO: I'm going to say probably in the early 1900s and he spent about two, three or four years in New York and then became independent. I hadn't documented to trace it down, but I'm sure I could. You know, I just hadn't done it. LINDA ROSE: And did he travel to the United States by himself? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes, mm-hmm. LINDA ROSE: How old was he? FRED MASTRANGELO: 21. LINDA ROSE: So 21in the market? FRED MASTRANGELO: Mm-hmm. LINDA ROSE: So young to see a man… FRED MASTRANGELO: No, it's just that through the contacts, as all immigrants have, there was a good established Italian culture community, as it were, as I indicated to you before, very strong ethnic groups in Fitchburg, which makes up the strength of Fitchburg. And he made contacts with some of the people from the [unintelligible - 00:04:20] which is the old country and the [unintelligible - 00:04:22] for example and some other people in Water Street, which was where the Italians lived, and decided to do it and that's what he did. As the business got successful, he bought a place on Granich Street, right above the so-called Water Street Complex and that's where we grew up as kids, so it's a fun time. LINDA ROSE: That was your Fitchburg [unintelligible - 00:04:48].4 FRED MASTRANGELO: Mm-hmm. It's great, great time and, you know, the community was close-knit. It was friendly, more kids that you can stick at and so we had an enjoyable childhood. LINDA ROSE: Do you remember any particular? FRED MASTRANGELO: In reference to? LINDA ROSE: Any special time? FRED MASTRANGELO: No, it's just that in retrospect, as I look back on it—and this isn't particularly just with our family—but the old-time immigrants had a flare. They had a strong cultural belief and tradition, and as they became involved in the American way of life, they adapted easily. They still maintained their all, you know, language and culture and religious backgrounds, but all of them, regardless of their occupation, believed in family number one and continuation of the traditions that they've learned which makes [unintelligible - 00:05:40] and integrity and working hard to success. I think those were the qualifications, particularly in my dad's generation. We're just so strong and it stuck in my mind. Now as I reach the autumn of my years, remembering my childhood, you know, we respected them and the authority that they [brought up]. Obviously it was interesting because as kids, we were brought into the parochial school system. I'm sure [unintelligible - 00:06:12] about that a bit, but that was quite an experience because we had it. In my particular class maybe three or four Italians in a strong Irish St. Bernard's grade school complex, and every day was a tremendous experience for us, particularly maintaining our culture. And you know how kids can be, so we had an awful lot of fun defending our name. LINDA ROSE: Because they give it fun back then?5 FRED MASTRANGELO: It was a learning experience, but nothing earth-shattering, and of course the sisters got left on the farm during their early years, as you know the rules of going to parochial school. They were hard taskmasters. LINDA ROSE: Mm-hmm. FRED MASTRANGELO: Delightful growing up in that community and to mingle with the various groups and… not really, it's just that we knew they were Irish and we were Italians, and that's the way it worked – but no, nothing like in today's current situation where bias is so strong and dominant, you know, no. We defended our positions and they defended theirs, but we got along [eventually]. LINDA ROSE: But the [unintelligible - 00:07:33]? FRED MASTRANGELO: Indirectly but nothing strong. We had large classes too, I mean, 90 in a class; it was, you know, a bit large. LINDA ROSE: That's a really – 90? FRED MASTRANGELO: In many classes. I think my first grade class is something like 76, 77; it's unbelievable. Oh, yeah, all in a row and all maintain the discipline and all maintained that pecking order. The smart kids sit up front, the dummies sit in the back. LINDA ROSE: Really? So it wasn't alphabetized? FRED MASTRANGELO: [No]. LINDA ROSE: So where were you? FRED MASTRANGELO: God knows, from grade to grade, probably raising hell in everyone of them. LINDA ROSE: You remember that? FRED MASTRANGELO: It sounds like my sister. LINDA ROSE: So it's great. I got [unintelligible - 00:08:16] movie but you don't remember. FRED MASTRANGELO: Mm-hmm.6 LINDA ROSE: Is that your experience? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes ma'am, mm-hmm. [Unintelligible - 00:08:23] very friendly and as I said, it was just a little bit of…we didn't realize it at the time, but later on, it's a little bit of, you know, and likely so, the pride of their ethnic background, the pride of our ethnic background. We would have little conflict, I think no [unintelligible - 00:08:42]. Yes, yes, but the Water Street Complex was Italian. I mean all those markets and stalls were Italian, but obviously the parish, St. Bernard's Parish, is made up of the Irish people that lived—that wasn't the dominant; the dominant group up there were Italians up from Water Street. The Irish lived in the so-called Tahoe District, which is where the present St. Bernard's High School is. That was there area. If we crossed the bridge, we were in their territory, and they cross it the other way, they were in our territory. And I don't mean to constantly harp on this. It's just a little bit of a background – that's all. LINDA ROSE: That's important. FRED MASTRANGELO: Now they're changing… they're changing that area but there were still the great community [unintelligible - 00:09:39] you know, the [unintelligible - 00:09:43] element, the strong Finnish colony, the French [unintelligible - 00:09:48] area, I mean you know they've been infiltrated by other cultures, but at the time we were growing up, those were strong enclaves. If I were a politician and wanted to feel my oaths, I would have come to Fitchburg, because if I could cope with all of these groups, I would know I have a great stand. And they're strong dominant groups, no question about it, but… go ahead, go ahead.7 LINDA ROSE: Were there any rites of passage? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, that was part of it, but I can't think of anything too dominant; you know, it's kids' things. The guys used to come down with me and we'd swim at the lake and we had fun together, but if they took the issue with a certain fact, then we'd stand up – because that part of the culture. If it was Mastrangelo, it was Mastrangelo, don't insult my name, don't insult my family and vice versa. Don't mess with the [O'Malley's] and the [Riley's] and, you know – we were just not… but we are harping on something that we shouldn't harp on so… LINDA ROSE: I was thinking more about right… FRED MASTRANGELO: All through the grade schools, from first grade to eight. LINDA ROSE: I had heard that… FRED MASTRANGELO: I suppose. LINDA ROSE: Maybe you were a little too young. FRED MASTRANGELO: Right, I think the important fact there is the strong mark that my dad and his people like him, marked in the community. That's the important part of our discussion. LINDA ROSE: Now… FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes. And the interesting approach was, as I indicated before, all of the immigrants had a trade. My father's brother, Alfonse, was a carpenter by trade. My dad when he was successful in the tailor business brought him over and Al lived with my dad. And to keep him out of trouble, they started a little woodworking shop, known as the Angel Novelty Company, and that was the start of the Angel Company per se. My dad had become successful and he bought a building off of Route 2A in Lunenburg Street, which is the halfway bakery at the time and that's where they started manufacturing wooden novelties. So, that 8 finally led to interior millwork, so the Angel Company became very dominant in interior millwork and by that, I mean doors and windows and corner cabinets. Now the important thing was that was also a successful business. I mean prohibition hit and that lasted a relatively short period of time; the brothers decided that it has nothing to do since the prohibition is going to be repealed as they get the restaurant seating, so they manufactured a line of wooden bar seating equipment that even today, I can recognize if I go to on an old-time bar and sit down, because it's the most comfortable goddamn thing you ever sat in your life. It was very successful and that was the flipside that they used throughout their business ability when… it was successful during that time period, manufacturing the restaurant seating, as I indicated, doors and windows—and you may not remember this because you're too young for it—but at one time, many of the houses had the so-called milkman access. There was a spot on your front door, as you buy a front door that the milkman will bring the milk in, you would open it from the inside and to take your milk in. And they were very successful on that approach and they did – as I said, it was novelty items, but then they changed the name to Strong Millwork at the Angel Company and that started… I'm going to say the real strong starting point was right after the end of World War II and then the so-called climb back in economic climate, and then the recession hit. And my father often—my mother often tells the story about my dad—but he told me himself; he said in recession he had another guy who's jumping out of the window. He said to himself, "This country is so strong; this country, there's so 9 much going for it that it can't go bad." So while everybody else was panicking, he took everything he owned, put mortgages on it, all his lifesavings, and invested in mills. This was the full run of the side of the Angel Company on Broad Street, which is a huge 100,000 square foot complex, and he bought mills on River Street. He bought property in downtown Fitchburg, and that was the success of his operations as a businessman. He brought his brother along with him. They were successful in that operation. So, on Broad Street, in this 100,000-square foot plant, they employed about 110 people and they changed their marketing approach, from restaurant seating to interior mill work—stone doors, windows, corner cabinets, kitchen cabinets—very large well-equipped plant, very successful through the years. LINDA ROSE: Now before you go on… FRED MASTRANGELO: By that time, he had sold his tailor shop to a shop, by the name of Sccino, which you may have interviewed. It's Sccino, S-C-C-I-N-O. It's another well-known name in Italian culture here in the Fitchburg area, and he spent all of his time devoted to the Angel Company. LINDA ROSE: Okay. FRED MASTRANGELO: And now that was roughly, as I indicated, from '38 to well, all the way through until the day he died, which was, you know, in the '60s…'50s and '60s. Now it was a full-grown conclusion that the boys, myself and my cousin who's the same age, Alfonse' son, would take all of the business. So after we graduated in college, I went to the service for two years. When I came back out, we got involved with the business, and at that time, the two brothers, Frank and Al, passed away within two to three years of each other. So we 10 took over and changed it from the millwork company into a kitchen cabinet company, and we were very, very successful. The interesting thing, reverting back to the Italian culture, is the fact that at the Angel Company, I bet you, 70 percent of the employees, even though we employed 100 and some on, were of Italian background. And I can see them doing that because they still spoke the language and they still have that strong cultural feeling, and they did everything in their power to work with the community. Yeah, tables and benches, very similar to breakfast nooks – remember the yellow old-fashioned breakfast, that type of concept. Yeah. LINDA ROSE: Mm-hmm. FRED MASTRANGELO: We're very, very successful on that because through a business, we feel everybody got involved with the problems and, you know, that's fine. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:16:52] FRED MASTRANGELO: That's a good sign. LINDA ROSE: Okay. So who was…? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, that's when I stay put, that's exactly how it worked. My dad was in marketing, sales unit, and Alfonse, because of his woodworking background, handled the production, and they got along very well on that – because I tell you that it started with his brother and they were so close and his brother was a woodworker and a carpenter, and so it led to doing something with Alfonse, which in turn led to the growth of the business. LINDA ROSE: Right. [Unintelligible - 00:17:30] your father, Frank… FRED MASTRANGELO: That's a minor incident. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:17:32]?11 FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, right. In becoming a tailor, he just had designed a ruler to help measure pants; that was insignificant. It had no bearing on this over all, because it's just a minor type of… just like I had pants on my own right now that are worthless, but they don't mean a damn thing, right. What's important, if you look at the headlines of that paper, you'll see that the impetus is on sales and marketing, and that's the knowledge that he brought in. That's the ability to be ahead of his time, which is why he bought mills and why he turned his business ability into more than just making suits. If he were only to be a tailor, he would just still fight to go on a tailoring business in the community such as Fitchburg, but if you were a manufacturer, you had 52 states from which to draw, the world from which to draw, and my father saw that and his brother went along with it and they became – we changed it to Angel Novelty; it's when, Ed, my cousin and I came up, we decided it had to make sense so we changed the name to the Angel Company. You got to remember, the work there is youngsters, both my cousin and I all our lives, because it was the rule of stepping in, in time, and so it became very strong in millwork, and by millwork, I mean things that had to be milled: doors, windows, pine products, kitchen cabinets, corner cabinets, balustrades, stairwells. And we had a very strong – the marketing approach was to sell through distributors, someone termed '[south] lumberyards', so people like Webber Lumber Company that was in Fitchburg were our outlets. There is no such thing as a Home Depot in those days. They were all lumberyards, all small individual minor power operations. They did it together. They did together, you know in their 12 own way, uneducated men but very smart, in their own way test marketed, analyzed it, brought in a strong group of sales managers, production managers, accounting experts, because it was a multimillion dollar business. [Unintelligible - 00:19:56] LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:19:59] market for that? FRED MASTRANGELO: [Unintelligible - 00:20:01] took over. This is in time when Dr. [Giolidante] was expected to start his father's shoe shop. He got smart; he became a doctor. That's what made him a smart man, because he did it at the time when he was independently a pioneer and, like many of those cohorts, had to do it. But like all that was so-called immigrants, number one on their list is to make their life better for their kids and they recognized that education was important for you to make it. If you had the wherewithal, you went beyond high school, into college. We were very lucky that he felt that way. I went to… after I got out of St. Bernard's, I graduated from Philips Andover Academy in '46, and then I went to Boston University, graduated in the class of '50. Actually I worked my tail off. I went to four years of college in three years by going to summer school and I had [unintelligible - 00:21:04]. LINDA ROSE: So why did you want to do that? FRED MASTRANGELO: I want to get the hell out of it and to work right away. I was working, because in the group of college people that I roomed with, they were all ex-veterans from World War II so they straightened me out, yes. And then I went… as soon as I graduated, for all my work, I went to Miami for three years, so I was in the service during the Korean War. Now I spent all my life in the military going to school. I went from private one to a second lieutenant in three years,13 so that was all due to schooling. I spent my lifetime in Miami Boarding School, which is fun. LINDA ROSE: So it was a… FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh God, yes. Even today in retrospect, I look back and say, you know, school's into this. Thank God it was fantastic because instead of climbing up from the bottom of the ladder, they put me in the middle of the ladder so, you know, that was a very fortunate approach. But would I have wanted to do this? I don't know. I always have misgiving. I should have done something else, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, which is why I got involved with many other businesses, such as aviation, which is my first love, and my cousin with a motel in Hyannis, which was fun to do. I ran a Japanese restaurant. I built condominiums and [unintelligible - 00:22:19]. I had a ball going beyond the Angel Company but that's me personally. LINDA ROSE: Yeah, so coming up forward with building, you have [unintelligible - 00:22:31]. FRED MASTRANGELO: Well, once again, as the business started to develop, we turned it into a very successful prefinished cabinet company. The Angel cabinet line was well known in the northeast, and when I got out of the service, the industry was changing. I recognized the fact that instead of just millwork, we had to get into something else that was currently… we're losing our doors and our windows to the aluminum people. We were losing some of our product line, because they were building ranch houses rather than two-storey homes, and so we lost some of the product line, and so I was instrumental in turning the company to a prefinished cabinet company. I remember the first—we had always made kitchen cabinets; we had never done 14 prefinished cabinetry—and I remember the first cabinet we did; we thought it was absolutely gorgeous, but it was an abomination because we knew nothing about finishing so we had to just do it, to develop it, and that turned out to be very, very successful. With that success, obviously, a nice start to gain more independence because of our financial approach and we thought in terms of other investments. I had thought at the time that prefabrication was coming into this in the housing market, and I said, "Gee, I've been leading a big factory here. We got a fantastic approach. We know how to work with wood. Why am I thinking in terms of prefabrication?" But we decided that instead of prefabricating homes because they're all different, we would get involve with something that would be standardized, and motels seemed to be – all the rooms are the same. We put up 20 units and, you know, 20 walls the size, and so we spent a year looking for a site to build and we thought in terms of Hyannis because the Cape at that time was in its [growth] period. This goes back to 1955, '56, I mean, that time period. We found a delightful site on Route 132 that is now completely overgrown, but we were fortunate. We designed a motel, called it the Angel Motel, built it and – we knew nothing about the motel business. We knew very little about prefabrication, but the two seemed to work. We built it in the factory, shipped it down by truck, put it up in 30 days, opened up, and the first season was a huge success. Then we realized that the motel business was a fun thing to do. We paid for it, we did it off in something like five years, because here was a business that had no accounts receivable, that had no [late effect] because we hired high 15 school girls to clean; it had no merchandising inventory, and every night, you pick up, you know, X amount of dollars in cash, so it was a fun thing to do. And we sold it about three years ago, and I did. I mean, during that time, I got involved with the flight instruction and selling of aircraft at the Fitchburg Airport with another chap, a partner of mine, and we started the Silver Wings Company. We trained students how to fly and we sold type of aircrafts. Now it was fun because you could jump in a plane at Fitchburg, land at Hyannis and walk to the site, so both Dad and I used to fly down periodically, you know, in a matter of 20-30 minutes and walk way to the motel, so that was a beautiful approach to it. As I indicated, that was also successful. LINDA ROSE: What is the hotel called now? FRED MASTRANGELO: They've torn it down. They've put instead a mall now. Right after that, what was – it's interesting some of the stuff I've done and it sounds like I'm blowing my own horn, and I don't mean to. LINDA ROSE: No, it's important. FRED MASTRANGELO: Cleaning up and laundry were just coming in, okay. I've been involved with a group of investors and we started this, [Taco Outfit]. We're the first cleanup and laundry in Fitchburg. We had the second one on Duck Mill Road. It sounded like a great idea because the concept was outstanding. In other words, you put in machines, 24 hours a day, people would come in with quarters and you go get them the next morning, and it sounded like you make an awful lot of money because you know it was unattended. Well, we learned the hard way then. The first week, every called "liberty man," every oil man, every mechanic 16 brought in their overalls and they destroyed the machine. So that was a fun thing to do, but a terrible business decision. Now, of course, it's changed, as you know, because there are usually attendants in there. Then at the same time, right after that, I got involved with a group of people and we… well, I shouldn't say right after that. After Ed and I decided we had enough with the Angel Company, which is back in the '70s, I got involved establishing my own business because I was strong in marketing and I started Angel and Associates, which is a small advertising company. I said, "Gee, you know, the Fitchburg—as my dad said, you know, said in the past—Fitchburg area lends itself with someone who can carry some marketing, like the big boys do into a small-time operation," so I started an individual advertising. That was my background in college, marketing and advertising, and I had a number of the towns in Fitchburg that I would do their advertising for, both the newspaper, establish on TV, mostly paperwork ads and so on. One of my accounts was a friend of a friend who had a Japanese restaurant in Amherst, Mass and I did his advertising and it was very successful. And we got involved in saying, "Gee, you know, what should be done is something like McDonald's, except in Japanese style, and we would have…" He said he thought it was a hell of an idea. We would have a place on the Cape, because that's where all the activity was, but instead of 15 Japanese chefs chopping and doing things, we would have one in the window and you'd drive up and get your Chinese takeout. He thought it was like… yeah, so we spent a year looking at that. And at that time, right across the street from the Angel Motel was a Chinese 17 restaurant that had gone under. We made a bid for it and changed that concept and opened up the second Japanese restaurant, full-time scale with the chefs at the table. We had 12 tables and 12 Japanese chefs and that was an interesting experience. That's a whole another story, but it was fun to do. And so what happened in my business life and the reason for this spouting and rambling is that you asked if I have ever done something else besides. Well, yes, in later years, I did explore, but they still directly involved marketing and sales. That was my forte and I just had a ball in some of the things that I had done. Some were successful; some utter failures but an awful lot of interests. LINDA ROSE: You mentioned that you and your cousin were [unintelligible - 00:29:27]. FRED MASTRANGELO: We sold it. LINDA ROSE: Okay. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yup. LINDA ROSE: And that was a mistake? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes. And the other thing too is, of course, having brought up the company into the 20th century with prefinished cabinetry, when we sold the company and I thought it would be summary… a retirement, I lasted maybe about five weeks and my sister said, "Get on and go do something, you're driving me crazy." At the time, one of my good competitors had an opening, who would open a retail store in Shrewsbury, Mass, selling kitchen cabinetry, which does a full run of the so-called design centers, which you now see. I went down there and I started to work with him, and after the second year, I had done enough selling so that the business just about tripled and he said, "Why 18 don't you take it over?" So I turned around and took over and turned that in what they call [Margelo] Kitchens, and we had a retail store on Route 9 in Shrewsbury. It was very, very successful for about five or six or seven years. We had a staff of four designers, five installers and we sold a design and custom work for kitchen cabinetry, which is a fascinating business, lost our lease and – at the time, I had some, I had my daughter working for me, and I said, "Christina, you have to go find another spot." And then one day, we woke up and said, "This is crazy. Why don't we, you know, we pay out our bills and let's shut it down?" She was up to here with it and she had had enough and I had had enough. It demanded a lot of our attention, being once again a small manpower operation, and so I said that enough is enough and we liquidated the business. About three weeks later, I got a call from one of my competitors and explained our present situation, I still work in the kitchen industry from one of my competitors on a part-time basis and I fully enjoy it. It's gone from cupboards to furniture. You got to bear in mind that cupboards… the word "cupboards" means cup boards. They were boards that were put up that you put your cups on. In the old days, you had you big stove then you had shelving in which you put cups and your dishes, and then sooner or later, somebody put doors on them and turned them into cabinets. Then, instead of going from the so-called pantry kitchen concept, the Americans and others in their own home, decided that they needed cabinetry in their kitchen and they didn't have maids and pantries and butlers anymore, and so we… it developed into where I'm putting furniture on four walls. The kitchen history has turned into putting custom 19 furniture, as you have in your house, as I have in my house, and with it came the changes in appliances, came the changes in countertops, came the changes in living, came the changes in microwave cooking – the whole thing has progressed. It's the most important room in the home. That's where the fun has come, and staying abreast with it has been, you know, it's remarkable what has happened in the industry, from just cupboards, you know, to literally thousands and thousands of dollars spent in furniture in the home. It's not unusual to see a $70,000-80,000 kitchen. LINDA ROSE: So… FRED MASTRANGELO: The Europeans, as we said, have developed this so-called kitchen concept. The Europeans designed kitchen cabinetry [unintelligible - 00:32:59] they were the forerunners of some of the present and modern day, and so well designed for one reason. One is most Europeans do daily shopping. They go out to the market— in particular, the Italians—they go down to the market and buy that fresh, you know, fruits and vegetables and take them home and cook and go down again, so they didn't really have the need for the tremendous amounts spent on appliances or refrigeration, that type of thing. Of course, it's changed a lot now but that's the background. That's number one. Number two, when you sell a house in Europe, you take the cabinets with you, and Americans attached it to the wall, they're going to stay here. The European concept develops so that you just undo them and take them with you, because they didn't have many, many cabinets because of the concept of shopping everyday at the marketplace. But they were instrumental in developing the so-called sleek sophisticated post-1938 modern approach and just recently,20 the past decade, this high streamline effect that they've done some beautiful work, and the Americans have copied them. It's been a fun business. LINDA ROSE: What do you see at the future for those? FRED MASTRANGELO: We have yet… we haven't touched the potential in kitchen cabinetry because every home you see, sooner or later, works in the premise that you get to keep up with the Joneses, which is step number one. You got to stay advance with style. The appliance factory has changed tremendously. No one used this microwave cooking until recently; that's changing. Refrigeration has changed in concept; dishwashing – you know, I see a more sophisticated sleek utilization of the kitchen. It's still kind of [unintelligible - 00:34:44] of the family gathering, but making it a lot more efficient, so you go out and do what you're supposed to do because we're just running to keep up living today, so the American public, in particular, want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time up playing tennis, golf and bridge. LINDA ROSE: Can you see that in [unintelligible - 00:35:01] culture? FRED MASTRANGELO: I think they will. I think as they start to advance in electronic technology, you find the same concept going on where you can press the button, you know, and electronically you get food processed into whatever cooking, stirs it in, and 30 seconds later, you have your seven-course meal. You'll always have that so-called throwback in the old days when the kitchen was a warm friendly approach, but I think that in time, the changes that will come will be electronically. The appliances will change dramatically, and with them, the lesser need for storage and lesser food preparation.21 LINDA ROSE: I thought [unintelligible - 00:35:42] electronic cabinet. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes ma'am – yeah, yeah, no question about it, yeah. LINDA ROSE: That would be amazing [unintelligible - 00:35:046] what do you think your father would [say]? FRED MASTRANGELO: He would have been the first one to say, "Yeah, let's go for it." LINDA ROSE: Yeah. FRED MASTRANGELO: And the ability to take a shot into… foresee the future, , you know be ahead of this time and… they just didn't sit back and say, well, damn, you know, make little no work to it. They were ahead of their time. LINDA ROSE: Do you ever [unintelligible - 00:36:15]? FRED MASTRANGELO: I think it was inborn obviously, but it was [thrusted] and promulgated by the opportunity that existed in America, which is why they…people of that ilk jumped ahead and invested in property and tried things, because the country is just – and even today, it's such a dramatic country. We haven't capped its natural resources and saw its potential, even with the stuff that we got going on, which, you know, worldwide fiasco. But every day – and the proof of the pudding is that modest invention that just broke… I mean just like what's happening. And in my lifetime, especially my love for aviation, you know the Wright Brothers started in 1907, that's 100 years, and we've gone to the moon, so it's fascinating. LINDA ROSE: But it's just in a side but [unintelligible - 00:37:04]? FRED MASTRANGELO: No, really. LINDA ROSE: I guess the power, if you lost power [unintelligible - 00:37:08] so I was a little surprised to see a plane coming in.22 FRED MASTRANGELO: My heart goes out to him, because, well, about three years ago, he started building my own aircraft and I had an engine failure and put in the Blackstone River Valley. That was quite an experience. It was a fun time. LINDA ROSE: It was fun? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah. LINDA ROSE: Were you alone? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yup. LINDA ROSE: So what [unintelligible - 00:37:05]? FRED MASTRANGELO: The light didn't flash in a failure. What you do is you pull your fate that it doesn't happen so fast and when it's down, my reaction was, "Damn it, I just lost a $25,000 airplane, which took me three years to build." Not that I was hurt or anything else, that's what went through my mind. What a shame! But if you deal with transportation, I don't think if they're rollerblading, driving a cab, on a school bus, in an airplane, sooner or later, something's going to happen. If it's a human being moved, something's going to happen to him. LINDA ROSE: Just thinking of transportation, what is…? FRED MASTRANGELO: It's marvelous and I think it's going to… its advancement is going to come in… people who are on their feet all the time, such as the couriers in New York and such as the postal service people. And then in time, as the market warrants it and they bring the prices down, we'll all have them. I can be going to school on the damn things, no question about it. LINDA ROSE: And that brings up a whole other issue sort of [unintelligible - 00:38:23]. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, but we've got them now. We've got so-called sidelines and we got running tracks and we've got mediums 23 in the middle of highways that they can easily convert to, whole bunches of people and these two-wheel [drivers]. LINDA ROSE: I never thought of that. Is there a talk of doing something [unintelligible - 00:38:39]? FRED MASTRANGELO: It's just something that makes good sense to me. LINDA ROSE: Right. Sounds like a new business. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, right, that was all 20 years yonder. LINDA ROSE: Oh yeah. FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh god yes, I guess that's what I want to do. LINDA ROSE: You mentioned your daughter; do you have any other kids? FRED MASTRANGELO: I have three girls and a guy. LINDA ROSE: And [unintelligible - 00:38:54]? FRED MASTRANGELO: My oldest daughter works in the kitchen industry. The other children are involved with their own life and had no inkling to it – and I didn't force the issue. I didn't. You know, from my experience, I said to my son, "I'm not going to make him a kitchen designer." Let him do what the hell he wants. LINDA ROSE: What are they doing? FRED MASTRANGELO: My son is involved… he is a Fitchburg state teacher, graduate in communications. He spent his first two years in one of the TV channels and he said, "Dad, I don't want to be [confined] to a desk. I want to be outdoors," and he got involved with outdoor landscaping and diving. He became an assistant [mini-skipper] for a country club in Duxbury and now he works for a private millionaire in Duxbury as the head of the landscape crew. He loves it. My oldest daughter works for kitchen design center in Maine. My second daughter married a young naval aviator and she lives up in Kittery and is involved with one of the merchandisers of home style jellies and that type of thing –24 and does very well. And my baby daughter married a young budding artist here in Lunenburg, of the Demers family. Donald Demers became well-known as a maritime artist and did some outstanding work in the maritime painting field. And that's the crew! We still carry the traditions that my dad and mom instilled and we have our family get-together. We're very close. You take on one, you take them all on, so… a very close family. LINDA ROSE: Good, so tell me… FRED MASTRANGELO: Over and above, the integrity traditions of honor, loyalty, family, you know, the so-called [side] expressions are still strong. Yeah, it involves the holidays, the get-togethers, getting together on family events… pull them together in case of need. That's a very strong trait of our family. If someone needs a hand, everybody else jumps in. And then, of course, the story-swapping and the fun that we had growing up altogether and I just truly love my babies because I had so much fun raising them; they're just a delight, night after night. So those are the things. It's not a strong religious tradition because we're all forced into our religious background. We didn't choose it, but we brought them all up to respect it and they all understand that. But it's more, yeah, the Christmas dinners and the daily flickers because of the fish dinner, and the Easter – how [sad] we were that we didn't learn how to do Nana's Easter bread and that type of thing. LINDA ROSE: Did you bring up your child? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes, it's about 40 years, yeah. LINDA ROSE: So right across from the home that you grew up?25 FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes, the reason I built this house with the A-frame was when we did the motel. I had designed the office as an [A-frame], because it seemed to make sense to me, a very simple structure, where the rough became finished, and I fell in love with the concept and built this one which was way ahead of its time – an awful lot of room in this house and very economical to build – well, absolute well. You know when school was up, I put on a pair of shorts and I spent the entire summer with my friends. I'll buy myself, exploring every nook and cranny on that lake, doing the fishing and the swimming. And across the park was in full [throttle]; that would mean riding over my bike and getting to know everybody and riding on the rides and hopping in out on the roller coaster, pedaling my bike down at the airport to watch some planes so I can learn to fly—and I soloed at an, early, early age—and it's just so much fun. Then come wintertime, the ice would freeze over, it was skating parties and hockey and, you know, it was idyllic growing up – idyllic because we explored. We didn't have TV. We didn't care about it. You know, we didn't worry about the radio; maybe often Nana got some of the other shows that were on, so it meant looking up – your own fun, like playing pirates or, you know, whatever we did on the summer's day was so much fun, and on the wintertime, going to the woods, you know. It was just play time. I had a happy childhood. LINDA ROSE: That's must have been enjoyable for you to think. FRED MASTRANGELO: Same thing, exactly the same. They had… when I built this house and I had the driveway put in, I built them up at the black top at the back which is a basketball court, hopscotch area and then they weren't any trees there, so they used to 26 slide down the hill into the little pond—because we still swim at the point that you saw from my sister's house up there, but that belongs to my son now—and they had a ball here, too. LINDA ROSE: Tell me about the revolutionary. FRED MASTRANGELO: I think I've explained that it was a [far see] thing, seeing man, you know, that he looked to the future. He and my mom went to the Chicago World's Fair in 1938. LINDA ROSE: So it was the Chicago [unintelligible - 00:44:26]. FRED MASTRANGELO: No, Chicago in '38. Chicago World's Fair in '38 was the forerunner of the avant-garde thinking of modern period; the so-called New Age of modernism started at the Chicago World's Fair, but prior to that time, it was all the old antiquity that was exciting the world, but this was the new concept. My dad fell in love with the modern concept. He came back and said he was going to build a house, and then, you know, just like poppy seeds that just kept growing and growing and growing, but he wanted clean cut lines and thought some unusual approaches towards the modern concept. So he designed this house, which is the first of its kind in the area, sleek sophisticated lines with the pine, had custom furniture done in the modern period, had custom—you know, you should see the house—and sometimes, the light [unintelligible - 00:45:21]. LINDA ROSE: It's for sale now. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, right – and, once again, way ahead of his time. It's the first time anybody had put in horizontal windows, small touch but nonetheless. The first time anybody had used the [sleek] approach to dramatize the area. Modeling the interior wasn't done as the old-fashioned traditional Italian model of sleek, sophisticated black turn of 1938 thinking 27 statues that he found from the states that carried that theme. So it's a huge house, very modern, very well-advanced for its time, and we had a ball living in that one, too. LINDA ROSE: Did it take him very long building it? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. One time, we had a tally of how many [pounds of] bricks were in there and how many glass. He used glass spot extensively. Now it's a [unintelligible - 00:46:16] but at the time [unintelligible - 00:046:17] so yeah, so it's amazing. LINDA ROSE: So you were living on Granich Street while it was being built? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh we had… my sister's house is the so-called summer camp, and we used to go down the area from Granich Street to that and we stayed there when the house was being built and during the summer that we moved back in Granich Street. That house of my sister's—I don't know if she told you—was the camp house and the ice run for when we used to cut ice in [unintelligible - 00:46:44] and that was turned into a… there are still… in some of the [cove], there are still states that have the ice run, where they used to cut the ice and then bring it up into the shed. LINDA ROSE: Is that the way [unintelligible - 00:46:58]? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, that was the bunk house and the shed for the ice storage. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:47:03] so what was the… FRED MASTRANGELO: That wasn't, it was, once again, ahead of its time, sleek cabinetry, not high glass but, you know, very plain, simple, modern look – and the first time anyone had used stainless steel cabinets in the area, and this goes way, that's a long time ago. All [prefost] sinks and the stainless steel countertop, tile, back splashes, it wasn't…we still had a 28 separate range and a separate refrigerator, the so-called built-in concept that we have now, still ahead of its time. LINDA ROSE: Did your mother ever [unintelligible - 00:47:38]? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh yes, my mother was very strong in supporting my father, knowing that, but when my father took one of the [mostly] bought and opened up [unintelligible - 00:47:47] to a gift shop, very large four-storey milk gift shop, known as the MDS Gift Shop in Fitchburg. She ran that one; my mother was ahead of her time, too. LINDA ROSE: She was quite a bit younger. FRED MASTRANGELO: Yes, mm-hmm. Her family had a market on Water Street. LINDA ROSE: Okay. FRED MASTRANGELO: That's the Montourri family. The Montourri family is [unintelligible - 00:48:08] Montourri Distribution, Montourri Trucking, a whole bunch of others. So that between Al and his kids, my mother's six …you know Christmas was a ball and it's like 50 people in that house at Christmastime. My mother lived in a house where we had the very first Angel cabinets put in; it was called a Cinderella line with a sloped phase, and she loved it, because she adapted, you know she's a modern girl. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:48:36]? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh no. I know. I fell in love with them. LINDA ROSE: Yeah [unintelligible - 00:48:43]. FRED MASTRANGELO: As I indicated, very, very fortunate, very fortunate, but I think I know it's up in the air. You know, all my Italian buddies were – I didn't know any better. I didn't know I was a little bit more… better off than they were per se, so we just had a ball. LINDA ROSE: What kind of remarks?29 FRED MASTRANGELO: They call it the castle because it's such a big huge edifice. And it's so funny because I heard some comments when I was building this house. This house was a revolution for its time also. And they said, "Oh, yeah, just like his father, his father built a castle, he built a church," and they talked about it. Its design was going to be a simple story ranch, all one floor, make it easy for Marcia and I to you, know, spend our life before you go to the Happy Valley Restaurant. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 00:49:33] FRED MASTRANGELO: Broken, yeah, but pretty well, oh yeah. LINDA ROSE: Do you know how he learned? FRED MASTRANGELO: He was an avid reader and he started with the classics and followed every single newspaper, listened to the radio and paid attention, and then when he was in business, he had to because he had to negotiate deals. My father was genuine character, delightful genuine character, strong-willed, lovely man, twinkle in his eye all the time. He's the type of the guy that if you get involved with an argument, you know how you and I would say oftentimes – what I should have said was… well, he'd jump on his cab the next day and go back and start it out [unintelligible - 00:50:08]. He's just a fun guy to be with. LINDA ROSE: It seems that [unintelligible - 00:50:14] I felt my errands experience in Worcester, because I never give myself permission to work on. FRED MASTRANGELO: Okay. One of the [unintelligible - 00:50:029] C-U-C-C-A-R-O [unintelligible - 00:50:35] cabinetry is the most dominant line established in the [unintelligible - 00:50:53] and then mother [unintelligible - 00:50:56] everybody and 30 everything involving [unintelligible - 00:51:08] you go in there. LINDA ROSE: Okay, we may have to… I'm not really sure what's happening with this machine because as it keeps up printing's talking and it should never do that. Oh boy, now it isn't, now it is, I don't know. It's not [unintelligible - 00:51:33]. FRED MASTRANGELO: Okay. LINDA ROSE: Anyway working now, so let's get on. Would you… FRED MASTRANGELO: Just some of the… obviously the high school years [unintelligible - 00:51:44] and we had because of our… it's interesting now to be able to think back on both [unintelligible - 00:51:51]. LINDA ROSE: So [unintelligible - 00:51:52] something to share what makes it interesting? FRED MASTRANGELO: That I think Anthony's [unintelligible - 00:52:00] grade school, they were [unintelligible - 00:52:06] my father and Joe's father at that time [unintelligible - 00:52:12] but you could tell. There's a lot more than everything, Sunday morning after church [unintelligible - 00:52:22] my father [unintelligible - 00:52:23]. It's fascinating stories of their culture the whole day [unintelligible - 00:52:26] Sunday morning and spend some time up there and then they will give you coffee. And that was just delightful because they get hysterical over the most simple story that took place in their parish that took place on Water Street, that took place on Main Street – I mean the simple enjoyable cultural humor; that, to me, stuck in my mind and I'm sure [unintelligible - 00:52:55] touched on that story. The life of everyday story which I had the opportunity to have known my father's family, so that was fun too. What they 31 did in a short of period of time, you know, that's the thing. All of them, you know, I don't care if they're shoemaker or a night grinder or, you know, you own the market or you build cabinets, whatever it was, you know, hardworking. It's the same basic understanding of life [unintelligible - 00:53:28] and fighting because they had a stigma attached to them. They were the [unintelligible - 00:53:37]. They were the Italians that came over, just as the Irish had their tough times too, and they overcame all these obstacles, and they made it – all of them. LINDA ROSE: Did they treat the boy? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh god, yeah, and they… oh yeah. The fact that they didn't love the girls but just figured they were girls; they too have to know about worldly affairs [unintelligible - 00:54:13] but they still had to [protect] the same rules as guys did, but they weren't involved in the [unintelligible - 00:54:28] not secretive but—what am I thinking of?—banding, the banding of the men. LINDA ROSE: Even with your sister. FRED MASTRANGELO: Well, as I was saying, most of the family, they had a will [unintelligible - 00:54:48] they would strongly force [unintelligible - 00:54:52] all of the children [unintelligible - 00:54:56] so it meant, you know, selling bread and [pick] even those nickels and try to [unintelligible - 00:55:13]. I think it's strictly as they indicated that they have [unintelligible - 00:55:25] because believe it or not, [unintelligible - 00:55:30] followed by whatever, you know, fantastic dinner [unintelligible - 00:55:37] and that was [unintelligible - 00:56:02] things to do and [unintelligible - 00:56:12] people would come over and just drop in for a Sunday dinner because 32 [unintelligible - 00:56:22] that I usually heard of that Sunday. [Unintelligible - 00:56:34] LINDA ROSE: Why is [unintelligible - 00:56:40] how could they keep things? FRED MASTRANGELO: And it was a simple life. I mean you didn't get the instant news or the instant ramification of [unintelligible - 00:56:48]. It was an event driving to Boston [unintelligible - 00:56:50]. You know [unintelligible - 00:56:55] what they are but it wasn't fast-moving, slow pace. Everything was slow pace. [Unintelligible - 00:57:03] It wouldn't take [unintelligible - 00:57:51] but at the time it was happening [unintelligible - 00:57:56]. He bid off something and then what happened, he had to and we just thought it as a natural progression, yeah, he wouldn't get far to it so that's the way all fathers were. Only in later years did you recognize the ability of your parents, you, Marcia and I, and then our kids hopefully in time, if only later on. But while it's going on, you don't think about it. [Unintelligible - 00:58:52] great guy or whatever and then you're growing up – I wouldn't have it any other way. [Unintelligible - 00:59:04] very, very [fortunate] [unintelligible - 00:59:09] bad Italians but by and large, it's just a nice, you know [unintelligible - 00:59:29] English. He probably got some various idea [unintelligible - 00:59:37] you may not want to hear. Oh I'm sure. LINDA ROSE: So I'd like to ask you one thing. FRED MASTRANGELO: Go on. LINDA ROSE: What is your hardest experience then? FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh God, Linda – about what? Life is so complex. I mean emotional, financial or what? Hardest experience? My 33 father's experience… that's a puzzlement. I'd have to really think about that one. Nothing jumps in my head – my hardest experience. LINDA ROSE: How did you [unintelligible - 01:00:23]? FRED MASTRANGELO: Yeah, hardest emotional experience was the loss of my parents. I mean, that happens to everybody, that's an exception. My hardest experience, like I say, I could probably ramble… you've heard an awful lot of it today, but it just sounds too "I, I, I" all the time and I don't mean it to be. LINDA ROSE: I don't think so but… FRED MASTRANGELO: Once again after 50, 60, 70 years, you know, there are little anecdotes and stories that demand going back to the reason why, which would take another two hours to explain why we came to this particular conclusion, if I started the story about the company, so I was giving you highlights rather than individual approach – like I'll tell you one little anecdote about my father to show you what guy he was. He was still in the tailor business—and my mother told us the stories—he was still in the tailor business and one of the Christmas shopping joints downtown Fitchburg would occur at night, you know, the stores stayed open relatively late in the last week. My mother said it was a terrible smelly awful, awful night, and she went down with my dad, and standing on the corner was a so-called urchin trying to sell the daily Fitchburg news, freezing his tail off, you know, as my mother indicated. My father said to him, "How long do you have to be out here?" And he said, "Until I sell all my papers," and my father bought them all from him and sent him home. That's the kind of a guy he was, you know, and it's just a delightful anecdote of his. 34 And he's also philanthropic. He would go down and he would help – but that's true of most of the boys on Water Street, and so that cultural importance came in. They would take care of each other and help. LINDA ROSE: You would help. FRED MASTRANGELO: Which is why the vast majority of the employees of the Angel—and I don't want to knock the rest of them that are there, because there's a whole bunch of them, big portion of Italian descent. LINDA ROSE: [Unintelligible - 01:02:31] FRED MASTRANGELO: Oh God, yes, oh yes – the fathers who worked there, uncles and brothers. LINDA ROSE: Was there any particular [unintelligible - 01:02:40]. FRED MASTRANGELO: Not to my knowledge. LINDA ROSE: Mm-hmm. FRED MASTRANGELO: Well, okay. LINDA ROSE: That's good. That's the end of the interview./AT/jf/el/ee

Problem formulation. The problem of organizing state and non-state institutions to combat the spread of fakes in the information space is to establish a parity (balance) between: citizens right to receive reliable/legal information protection, freedom of speech protection and expression (civil liberties) and protection of national interests of Ukraine. The existing imbalance caused by the lack of effective mechanisms to counteract misinformation and its dissemination through social media. In the EU countries at the state level the fight is not against misinformation, but with illegal (harmful, dangerous) content in the media and social media, which is ineffective for Ukraine in the face of existing challenges and threats related to the military conflict and occupation of part of state territory, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously unresolved parts of the overall problem. An unresolved part of the general problem is the lack of proper scientific substantiation of state mechanisms to combat disinformation and its dissemination in the media and social media. The aim of the article is to develop strategic approaches and practical recommendations for combating misinformation and its dissemination in Ukraine by social media in the context of information and psychological attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic. Main material. Digital technologies and information flows form practically all social processes faced by modern society. Thanks to built-in microprocessors, algorithmic devices and information systems combine texts, sounds and images that are easily stored and reproduced in digital format. The transfer of mass communication to the Internet has led to the transition of target audiences from traditional media to social networks. Without diminishing the benefits, opportunities and prospects that the digital world opens to humanity, it is necessary to actualize the significance of the negative side of the digital development of mass communication. Digital realities open up new possibilities for the introduction of various manipulation tools, among which misinformation is especially dangerous. Post-truth interpretation refers to artificial circumstances in which the emotions and personal beliefs of target audiences are more important than objective facts and evidence that become irrelevant, particularly in shaping public opinion and influencing the mass consciousness. Post-truth is not just the opposite of truth, but rather a phenomenon of purposeful introduction of proactive communication, which as a set of different and interconnected actions, due to its recombined qualities and combination of different components misleads recipients of information in order to subdue them. The consequence is a decrease in the level of trust in the received information and media. People are confused, it becomes difficult for them to separate true information from false information, they do not realize what is true and what media can be trusted. The post-truth politics is realized through "soft" and gradual transformation of the system of national values and moral principles into so-called alternative "universal norms of morality" to absolutize individual freedom, discredit expert opinions and rational discussions, and most importantly to destroy information sovereignty. One of the effective tools for implementing such a policy is gaslighting - a form of organized influence of suggestors (manipulators, politicians, officials) on the processes of public self-identification in order to disorient them and further subdue by provoking uncertainty and doubts about the adequacy of their perception of reality. Victims of gaslighting no longer trust their values, ideals and beliefs, and in despair they give up and by default fall under the influence of manipulators. Such people do not even realize that they are consumers of misinformation. Global networks are becoming a suitable environment for gas writers, as the constant presence of the vast majority of users on social networks and media channels is caused by the growing level of Internet addiction and digital autism, which create a person first addiction and secondly dangerous state of inability to maintain psychological support. languages with other individuals. That is, the digital transformation of everyday life contributes to the loss of people's communication skills of real communication. The loss of the ability to think adequately, independently and analytically is also negative, because the content and meaning of what is happening around them is formed by social media and digital algorithms of artificial intelligence. Influencing citizens by external propagandists' manipulation means disseminate not only criminal and illegal content through social media, but also directly implement political scenarios of changes in national values, the overthrow of the government, provoke armed conflicts, and so on. Disinformation contributes to a geometrically progressive increase in the incidence of the population, which leads to the introduction by the authorities of some regulatory (remediation) measures that may impair freedom of speech and freedom of expression, restrict freedom of assembly and access to public information. In order to obtain the necessary parity between the appropriateness of the application of regulatory measures to combat misinformation to protect the right to reliable and lawful information and the exercise of civil liberties (rights to freedom expression), it is necessary to legally define the grounds, limits and criteria limitation. The dissemination of harmful information cannot be overcome post-factum with the help of targeted sanctions, under these conditions rapid preventive measures are needed. In this context, the media play a key role in combating fakes and are accountable to the state and society for failing to provide accurate and reliable information to the public. Social media units, multinational corporations (digital producers), administrators of social networking platforms, non-governmental organizations and international institutions, civil society and independent media are the subjects of counteraction to the spread of disinformation by social media. Conclusions and recommendations. The significance of the negative consequences of the digital development of mass communication is actualized, the virtual reality of which opens new possibilities for the introduction of various manipulation tools, among which misinformation carries a special danger. It has been proven that misinformation is successfully disseminated through aggressive information campaigns and lack of knowledge about threats and existing vulnerabilities of society, and more effectively affects target audiences by disrupting the interaction (cooperation and communication) of actors to counter its dissemination at the national and international levels. It is substantiated that modern management processes are formed under the influence of post-truth policy, one of the effective tools of which is gaslighting. The main factors that contribute to the spread of misinformation through social media are identified: the effectiveness of the impact on the mass consciousness; scale, high speed and rate of distribution; stability of online presence (causes cumulative effect); intentional promotion of content by artificially adding it to disseminated information flows through popular media and resources; high quality, multidimensionality and variety of fake products, which are perfectly combined in the form of texts, images and videos; easy availability, high-tech and convenience of software for creating fakes. The necessity of disseminating positive Ukrainian narratives by social media as a tool to counteract misinformation and information defense of the country has been proved. It is proposed to involve the best representatives of the Ukrainian elite: patriotic politicians and public figures (opinion leaders), bloggers, volunteers, scientists, cultural and artistic figures for this case. It is substantiated that state public policy subjects of counteracting disinformation and its dissemination (Center for Counteracting Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting) flows in the middle of the country, if necessary, applying the necessary remedial action, study the target audiences, identify, analyze and assess their vulnerabilities (public fears, doubts, etc.), predict possible information attacks on Ukraine. It is necessary to constantly cooperate with digital media and mass media through information and communication campaigns. Practical recommendations were given to state/non-state subjects of counteraction of misinformation on struggle in Ukraine against production of fake content by means of social media. It is necessary: to create a favorable socio-economic, institutional-legal and information-communicative environment for quality and independent journalism, as well as an independent community of fact-checkers as a form of journalistic control to verify the facts used in texts, speeches, social networks posts and identify possible inconsistencies; to disseminate accurate, reliable and objective information on the basis of responsible and independent journalism, to prevent the dissemination of fabricated and manipulative content; to produce positive Ukrainian narratives as a tool of information defense, to prevent the emergence of fakes (instead of refuting fakes - to act in advance), promptly and without explanation to remove/block malicious content in accordance with the law and "community policy"; to set requirements for the media platforms transparency (their activities, funding sources, owners), define criteria and algorithms for ranking information, as well as legally and legitimately require social media to remove illegal content and block its distributors; to monitor, moderate and control the social media content on the basis of legality, transparency and compliance with international human rights standards with the use of means to protect them; to regulate and control the distribution of advertising on news resources of the media and social media, in particular to ensure verification of the transparency and veracity of its sponsored political content, as well as limit of its targeting in order to minimize the income of disinformation disseminators; to promote digital services of voluntary users identification in the online space; to ensure easy, fast and reliable access to all official documents, regulated by the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, ratified by Ukraine in 2020 (Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, 2009); to delegate to search platforms and social networks to determine the truth/falsity of information using artificial intelligence algorithms, remembering that these algorithms can be used to detect/remove misinformation, and vice versa - to create fake information (for example, to form the necessary public opinion misinformation is directed to a specific target audience, taking into account its features and characteristics through algorithmic analysis of messages on social networks, preferences, a selection of sources of user content); to ensure that the majority of the population masters the media literacy and cyberhygiene basics, in particular to encourage and promote the introduction of specialized media programs on information and digital literacy for most people to understand the functions and ramifications of artificial intelligence algorithms, the ability to make informed decisions minimize the impact of threats (risks) associated with the use of such systems, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders, including the private sector, the media, civil society, educational institutions and scientific and technical institutions. Key words: post-truth politics, misinformation, gaslighting, mass media, social media, social networks, fact-checking, media literacy, information campaigns, infodemia, digital technologies, digital transformations, artificial intelligence algorithms. ; У статті охарактеризовано проблеми організації боротьби із поширенням фейків в інформаційному просторі, які пов'язані з відсутністю ефективних державних механізмів протидії дезінформації та її поширенню засобами соціальних медіа. Доведено, що в країнах ЄС здійснюється боротьба не з дезінформацією, а з незаконним (шкідливим, небезпечним) контентом, що поширюється у ЗМІ та соціальних мережах, що є неефективним в умовах існуючих викликів та загроз, які пов'язані з військовим конфліктом та окупацією частини території України, а також пандемією Сovid-19, спричиненої коронавірусом SARS-CoV-2. Актуалізовано значущість негативних наслідків цифрового розвитку масової комунікації, реалії якого відкривають нові можливості запровадження різних інструментів маніпулювання, особливу небезпеку серед яких становить дезінформація. Охарактеризовано управлінські процеси, які формуються під впливом політики постправди, одним з ефективних інструментів реалізації якої є газлайтинг. Визначено основні фактори, які сприяють поширенню дезінформації засобами соціальних медіа. Доведено необхідність поширення засобами соціальних медіа позитивних українських наратив як інструменту протидії дезінформації та здійснення інформаційної оборони країни. Визначено державні суб'єкти вироблення публічної політики з протидії дезінформації та її поширенню в Україні, а також надано практичні рекомендації щодо боротьби з продукуванням фейкового контенту засобами соціальних медіа. Ключові слова: політика постправди; дезінформація; газлайтинг; засоби масової комунікації; засоби масової інформації; соціальні медіа; соціальні мережі; фактчекінг; медіаграмотність; інформаційні кампанії; інфодемія; цифрові технології; цифрові трансформації; алгоритми штучного інтелекту.

Problem formulation. The problem of organizing state and non-state institutions to combat the spread of fakes in the information space is to establish a parity (balance) between: citizens right to receive reliable/legal information protection, freedom of speech protection and expression (civil liberties) and protection of national interests of Ukraine. The existing imbalance caused by the lack of effective mechanisms to counteract misinformation and its dissemination through social media. In the EU countries at the state level the fight is not against misinformation, but with illegal (harmful, dangerous) content in the media and social media, which is ineffective for Ukraine in the face of existing challenges and threats related to the military conflict and occupation of part of state territory, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously unresolved parts of the overall problem. An unresolved part of the general problem is the lack of proper scientific substantiation of state mechanisms to combat disinformation and its dissemination in the media and social media. The aim of the article is to develop strategic approaches and practical recommendations for combating misinformation and its dissemination in Ukraine by social media in the context of information and psychological attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic. Main material. Digital technologies and information flows form practically all social processes faced by modern society. Thanks to built-in microprocessors, algorithmic devices and information systems combine texts, sounds and images that are easily stored and reproduced in digital format. The transfer of mass communication to the Internet has led to the transition of target audiences from traditional media to social networks. Without diminishing the benefits, opportunities and prospects that the digital world opens to humanity, it is necessary to actualize the significance of the negative side of the digital development of mass communication. Digital realities open up new possibilities for the introduction of various manipulation tools, among which misinformation is especially dangerous. Post-truth interpretation refers to artificial circumstances in which the emotions and personal beliefs of target audiences are more important than objective facts and evidence that become irrelevant, particularly in shaping public opinion and influencing the mass consciousness. Post-truth is not just the opposite of truth, but rather a phenomenon of purposeful introduction of proactive communication, which as a set of different and interconnected actions, due to its recombined qualities and combination of different components misleads recipients of information in order to subdue them. The consequence is a decrease in the level of trust in the received information and media. People are confused, it becomes difficult for them to separate true information from false information, they do not realize what is true and what media can be trusted. The post-truth politics is realized through "soft" and gradual transformation of the system of national values and moral principles into so-called alternative "universal norms of morality" to absolutize individual freedom, discredit expert opinions and rational discussions, and most importantly to destroy information sovereignty. One of the effective tools for implementing such a policy is gaslighting - a form of organized influence of suggestors (manipulators, politicians, officials) on the processes of public self-identification in order to disorient them and further subdue by provoking uncertainty and doubts about the adequacy of their perception of reality. Victims of gaslighting no longer trust their values, ideals and beliefs, and in despair they give up and by default fall under the influence of manipulators. Such people do not even realize that they are consumers of misinformation. Global networks are becoming a suitable environment for gas writers, as the constant presence of the vast majority of users on social networks and media channels is caused by the growing level of Internet addiction and digital autism, which create a person first addiction and secondly dangerous state of inability to maintain psychological support. languages with other individuals. That is, the digital transformation of everyday life contributes to the loss of people's communication skills of real communication. The loss of the ability to think adequately, independently and analytically is also negative, because the content and meaning of what is happening around them is formed by social media and digital algorithms of artificial intelligence. Influencing citizens by external propagandists' manipulation means disseminate not only criminal and illegal content through social media, but also directly implement political scenarios of changes in national values, the overthrow of the government, provoke armed conflicts, and so on. Disinformation contributes to a geometrically progressive increase in the incidence of the population, which leads to the introduction by the authorities of some regulatory (remediation) measures that may impair freedom of speech and freedom of expression, restrict freedom of assembly and access to public information. In order to obtain the necessary parity between the appropriateness of the application of regulatory measures to combat misinformation to protect the right to reliable and lawful information and the exercise of civil liberties (rights to freedom expression), it is necessary to legally define the grounds, limits and criteria limitation. The dissemination of harmful information cannot be overcome post-factum with the help of targeted sanctions, under these conditions rapid preventive measures are needed. In this context, the media play a key role in combating fakes and are accountable to the state and society for failing to provide accurate and reliable information to the public. Social media units, multinational corporations (digital producers), administrators of social networking platforms, non-governmental organizations and international institutions, civil society and independent media are the subjects of counteraction to the spread of disinformation by social media. Conclusions and recommendations. The significance of the negative consequences of the digital development of mass communication is actualized, the virtual reality of which opens new possibilities for the introduction of various manipulation tools, among which misinformation carries a special danger. It has been proven that misinformation is successfully disseminated through aggressive information campaigns and lack of knowledge about threats and existing vulnerabilities of society, and more effectively affects target audiences by disrupting the interaction (cooperation and communication) of actors to counter its dissemination at the national and international levels. It is substantiated that modern management processes are formed under the influence of post-truth policy, one of the effective tools of which is gaslighting. The main factors that contribute to the spread of misinformation through social media are identified: the effectiveness of the impact on the mass consciousness; scale, high speed and rate of distribution; stability of online presence (causes cumulative effect); intentional promotion of content by artificially adding it to disseminated information flows through popular media and resources; high quality, multidimensionality and variety of fake products, which are perfectly combined in the form of texts, images and videos; easy availability, high-tech and convenience of software for creating fakes. The necessity of disseminating positive Ukrainian narratives by social media as a tool to counteract misinformation and information defense of the country has been proved. It is proposed to involve the best representatives of the Ukrainian elite: patriotic politicians and public figures (opinion leaders), bloggers, volunteers, scientists, cultural and artistic figures for this case. It is substantiated that state public policy subjects of counteracting disinformation and its dissemination (Center for Counteracting Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting) flows in the middle of the country, if necessary, applying the necessary remedial action, study the target audiences, identify, analyze and assess their vulnerabilities (public fears, doubts, etc.), predict possible information attacks on Ukraine. It is necessary to constantly cooperate with digital media and mass media through information and communication campaigns. Practical recommendations were given to state/non-state subjects of counteraction of misinformation on struggle in Ukraine against production of fake content by means of social media. It is necessary: to create a favorable socio-economic, institutional-legal and information-communicative environment for quality and independent journalism, as well as an independent community of fact-checkers as a form of journalistic control to verify the facts used in texts, speeches, social networks posts and identify possible inconsistencies; to disseminate accurate, reliable and objective information on the basis of responsible and independent journalism, to prevent the dissemination of fabricated and manipulative content; to produce positive Ukrainian narratives as a tool of information defense, to prevent the emergence of fakes (instead of refuting fakes - to act in advance), promptly and without explanation to remove/block malicious content in accordance with the law and "community policy"; to set requirements for the media platforms transparency (their activities, funding sources, owners), define criteria and algorithms for ranking information, as well as legally and legitimately require social media to remove illegal content and block its distributors; to monitor, moderate and control the social media content on the basis of legality, transparency and compliance with international human rights standards with the use of means to protect them; to regulate and control the distribution of advertising on news resources of the media and social media, in particular to ensure verification of the transparency and veracity of its sponsored political content, as well as limit of its targeting in order to minimize the income of disinformation disseminators; to promote digital services of voluntary users identification in the online space; to ensure easy, fast and reliable access to all official documents, regulated by the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, ratified by Ukraine in 2020 (Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, 2009); to delegate to search platforms and social networks to determine the truth/falsity of information using artificial intelligence algorithms, remembering that these algorithms can be used to detect/remove misinformation, and vice versa - to create fake information (for example, to form the necessary public opinion misinformation is directed to a specific target audience, taking into account its features and characteristics through algorithmic analysis of messages on social networks, preferences, a selection of sources of user content); to ensure that the majority of the population masters the media literacy and cyberhygiene basics, in particular to encourage and promote the introduction of specialized media programs on information and digital literacy for most people to understand the functions and ramifications of artificial intelligence algorithms, the ability to make informed decisions minimize the impact of threats (risks) associated with the use of such systems, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders, including the private sector, the media, civil society, educational institutions and scientific and technical institutions. Key words: post-truth politics, misinformation, gaslighting, mass media, social media, social networks, fact-checking, media literacy, information campaigns, infodemia, digital technologies, digital transformations, artificial intelligence algorithms. ; У статті охарактеризовано проблеми організації боротьби із поширенням фейків в інформаційному просторі, які пов'язані з відсутністю ефективних державних механізмів протидії дезінформації та її поширенню засобами соціальних медіа. Доведено, що в країнах ЄС здійснюється боротьба не з дезінформацією, а з незаконним (шкідливим, небезпечним) контентом, що поширюється у ЗМІ та соціальних мережах, що є неефективним в умовах існуючих викликів та загроз, які пов'язані з військовим конфліктом та окупацією частини території України, а також пандемією Сovid-19, спричиненої коронавірусом SARS-CoV-2. Актуалізовано значущість негативних наслідків цифрового розвитку масової комунікації, реалії якого відкривають нові можливості запровадження різних інструментів маніпулювання, особливу небезпеку серед яких становить дезінформація. Охарактеризовано управлінські процеси, які формуються під впливом політики постправди, одним з ефективних інструментів реалізації якої є газлайтинг. Визначено основні фактори, які сприяють поширенню дезінформації засобами соціальних медіа. Доведено необхідність поширення засобами соціальних медіа позитивних українських наратив як інструменту протидії дезінформації та здійснення інформаційної оборони країни. Визначено державні суб'єкти вироблення публічної політики з протидії дезінформації та її поширенню в Україні, а також надано практичні рекомендації щодо боротьби з продукуванням фейкового контенту засобами соціальних медіа. Ключові слова: політика постправди; дезінформація; газлайтинг; засоби масової комунікації; засоби масової інформації; соціальні медіа; соціальні мережі; фактчекінг; медіаграмотність; інформаційні кампанії; інфодемія; цифрові технології; цифрові трансформації; алгоритми штучного інтелекту.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the communication strategies and decision-making processes of executive higher education leaders at a specific, residential liberal arts higher educational institution. Supplemental interviews with three executive leaders at similar institutions were also identified and recommended for participation by interview respondents at the original case site. The actions of higher education executive leaders at this case site and supplemental institutions were investigated in the context of understanding how organizational identity and culture and marketing efforts impact the construction of higher education institutions' communication strategies, and how identity and culture shape communication strategies in an iterative way during a time of two concurrent crises—COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protest movement. Four research questions guided the study: What are the communication strategies of higher education executive leaders during a time of two concurrent crises—COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protest movement? What are the internal and external pressures that influence their decisions regarding the communication strategies they adopt? To what extent, if any, do their communication strategies support or challenge organizational culture, identity, and marketing efforts during a time of two concurrent crises—COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protest movement? In what ways have these two concurrent crises—COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protest movement—changed these communication processes? Findings from the case study interviews fell into five categories: communication strategy, decision-making processes, internal and external pressures, organizational culture and identity, and changes in communications strategies due to the concurrent crises. Studying the communication strategies of higher education leaders and the impact of their communication decisions not only provides frames of reference for leadership decision-making in academia as a cultural-shaping industry, but also reveal powerful nuances in understanding "value" perceptions that dwell far beyond the institutional structure of higher education, particularly during this time of two concurrent crises—COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protest movement.

Doing business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of annual reports doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy profile presents the doing business indicators for Nigeria. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January-December 2010).

This tenth edition of Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting eleven areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Nigeria. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2012 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January - December 2011).

After decades of high trade restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and fiscal policy reforms in 1994. Almost simultaneously, a major devaluation cut the international price of Cameroon's currency in half. This article examines the effects of those reforms on the incentive structure faced by manufacturing firms. Did the reforms create a coherent new set of signals? Did they reduce dispersion in tax burdens? Was the net effect to stimulate the production of tradable goods? The results of applying a cost function decomposition to detailed firm-level panel data suggest that the reforms created clear new signals for manufacturers, as effective protection rates fell by 80 to 120 percentage points. In contrast, neither the tax reforms nor the devaluation had a major systematic effect on profit margins. The devaluation did shift relative prices dramatically in favor of exportable goods, causing exporters to grow relatively rapidly.

Maritime transport costs significantly impede international trade. This article examines why these costs are so high in some countries and quantifies the importance of two explanations: restrictive trade policies and private anticompetitive practices. It finds that both matter, but the latter have a greater impact. Trade liberalization and the breakup of private carrier agreements would lead to an average of one-third lower liner transport prices and to cost savings of up to US dollar 3 billion on goods carried to the United States alone. The policy implications are clear: there is a need not only for further liberalization of government policy but also for strengthened international disciplines on restrictive business practices. The authors propose an approach to developing such disciplines in the current round of services negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Die aus der deutschen Wiedervereinigung resultierenden ökonomischen und demografischen Veränderungsprozesse stellen große Herausforderungen für die Regionalentwicklung dar: Nachdem die ostdeutschen Arbeitsmärkte lange Zeit von einem Überangebot an Arbeitskräften geprägt waren und zahlreiche (vor allem junge, gut ausgebildete) Menschen in die alten Bundesländer abwanderten, zeichnet sich mittlerweile eine Trendwende ab. Infolge des demografischen Wandels (Bevölkerungsalterung und -schrumpfung) geht die Zahl der Personen im erwerbsfähigen Alter kontinuierlich zurück. Dies wirkt sich vor allem auf das Rückgrat der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft, die kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen, aus. Schon heute machen sich Schwierigkeiten bei der Besetzung offener Arbeitsstellen bemerkbar und vielerorts wird bereits von einem "Fachkräftemangel" gesprochen. Um die Zukunftsfähigkeit der ansässigen Unternehmen zu sichern, entwickeln regionale Organisationen Strategien, die eine ausreichende Versorgung der Unternehmen mit Fachkräften gewährleisten und damit zur regionalen Resilienz beitragen sollen. Während diese vor allem auf eine erhöhte Arbeitsbeteiligung bestimmter Gruppen (z.B. ältere Arbeitnehmer, Frauen, Arbeitslose) abzielen, lässt sich vermehrt auch eine gezielte Anwerbung von Fachkräften aus anderen Regionen beobachten. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass mittlerweile ein beachtlicher Teil der abgewanderten Ostdeutschen in seine "alte Heimat" zurückkehren möchte, kommt dieser Personengruppe dabei ein besonderes Interesse zu. Auf diesen Erkenntnissen aufbauend setzt sich die Forschungsarbeit mit folgenden Fragestellungen auseinander: (1) Wie beschäftigen sich die relevanten Organisationen in Ostdeutschland mit der regionalen Fachkräftesicherung? (2) Welche Rolle spielt dabei die gezielte Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern? und (3) Wie können Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen zur Resilienz ostdeutscher Regionen gegenüber dem rückläufigen Erwerbspersonenpotenzials beitragen? Auf Basis einer Literatur- und Internetrecherche werden die wichtigsten Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen in ostdeutschen Regionen erfasst und charakterisiert. Darauf aufbauend werden anhand der Informationen der Trägerorganisationen weitere, mit dem Thema "Fachkräftesicherung" betraute Organisationen identifiziert. Diese Grundgesamtheit stellt den Ausgangspunkt für eine schriftliche Befragung dar. Auf Grundlage der Befragungsergebnisse werden Trends sowie Besonderheiten bei der regionalen Fachkräftesicherung ermittelt. Im Rahmen einer anschließenden Fallstudienuntersuchung wird ein detaillierter Einblick in die Arbeitsweisen und Kooperationsbeziehungen ausgewählter Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen gewonnen. Anhand von Experteninterviews werden weitere Erkenntnisse über den Beitrag dieser Initiativen zur Resilienz regionaler Arbeitsmärkte gewonnen. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich aktuell eine Vielzahl verschiedener Organisationen mit dem Thema der regionalen Fachkräftesicherung beschäftigt: Neben den Agenturen für Arbeit, den Industrie- und Handelskammern sowie den Handwerkskammern sind dies verschiedene Wirtschafts- bzw. Branchenverbände und Gewerkschaften. Darüber hinaus spielen auch Ministerien, Förderbanken, kommunale Einrichtungen, Career Services von Hochschulen und ehrenamtliche Vereine eine Rolle. Obwohl Rück- und Zuwanderer nicht die Hauptzielgruppe ihrer Maßnahmen darstellen, finden sie dennoch Berücksichtigung. Außerdem stehen die meisten Organisationen mit dreizehn Initiativen, welche sich auf eine gezielte Anwerbung von (Re-) Migranten spezialisiert haben, in Kontakt. Bei Letzteren gehören die Vermittlung von Arbeitsplätzen, die Information und Beratung bei der Arbeitssuche sowie Dual Career Services (Informationen und Beratung bei der Arbeitsplatzsuche der Partnerin/ des Partners) zu den wichtigsten Leistungsangeboten. Zwar ist eine direkte Messung ihres Erfolges nicht möglich und eine dauerhafte Finanzierung, aufgrund ihres Projektcharakters, nur selten garantiert, dennoch tragen sie aber zur regionalen Fachkräftesicherung bei: Durch den Aufbau von Netzwerken, der Sensibilisierung ansässiger Unternehmen sowie der aktiven Vermarktung des Standorts werden vorhandene Ressourcen mobilisiert und bestehende Vulnerabilitäten abgebaut. Durch das Einwirken weiterer, externer Prozesse stellt sich schließlich eine erhöhte Resilienz ostdeutscher Regionen gegenüber dem rückläufigen Erwerbspersonenpotenzial ein. Daraus leiten sich Handlungsempfehlungen ab, die eine weitere Intensivierung der regionalen Kooperation vorschlagen.:Abbildungsverzeichnis XI Tabellenverzeichnis XIII Abkürzungsverzeichnis XIV 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Problemstellung 1 1.2 Zielsetzung der Arbeit 3 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 5 2 Theoretischer Bezugsrahmen und forschungsleitende Fragen 7 2.1 Rückgang des Erwerbspersonenpotenzials und Fachkräftemangel 8 2.1.1 Komponenten des Arbeitsmarktes in Deutschland 8 2.1.2 Begriffsbestimmung: Erwerbspersonenpotenzial, Arbeitskräftemangel, Fachkräftemangel, Fachkräftesicherung 10 2.2 Entstehung regionaler Arbeitsmärkte 12 2.2.1 Neoklassisches Grundmodell des Arbeitsmarktes 12 2.2.2 Segmentationstheorie 13 2.2.3 Regulationstheoretisch orientierte Regionalforschung 15 2.2.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 15 2.3 Erklärung von (interregionalen) Migrationsbewegungen 16 2.3.1 Ökonomische Ansätze zur Erklärung von Migration 17 2.3.2 Nichtökonomische Migrationstheorien 18 2.3.3 Mehrebenenkonzept zur (Rück-) Wanderungsforschung 19 2.3.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 20 2.4 Steigerung der Innovations- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in der Regionalentwicklung 21 2.4.1 Cluster 21 2.4.2 Regionale Innovationssysteme 23 2.4.3 Zusammenfassung 23 2.5 Integration der Theoriestränge durch den Ansatz der regionalen Resilienz 24 2.5.1 Der Resilienz-Begriff im Kontext verschiedener Wissenschaftsdisziplinen 25 2.5.2 Unterschiedliche Interpretationen des Resilienz-Begriffs 27 2.5.3 Resilienz regionaler Arbeitsmärkte 30 2.5.4 Operationalisierung des Resilienz-Ansatzes 32 2.6 Forschungsleitende Fragen 34 3 Forschungsstrategie und methodische Vorgehensweise 37 3.1 Forschungsstrategie 37 3.2 Querschnittdesign 39 3.2.1 Abgrenzung des Untersuchungsgebiets 39 3.2.2 Sekundärstatistische Analyse 40 3.2.3 Dokumentenanalyse und Sampling 41 3.2.4 Schriftliche Befragung 42 3.2.4.1 Konstruktion des Erhebungsinstruments 43 3.2.4.2 Durchführung und Rücklauf der Befragung 45 3.2.4.3 Analyse und Darstellung der erhobenen Daten 47 3.3 Multiples Fallstudiendesign 48 3.3.1 Fallauswahl 48 3.3.2 Experteninterviews 49 3.3.2.1 Auswahl der Gesprächspartner 50 3.3.2.2 Durchführung der Untersuchung 51 3.3.2.3 Analyse der erhobenen Daten 52 3.3.3 Dokumentenanalyse 53 3.4 Kritische Reflexion der verwendeten Forschungsmethoden 53 4 Fachkräftesicherung und Migration als Herausforderungen für die Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland 57 4.1 Fachkräftesicherung unter den Bedingungen einer alternden und schrumpfenden Gesellschaft 57 4.1.1 Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels auf die regionalen Arbeitsmärkte in Ostdeutschland 58 4.1.2 Analyse des aktuellen und zukünftigen Fachkräftebedarfs in Ostdeutschland 61 4.1.3 Zielgruppen der regionalen Fachkräftesicherungsstrategien 68 4.2 Rück- und Zuwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 70 4.2.1 Zuwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 71 4.2.2 Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 73 4.2.2.1 Datenverfügbarkeit und Definition der wichtigsten Begriffe 74 4.2.2.2 Zahlen zur Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 76 4.2.2.3 Motive für die Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 77 4.2.2.4 Räumliche und zeitliche Muster der Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 78 4.2.2.5 Demografische und sozio-ökonomische Situation der Rückwanderer 79 4.2.2.6 Potenzial von Rückwanderern für die Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland 80 4.3 Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 83 4.3.1 Gesetzlicher Rahmen zur Anwerbung hochqualifizierter Arbeitskräfte 83 4.3.1.1 Green Card 84 4.3.1.2 Vom Ausländerrecht zur gesteuerten Arbeitsmigration 84 4.3.1.3 Freizügigkeitsgesetz 86 4.3.1.4 Anerkennung ausländischer Abschlüsse 86 4.3.1.5 Blaue Karte EU 87 4.3.2 Bundesweite Maßnahmen zur Fachkräftesicherung durch Rück- und Zuwanderung 88 4.3.2.1 Virtuelle Informationsportale 88 4.3.2.2 Fachkräfte-Offensive 89 4.3.2.3 Jobmonitor 89 4.3.2.4 Innovationsbüro "Fachkräfte für die Region" 90 4.3.2.5 Kompetenzzentrum für Fachkräftesicherung 90 4.3.2.6 Die "Zukunftsinitiative Fachkräftesicherung" 90 4.3.2.7 Sonderprogramm zur Förderung der beruflichen Mobilität von ausbildungsinteressierten Jugendlichen und arbeitslosen Fachkräfte aus Europa (MobiPro-EU) 91 4.3.3 Regionale Ansätze zur Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 92 4.3.3.1 Leistungen zur Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern 92 4.3.3.2 Kriterien für eine Gesamtschau der im Untersuchungsraum existierenden Initiativen 99 5 Aktuelle Strategien der Fachkräftesicherung in Ostdeutschland 103 5.1 Politikumfeld und institutioneller Kontext 103 5.2 Beschäftigung mit dem Thema regionale Fachkräftesicherung 106 5.3 Berücksichtigung von Rück- und Zuwanderern117 5.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 127 6 Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen als Beitrag zur Resilienz regionaler Arbeitsmärkte in Ostdeutschland 131 6.1 Agentur mv4you 131 6.1.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 131 6.1.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 134 6.1.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 137 6.2 Initiative "Fachkräfte für Sachsen. Sachse komm' zurück!" 137 6.2.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 137 6.2.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 139 6.2.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 143 6.3 Willkommens-Agentur Uckermark 143 6.3.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 143 6.3.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 147 6.3.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 150 6.4 Der Beitrag von Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen zum Aufbau einer regionalen Anpassungskapazität 151 6.4.1 Entwicklung der gezielten Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 151 6.4.2 Finanzierung der Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen 152 6.4.3 Beitrag zur regionalen Fachkräftesicherung 152 6.4.4 Verstärkte Berücksichtigung von (internationalen) Zuwanderern 153 6.4.5 Regionsübergreifende Kooperation 154 6.4.6 Schwierigkeiten bei der direkten Messung des Erfolgs 155 6.4.7 Beitrag zur regionalen Resilienz 156 7 Schlussfolgerungen 161 7.1 Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse 161 7.2 Schlussfolgerungen für die Praxis 168 7.3 Schlussfolgerungen für die wissenschaftliche Diskussion und weiterer Forschungsbedarf 170 8 Literaturverzeichnis 173 9 Anhang 191 ; Germany's reunification caused economic and demographic changes that represent major challenges for regional development: After the East German labour markets experienced a long period of labour oversupply and the emigration of many (particularly young and well educated) people to former West Germany, they are now facing a reversal. Due to demographic changes (the aging and shrinking of the population) the number of people in working age has been steadily declining. This especially affects small and medium sized businesses, the backbone of the East German economy. Already, it has become noticeably difficult to fill vacant positions, and a "shortage of skilled labour" is widely discussed. In order to future-proof local businesses, regional organisations have developed strategies that ensure a sufficient supply of skilled labour and an increased regional resilience. Although these strategies mainly aim towards increasing labour market participation among certain groups (e.g. older workers, women, the unemployed), the recruitment of skilled labour from other regions has also noticeably increased. Since a significant proportion among emigrated East Germans would like to return 'home' now, this group is of particular interest. Based on these findings, this research paper deals with the following questions: (1) What do relevant organisations in East Germany do about securing regional skilled labour? (2) What role does the targeted recruitment of immigrants and return migrants play in this context? (3) How can immigration and return migration initiatives contribute to making East German regions resilient against the diminishing work force potential? Based on a combined literature and Internet research, this paper identifies and characterises the most important immigration and return migration initiatives in East Germany. Further, it uses information provided by these initiatives' support organisations to identify other organisations whose remit is to safeguard skilled labour. The resulting statistical population then forms the basis for a written survey. Based on the survey results, the paper investigates trends and anomalies in securing regional skilled labour. A subsequent multiple case study analysis provides detailed insights into the working methods and cooperation among selected immigration and return migration initiatives. Expert interviews provide additional information on how these initiatives contribute towards regional labour market resilience. As the empirical results show, there currently exist a number of organisations dealing with the shortage of skilled labour. These include regional employment agencies, chambers of industry and commerce, and chambers of crafts, as well as various trade associations and unions. In addition, government departments, business development banks, local authorities, university career services, and voluntary associations also play an important role. Even though immigrants and return migrants are not considered to be their main targets, these organisations do include them in their measures. Furthermore, most of the surveyed organisations are in contact with the thirteen initiatives that focus on targeted recruitment of immigrants and return migrants. The most important services provided by immigration and return migration initiatives include job placements, information and advice during the job search, as well as dual career services. Even though it isn't possible to directly measure their impact, and although they are rarely guaranteed permanent financing due to their project-based nature, these initiatives do contribute towards securing regional skilled labour: By developing networks, sensitizing local companies, and actively advertising the region, they mobilise existing resources and reduce regional vulnerabilities. The influence of additional external processes eventually creates an increase in regional resilience towards the declining labour force potential. Derived from these findings, this paper recommends several action points that propose a further intensification of regional cooperation.:Abbildungsverzeichnis XI Tabellenverzeichnis XIII Abkürzungsverzeichnis XIV 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Problemstellung 1 1.2 Zielsetzung der Arbeit 3 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 5 2 Theoretischer Bezugsrahmen und forschungsleitende Fragen 7 2.1 Rückgang des Erwerbspersonenpotenzials und Fachkräftemangel 8 2.1.1 Komponenten des Arbeitsmarktes in Deutschland 8 2.1.2 Begriffsbestimmung: Erwerbspersonenpotenzial, Arbeitskräftemangel, Fachkräftemangel, Fachkräftesicherung 10 2.2 Entstehung regionaler Arbeitsmärkte 12 2.2.1 Neoklassisches Grundmodell des Arbeitsmarktes 12 2.2.2 Segmentationstheorie 13 2.2.3 Regulationstheoretisch orientierte Regionalforschung 15 2.2.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 15 2.3 Erklärung von (interregionalen) Migrationsbewegungen 16 2.3.1 Ökonomische Ansätze zur Erklärung von Migration 17 2.3.2 Nichtökonomische Migrationstheorien 18 2.3.3 Mehrebenenkonzept zur (Rück-) Wanderungsforschung 19 2.3.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 20 2.4 Steigerung der Innovations- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in der Regionalentwicklung 21 2.4.1 Cluster 21 2.4.2 Regionale Innovationssysteme 23 2.4.3 Zusammenfassung 23 2.5 Integration der Theoriestränge durch den Ansatz der regionalen Resilienz 24 2.5.1 Der Resilienz-Begriff im Kontext verschiedener Wissenschaftsdisziplinen 25 2.5.2 Unterschiedliche Interpretationen des Resilienz-Begriffs 27 2.5.3 Resilienz regionaler Arbeitsmärkte 30 2.5.4 Operationalisierung des Resilienz-Ansatzes 32 2.6 Forschungsleitende Fragen 34 3 Forschungsstrategie und methodische Vorgehensweise 37 3.1 Forschungsstrategie 37 3.2 Querschnittdesign 39 3.2.1 Abgrenzung des Untersuchungsgebiets 39 3.2.2 Sekundärstatistische Analyse 40 3.2.3 Dokumentenanalyse und Sampling 41 3.2.4 Schriftliche Befragung 42 3.2.4.1 Konstruktion des Erhebungsinstruments 43 3.2.4.2 Durchführung und Rücklauf der Befragung 45 3.2.4.3 Analyse und Darstellung der erhobenen Daten 47 3.3 Multiples Fallstudiendesign 48 3.3.1 Fallauswahl 48 3.3.2 Experteninterviews 49 3.3.2.1 Auswahl der Gesprächspartner 50 3.3.2.2 Durchführung der Untersuchung 51 3.3.2.3 Analyse der erhobenen Daten 52 3.3.3 Dokumentenanalyse 53 3.4 Kritische Reflexion der verwendeten Forschungsmethoden 53 4 Fachkräftesicherung und Migration als Herausforderungen für die Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland 57 4.1 Fachkräftesicherung unter den Bedingungen einer alternden und schrumpfenden Gesellschaft 57 4.1.1 Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels auf die regionalen Arbeitsmärkte in Ostdeutschland 58 4.1.2 Analyse des aktuellen und zukünftigen Fachkräftebedarfs in Ostdeutschland 61 4.1.3 Zielgruppen der regionalen Fachkräftesicherungsstrategien 68 4.2 Rück- und Zuwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 70 4.2.1 Zuwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 71 4.2.2 Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 73 4.2.2.1 Datenverfügbarkeit und Definition der wichtigsten Begriffe 74 4.2.2.2 Zahlen zur Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 76 4.2.2.3 Motive für die Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 77 4.2.2.4 Räumliche und zeitliche Muster der Rückwanderung nach Ostdeutschland 78 4.2.2.5 Demografische und sozio-ökonomische Situation der Rückwanderer 79 4.2.2.6 Potenzial von Rückwanderern für die Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland 80 4.3 Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 83 4.3.1 Gesetzlicher Rahmen zur Anwerbung hochqualifizierter Arbeitskräfte 83 4.3.1.1 Green Card 84 4.3.1.2 Vom Ausländerrecht zur gesteuerten Arbeitsmigration 84 4.3.1.3 Freizügigkeitsgesetz 86 4.3.1.4 Anerkennung ausländischer Abschlüsse 86 4.3.1.5 Blaue Karte EU 87 4.3.2 Bundesweite Maßnahmen zur Fachkräftesicherung durch Rück- und Zuwanderung 88 4.3.2.1 Virtuelle Informationsportale 88 4.3.2.2 Fachkräfte-Offensive 89 4.3.2.3 Jobmonitor 89 4.3.2.4 Innovationsbüro "Fachkräfte für die Region" 90 4.3.2.5 Kompetenzzentrum für Fachkräftesicherung 90 4.3.2.6 Die "Zukunftsinitiative Fachkräftesicherung" 90 4.3.2.7 Sonderprogramm zur Förderung der beruflichen Mobilität von ausbildungsinteressierten Jugendlichen und arbeitslosen Fachkräfte aus Europa (MobiPro-EU) 91 4.3.3 Regionale Ansätze zur Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 92 4.3.3.1 Leistungen zur Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern 92 4.3.3.2 Kriterien für eine Gesamtschau der im Untersuchungsraum existierenden Initiativen 99 5 Aktuelle Strategien der Fachkräftesicherung in Ostdeutschland 103 5.1 Politikumfeld und institutioneller Kontext 103 5.2 Beschäftigung mit dem Thema regionale Fachkräftesicherung 106 5.3 Berücksichtigung von Rück- und Zuwanderern117 5.4 Zusammenfassung der wesentlichen Punkte 127 6 Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen als Beitrag zur Resilienz regionaler Arbeitsmärkte in Ostdeutschland 131 6.1 Agentur mv4you 131 6.1.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 131 6.1.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 134 6.1.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 137 6.2 Initiative "Fachkräfte für Sachsen. Sachse komm' zurück!" 137 6.2.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 137 6.2.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 139 6.2.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 143 6.3 Willkommens-Agentur Uckermark 143 6.3.1 Aktivitäten der Initiative 143 6.3.2 Kooperation mit anderen regionalen Initiativen 147 6.3.3 Aktuelle Entwicklungen 150 6.4 Der Beitrag von Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen zum Aufbau einer regionalen Anpassungskapazität 151 6.4.1 Entwicklung der gezielten Anwerbung von Rück- und Zuwanderern in Ostdeutschland 151 6.4.2 Finanzierung der Rück- und Zuwanderungsinitiativen 152 6.4.3 Beitrag zur regionalen Fachkräftesicherung 152 6.4.4 Verstärkte Berücksichtigung von (internationalen) Zuwanderern 153 6.4.5 Regionsübergreifende Kooperation 154 6.4.6 Schwierigkeiten bei der direkten Messung des Erfolgs 155 6.4.7 Beitrag zur regionalen Resilienz 156 7 Schlussfolgerungen 161 7.1 Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse 161 7.2 Schlussfolgerungen für die Praxis 168 7.3 Schlussfolgerungen für die wissenschaftliche Diskussion und weiterer Forschungsbedarf 170 8 Literaturverzeichnis 173 9 Anhang 191

Although various pieces of European secondary law law use the terms "mise en concurrence" ("calling for competition" or "competitive tendering procedure") they provide no definition of the expression "obligation de mise en concurrence" ("obligation to call for competition"). At the very beginning, the author therefore defines what is meant thereby in his thesis, i.e. "a more or less formalized action which a public or a private person has to follow in order to provoke a competition or a contest between potentially interested persons that perform an economic activity, in order to grant an individual advantage to one or several of them". The first part of the work deals with the regime of competitive tendering of the public procurement directives which the Court of Justice has considered "as a whole" to be the "core" of European law on public contracts. First, this part examins the development of the public procurement directives from 1971 on. The author shows that the puzzling evolution of the personal scope of the public procurement directives is guided by the personal scope of European primary law. While considering the remedies directives, the author examines to what extent they introduce requirements beyond the principle of effective judicial protection. While some of their requirements obviously do so, the remedies directives however remain very far from standardizing the means of redress at national level. Due to the member States' judicial autonomy, the compelling force of EU primary law differs from one member State to another. The same applies within the scope of the remedies directives as they let the member States a large degree of autonomy. The author then turns to examine the contribution of the procurement directives 2004/17/CE, 2004/18/CE and 2009/81/CE, their scope of application, as well as the concepts of public works concession and service concession. Various other questions are dealt with in the first part, such as the use of functional interpretation, the power of the European legislator to adopt regulations on public procurement and the impact of the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), the Revised GPA and other international agreements. At last the author explores the issue of electronic procurement and the Commission's proposals for replacing the public procurement directives 2004/17/CE and 2004/18/CE and its proposal concerning the award of concession contracts. The second part of of the thesis focuses on primary public procurement law. After having described the origin of the obligation to call for competition under EU primary law which the Court of Justice derives from articles 49 and 56 TFEU as well as from the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality, the author strives to determine whether this obligation is well-founded. This examination brings to light that the rationale behind the requirement to call for competition under EU primary law is rather fragile. Amongst others, the author comes to the conclusion that the condition of a certain cross-border interest of each public contract individually as a condition for the application of the primary law obligation to call for competition lacks relevance The author then reviews and examines other possible bases for an obligation to call for competition under EU primary law such as the right to good administration, the freedom of enterprise and the right to property, which are protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Finally, it seems that only article 102 TFEU (abuse of a dominant position) could to a limited extent give rise to an obligation to call for competition. However, once a situation is governed by EU secondary law, it enters the scope of European law. Hence, the principles of equal treatment and of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality apply even if a situation involves no cross-border interest. If the Court of justice's case law were followed consistently, these principes should lead to require calls for competition in a number of purely internal situations. According to the author, deducing as precise consequences as does the Court of justice from the principal of equal treatment and other fundemental principles can hardly be justified. After that examination, the material rules of public procurement primary law stated by the Court of Justice and the General Court are successively reviewed. The pages that follow are about the exceptions to the obligation to call for competition under the public procurement directives and under primary law, as for instance articles 51 and 52 TFEU, overriding reasons of general interest and article 106, paragraph 2, TFEU. The author thereafter addresses the question whether primary law applies within the scope of secondary law. He comes to the conclusion that it does even when secondary law represents an exhaustive body of rules. Notwithstanding some ambiguous judgements of the Court of justice there is no support for the doctrine of priority of application of secondary law in the Court's case law. In what follows, the author tries to answer the question whether, in order to stay consistent with the case law developed in the wake of Telaustria, the obligation to call for competition which the case law of the Court of Justice requires for public works, service and supply contracts ought to be extended to other operations (sale or lease of real estate, design contests outside the scope of the public procurement directives, employment contracts, subsidised contracts awarded by private entities outside the scope of the public procurement directives, grants, …). The end of the second part deals with the personal scope of the primary law of public procurement which corresponds to that of EU primary law. The rules concerning State aid are addressed in detail in the third part of the thesis. The examination in that part shows that the public procurement directives, the primary law of public procurement and the EU state aid rules apply cumulatively. The EU State aid rules require efficency when awarding public contracts. Nevertheless, in order to avoid the categorization as State aid, a call for competition is never formally required. The Commission however insists on calls for competition in order to declare certain aids compatible with the internal market. Aids include by definition an advantage for their recipients. This remains true even though an aid has been authorised by the Commission pursuant to article 107, paragraphe 3, TFEU. Given the very broad scope the Court of Justice gives to the freedom of establishment and the free movement of services, aid measures give generally rise to obstacles to the freedom of establishment and the free movement of services. At the risk of rendering article 107, paragraph 3, TFEU unnecessary, the fact that an aid measure impedes the fundamental freedoms of the internal market should therefore not prevent the Commission to declare it compatible with the internal market. This applies in particular to aids consisting in the award of a public contract that is covered only by EU primary law. That solution seems however excluded for public contracts within the scope of the public procurement directives. The Commission has adopted a broad concept of what is an "advantage" in the sense of the State aid rules. This leads the Commission to consider certain grants for environmental protection as State aid measures even though it may be difficult to dectect any kind of advantage. The Commission claims to control these measures in accordance with the rules of State aid control. On that occasion the Commission tends to make its consent subject to a call for competition in order to identify the projects that will be subsidized. A broad approach of the concept of undertaking leads to class as State aid various public infrastructure investments insofar they do not satisfy the private investor test. The Commission tends to make its consent to these investments subject to calls for competition. Such is notably the case regarding public investments in broadband network facilities. In the fourth part, the author examines a variety of secondary legislation imposing calls for competition other than the public procurement directives. These texts cover a wide range of areas and provide for competitive awards of various form and diverse content. Sometimes a requirement for competitive tendering is overtly expressed. At other times, it is implicit, indirect or just inchoate. Some advantages are awarded without a genuine competition or without any competition at all. Directive 2012/34/CE establishing a single European railway area for instance sets principles for the allocation of "infrastructure capacity" (i.e the right to use a railway network). It does not employ such terms as "calling for competition". Where the infrastructure capacity is insufficient it has to be allocated in a fair and non discriminatory manner. The fee for using the railway network cannot be used as an award criterion. In some areas, competition in terms of price is the very basis of the system. This is true for the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme. It happens that competitive assignment occurs incidentally and in a non compulsory way as in the case of the milk quota regime. In other cases, e.g. certain situations covered by the internal electricity market regime, the system excludes calls for competition whereas they should be required according to primary procurement law principles. Under still other circumstances, i.e. the award of public service contracts for public passenger transport services, competitive tendering only needs to be strictly complied with after a transitional period. This can hardly be reconciled with the principles of primary procurement law. In some cases the rules in place are such, for example when awarding the universal postal service, that it seems doubtful that a competitive bidding following objective and transparent criteria is really possible. The European greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme relies on auctions for the allocation of gaz emission authorisations. At first, it does so to a limited extent. Such authorisations, called "allowances", are freely transferable. Thus a reallocation of allowances according to market mechanismes is made possible. The author sheds light on some major inconsistencies of the greenhouse gas emission trading scheme. The late deadline for surrendering allowances gives rise for several years to a surplus of allowances over the greenhouse gas emissions considered in the scheme. On the other hand, the costs for same amounts of greenhouse gas emitted at the same time may vary. This gives rise to a problem of equality. The author comes to the conclusion that the scheme has little capacity to reach the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least cost to the economy. The designation of the universal postal service providers implies to lay down rules as to how the net cost of the universal service is to be calculated, as well as to define appropriate award criteria. These steps face considerable difficulties. A similar situation can be found in other areas such as electronic communications and electricity or natural gas transmission or distribution systems. In the latter case, the risk of a change of transmission or distribution tariffs due to decisions of national regulatory authorities leaves the competitors in the dark on a crucial point. The legislation regarding the internal electricity market and the internal gaz market puts the transmission and distribution system operators in a position very similar to that of service or public works concession holders. In some cases the principles which underlie these schemes exclude competitive tendering as required by primary procurement law. The networks being freely transferable, ownership of networks and hence, in principle, their operators are determined by private market mechanismes mainly through the level of the proposed sales price. This is not consistent with the principles of primary procurement law stated by the Court of Justice (advertising requirements, award criteria linked to the subject matter of the contract, .) . Neither does it seem compatible with these principles that the development of the networks belongs automatically to the transmission and distribution system operators. The assessment of conformity of secondary legislation with primary law is less strict than the conformity assessment of national law. The Court of Justice has allowed the European legislator a wide margin of discretion when establishing the internal market and seems to have tacitely acknowledged a form of conformity presumption of secondary law. Save in exceptional cases, it seems unlikely that the Court will put into question secondary law regimes differing from primary law procurement rules. Thus, the European legislator may adopt such solutions without incurring major legal risks.

While it has become clear that communication is a monetary policy tool for central banks, and extensive research has been conducted on central bank communication with financial markets, little is known so far on central bank communication with the general public. Our research provides new insights into this field, confirming that the efforts of central banks to connect with people are not in vain. In a randomised controlled trial, we focus on the determinants of understanding and trust in the communication of the European Central Bank (ECB) about the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, which was set up as part of the Bank's response to the Covid-19 crisis. Key findings include that the ECB's simplified and relatable communication contributes to increased understanding of the central bank among a wider public. The simplified content also has a positive impact on perceptions of the ECB among laypeople, indicating that building understanding of the ECB's communications can help build trust in the central bank. ; Alors que la communication est devenue un outil de politique monétaire des banques centrales, et qu'il existe une riche littérature sur la communication des banques centrales avec les marchés financiers, la communication des banques centrales avec le grand public a jusqu'alors été peu étudiée. Notre étude apporte de nouvelles perspectives dans ce domaine, confirmant que les efforts de communication des banques centrales avec le grand public ne sont pas vains. Dans un essai contrôlé randomisé, nous étudions les déterminants de la compréhension et de la confiance dans la communication de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) sur le « Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme », créé par la BCE pour faire face à la crise du Covid-19. Les principaux résultats montrent qu'une communication simplifiée et adaptée de la BCE permet d'améliorer la compréhension d'un plus grand nombre. Le contenu simplifié a aussi un effet positif sur les perceptions que les non-experts ont de la BCE, indiquant que renforcer la compréhension dans la communication de la BCE peut renforcer la confiance dans la banque centrale.

While it has become clear that communication is a monetary policy tool for central banks, and extensive research has been conducted on central bank communication with financial markets, little is known so far on central bank communication with the general public. Our research provides new insights into this field, confirming that the efforts of central banks to connect with people are not in vain. In a randomised controlled trial, we focus on the determinants of understanding and trust in the communication of the European Central Bank (ECB) about the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, which was set up as part of the Bank's response to the Covid-19 crisis. Key findings include that the ECB's simplified and relatable communication contributes to increased understanding of the central bank among a wider public. The simplified content also has a positive impact on perceptions of the ECB among laypeople, indicating that building understanding of the ECB's communications can help build trust in the central bank. ; Alors que la communication est devenue un outil de politique monétaire des banques centrales, et qu'il existe une riche littérature sur la communication des banques centrales avec les marchés financiers, la communication des banques centrales avec le grand public a jusqu'alors été peu étudiée. Notre étude apporte de nouvelles perspectives dans ce domaine, confirmant que les efforts de communication des banques centrales avec le grand public ne sont pas vains. Dans un essai contrôlé randomisé, nous étudions les déterminants de la compréhension et de la confiance dans la communication de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) sur le « Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme », créé par la BCE pour faire face à la crise du Covid-19. Les principaux résultats montrent qu'une communication simplifiée et adaptée de la BCE permet d'améliorer la compréhension d'un plus grand nombre. Le contenu simplifié a aussi un effet positif sur les perceptions que les non-experts ont de la BCE, indiquant que renforcer la compréhension dans la communication de la BCE peut renforcer la confiance dans la banque centrale.

The antitrust laws are a minefield for the uninitiated. Indicative of this reality is the fact that there were no successful civil lawsuits alleging a violation of the antitrust laws brought in Virginia over the past year. A number of conspiracy, monopolization and price discrimination cases were attempted, but they all failed for a variety of reasons outlined in greater detail below. In contrast to the national trend, no antitrust cases with regard to health care were decided in Virginia during the past year. The absence of such cases represents a dramatic change from previous experience, which perhaps reflects the reality that-staff privilege and exclusive dealing cases involving hospitals or physicians are rarely successful under the antitrust laws.

 Anyone who has ever taken or taught a philosophy class is familiar with the claim "[Blank] is subjective" in which the [Blank] in question could be anything from literary interpretations to ethical norms. This response effectively ends any and all cultural and philosophical discussion, which is why it is so aggravating. One response is to argue against this claim, to point out that not every interpretation of a poem, novel, or film, is authorized, that there are better or worse interpretations, with respect to cultural version. With respect to the ethical or political arguments it is tempting to point out that the very existence of ethics, of society, presupposes norms that are shared as well as debated and challenged.What if we took a different perspective? Instead of arguing against this view, ask the question of its conditions. To offer a criticism in the Marxist sense. By Marxist sense I mean specifically the criticism that Marx offers of idealism, of philosophy, in The German Ideology. In that text Marx gives the conditions of how it is that the world appears so upside down that ideas and their criticism rather than material conditions drive and determine history. So we could ask a similar question, how has subjectivity, subjective opinion and perspective, has come to appear as so prevalent and powerful. How did we come to live under the reign of subjectivity?In a move that will surprise no one who has read this blog that I find a useful starting point for answering this question Frank Fischbach's book Marx with Spinoza. In that text Fischbach argues that rather than seen alienation as an alienation from subjectivity, a reduction of a subject to an object, it is subjectivity itself that is an alienation, an alienation from objectivity, a privation of the world.  As Fischbach argues:"The reduction of human beings, by this abstraction, from natural and living beings to the state of 'subjects' as owners of a socially average labour power indicates at the same time the completion of their reduction to a radical state of impotence: for the individual to be conceived and to conceive of itself as a subject it is necessary that it see itself withdrawn and subtracted from the objective conditions of its natural activity; in other words, it is necessary that 'the real conditions of living labour' (the material worked on, the instruments of labour and the means of subsistence which 'fan the flames of the power of living labour') become 'autonomous and alien existences'"And also: "This is why we interpret Marx's concept of alienation not as a new version of a loss of the subject in the object, but as a radically new thought, of the loss of the essential and vital objects for an existence that is itself essentially objective and vital....Alienation is not therefore the loss of the subject in the object it is the loss of object for a being that is itself objective. But the loss of proper objects and the objectivity of its proper being is also the loss of all possible inscription of one's activity in objectivity, it is the loss of all possible mastery of objectivity, as well as other effects: in brief, the becoming subject is essentially a reduction to impotence. The becoming subject or the subjectivation of humanity is thus inseparable according to Marx from what is absolutely indispensable for capitalism, the existence of a mass of "naked workers"—that is to say pure subjects possessors of a perfectly abstract capacity to work—individual agents of a purely subjective power of labor and constrained to sell its use to another to the same extent that they are totally dispossessed of the entirety of objective conditions (means and tools of production, matter to work on) to put to effective work their capacity to work."At the basis of subjectivity, of subjectivity understood as an abstract and indifferent capacity, there is the indifferent capacity of labor power. Behind the figure of the subject there is the worker. I have already argued elsewhere on this blog that this reading of the Marx/Spinoza connection could be understood as one which reflects and critically addressed our contemporary situation in which subjecitivity, a subjectivity understood as potential and capacity, is seen as the condition of our freedom rather than our subjection. What Fischbach suggests through a reading of Marx and Spinoza that such capacity, capacity abstracted and separated from the material conditions of its emergence and  activity, can only really be impotence. Just as a worker cut off from the conditions of labor is actually poverty, a subject cut off from the conditions of its actualization is impotence. What now I find provocative about this analysis is that if we think of it as a general schema in which an objective relation, a relation to objects but also others, is transformed into a subjective potential or capacity it is possible to argue that the constitution of subjectivity through labor power is only one such transformation, and that the current production of subjectivity is itself the product of several successive revolutions in which subjective potentials displace objective relations. One could also talk about the creation of subjectivity as buying power, as a pure capacity to purchase. I know that criticisms of consumer society from the fifties and sixties today seem moralistic and often passé. I am thinking here of Baudrillard, Debord, Lefebvre, and of course Horkheimer and Adorno. It is worth remembering, however, that some of the early critics were less interested in moralizing criticisms of materialism as they were in this kind of constitution of subjectivity. As Jean Baudrillard wrote in The Consumer Society, 'It is difficult to grasp the extent to which the
current training in systematic, organized consumption is the equivalent and extension, in
the twentieth century, of the great nineteenth-century long process of the training of rural
populations for industrial work.'One person who continued such an an analysis is Bernard Stiegler. Stiegler even uses the same word, "proletarianization" to describe both the loss of skills and knowledge by the worker and the loss of skills and knowledge by the consumer.  As I wrote in The Politics of Transindividuality:"At first glance, the use of the term proletarianisation to describe the transindividuation of the consumer would seem to be an analogy with the transformation of the labour process: if proletarianisation is the loss of skills, talents, and knowledge until the worker becomes simply interchangeable labour power, then the broader proletarianisation of daily life is the loss of skills, knowledge, and memory until the individual becomes simply purchasing power. Stiegler's use of proletarianisation is thus simultaneously broader and more restricted than Marx, broader in that it is extended beyond production to encompass relations of consumption and thus all of life, but more restricted in that it is primarily considered with respect to the question of knowledge. The transfer of knowledge from the worker to the machine is the primary case of proletarianisation for Stiegler, becoming the basis for understanding the transfer of knowledge of cooking to microwaveable meals and the knowledge of play from the child to the videogame. Stiegler does not include other dimensions of Marx's account of proletarianisation, specifically the loss of place, of stability, with its corollary affective dimension of insecurity and precariousness. On this point, it would be difficult to draw a strict parallel between worker and consumer, as the instability of the former is often compensated for by the desires and satisfactions of the latter. Consumption often functions as a compensation for the loss of security, stability, and satisfaction of work, which is not to say that it is not without its own insecurities especially as they are cultivated by advertising."For the most part Stiegler considers this deskilling to take place in the automation of the knowledge and skill that makes up daily life. Everything from cooking to knowing how to navigate one's own city is now more or less hardwired into precooked meals and the ubiquitous smartphone. Other cultural critics have pointed to the general deskilling of daily life through the decline of repair, tinkering, and mending. The effect of all this is to change the consumer from someone who buys things based on knowledge and familiarity to a pure expression of buying power, an abstract potential. Just as the worker is separated from the means of production, from the objective conditions of their labor to be the subjective capacity to work, the consumer is separated from the knowledge to consume to become a personification of buying power. As with work the conditions to realize this buying power are outside the control of the consumer. We do not decide what to buy based on our knowledge of our needs and desires but on what is advertised to us as a need or desire.As much as the worker and consumer are opposed, making up two sides of economic relations under capitalism, they are unified, connected in the tendency to transform work to abstract labor power and consumption into abstract buying power. While abstract subjectivity is how these two sides of the capitalist economic relation function it is not how they are lived. They are lived as profoundly individual, subjective in the conventional sense of the word. What one does for a living is in some sense considered to be one's identity: "What do you do?" is in some sense equivalent to "Who are You?" Being reduced to abstract labor power, to capacity for work, is lived as a concrete and highly individualized condition, as my particular job and career. If for any one of the myriad reasons what one does is inadequate to constitute an identity, remains just a day job, then consumption or the commodity form steps in to supply the necessary coordinates for an identity. From this perspective we can chart not only the historical progression of the two identities, but also the structural similarities. With respect to the first, consumer society, consumption, and the myriad possibilities to construct an identity through consumption, comes after the worker, after the formation of capitalism. Any attempt to read Marx's Capital for consumer society, for the common sense understanding of commodity fetishism as the overvaluing of commodities, is going to have a hard time navigating the dull world of linen, coats, corn and coal. The consumer comes after the worker. However, it is also possible to see a similarity of a structural condition. In both case subjectivity is abstracted from, or separated from, objectivity, from not just objects, but objective spirit, in Hegel's sense, institutions, norms, and structures. This abstraction is lived as a highly individualized identity, in some sense work and consumption form the basis of individuality as such. However, it only has effects, only functions in the aggregate. As a worker one only has effects, both in terms of the creation of value, and in terms of any disruption of exploitation, as part of a collective. The same could be said for consumerism, even though it is through consumerism that we are encouraged to believe that we can have ethical effects as individuals, green consumerism, cruelty free products, etc.  Consumers only matter as a mass, at an economy of scale, even in the age of niche marketing. This can be seen in the impotent attempts to bring back cancelled products, or to change corporate strategies through boycotts. The only demands that make sense to corporations are those that are already effective in terms of buying power. I am wondering if one can see a similar structure of abstract/individual subjectivity in other aspects of society. I am thinking of politics, in which individuals are abstracted from any real connection to their communities and societies only to be constituted as "voting power," an abstract aggregate that is lived as a highly individualized identity. I will have to think more about that one. My point here is to connect the often asserted claim "that everything is subjective" back to its material conditions, to the production of subjectivity in both work and the reproduction of everyday life, production and consumption. It is not just a matter of a bad reading of Nietzsche that is behind such claims, although it is often that as well, but an effect in the sphere of ideas and discussion of what is already at work in the sphere of production. Abstract subjectivity is a material condition before it is an intellectual interpretation. The thread running through both is connection between power and impotence. If everything is subjective then I can offer any interpretation, create my own moral code whole cloth, live as I prefer, but if everything is subjective then I can do very little, nothing at all to alter or change anything. This is the fundamental point of intersection between Marx and Spinoza, subjectivity, individual subjectivity, is not the zenith of our freedom and power, it is the nadir of our subjection. Updated 4/15/24I happened to be rereading Tiqqun's Introduction to Civil War which offers the following on this last point, on the political subject as a subject constituted in alienation. As they write:"In order to become a political subject in the modern State, each body must submit to the machinery that will make it such; it must begin by casting aside its passions (now inappropriate), its tastes (now laughable), its penchants (now contingent), endowing itself instead with interests, which are much more presentable and, even better, representable. In this way, in order to become a political subject each body must first carry out its own autocastration as an economic subject. Ideally, the political subject will be reduced to nothing more than a pure vote, a pure voice."Tiqqun offers an expression of this idea, and in doing so captures what I was starting to think about before. However, they also offer me some reservations, especially in their tendency towards deriving an ontological or existential situation from a social condition. As with work and consumption, the pure subjectivity, the pure labor, buying, or voting power, is presented as the zenith of a kind of power, a capacity, maximize your labor power, express your preferences with consumer choices, and, most absurdly, vote harder, but this power is entirely determined by the existing labor conditions, market relations, and political structures.