Suchergebnisse

Las Vegas, Nevada, is typically recognised as a place via a single urban gesture, that gesture being Las Vegas Boulevard, which is more commonly referred to as "The Strip". In constructing a thesis around the theme, "Here or There? Interconnections between the Global and the Local", one cannot ignore the invitation to discuss globalisation and its effects on a particular local fabric. For the purpose of this text, globalisation can be thought of as what Carmona et al describe as an intricate series of events leading to the world "becoming increasingly interconnected, with centralised decision making exploiting economies of scale and standardisation" (2003: 101). The centralised decision-making process for The Strip is evident in the strategy to develop individually themed casino resorts along Las Vegas Boulevard that respond to a competitive economy, thus creating a newly standardised landscape. If we also understand that globalisation can be thought of as the development of an interconnected world where economic, political and cultural boundaries can be easily crossed, this work can begin to define how the Las Vegas Strip is a genuinely invented global landscape. This paper addresses the "here-ness" as well as the "there-ness" of The Strip, while offering a dialectical framework for establishing a meaning of place by having 'there' placed 'here'. By employing semiological interpretations of real landscapes from around the globe (for example, Venturi et al, 1972), The Strip becomes a newly invented landscape of "simulations" (Baudrillard, 1988). As such, The Strip acts as a narrative that forms a unique place, opening the door to questions of authenticity and identity. This paper concludes by focusing on the question of "Here or There?" as an appropriate deviation from the assumed role that the post-modern landscape of the Las Vegas Strip plays. This work is intended to be a point of departure from the frequent criticism of the Las Vegas Strip as simply an 'invented' space and focuses on the potential of this constructed landscape for providing a genuinely positive, place-based experience that focuses on the interconnections between 'here' and 'there'.

En agosto de 2013 da inicio el Paro Nacional Agrario, creciendo en fuerza y magnitud durante los días, se convirtió rápidamente en la acción colectiva más importante en los últimos años. Aunque su centro fue rural contó con un inesperado apoyo urbano logrando así un impacto político y mediático importante. Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, en particular el internet, han posibilitado el surgimiento de nuevas formas de comunicación que han venido aprovechando los movimientos sociales para construir discursos alternativos, construir identidades, ampliar su convocatoria, forjar redes y presentar alternativas a la comunicación dominante. En esta investigación se analiza la relación entre los movimientos sociales y las plataformas de comunicación alternativa en internet aterrizada en el Paro Nacional Agrario del año 2013, en donde una coyuntura particular permite develar los límites y posibilidades de la comunicación alternativa en su intento de romper el cerco mediático de los medios hegemónicos como una posibilidad de democratización. ; Abstract. On August 2013 National Agrarian Strike began. Growing in strenght and magnitude during the days, quickly became the most important collective action in recent years in Colombia. Although its center was rural, the strike counts with an unexpected urban support, thus achieving an important political and media impact. Information and communication technologies, in particular Internet, gave the possibility to new forms of communication to arise, that kind of communication have been used by social movements for the construction of alternative discourses, build identities, expand their call, forge networks and present alternatives to dominant communication. This investigation analyzes the relation between social movements and alternative communication platforms on Internet, landed in 2013 National Agrarian Strike, where a particular conjuncture allows unveiling limits and possibilities of alternative communication in its intent to break the media siege of hegemonic media as a democratization possibility. ; Maestría

A recent debate on tax compliance asks whether enforcement mechanisms can be complemented, or even substituted by appeals to the taxpayer's tax morality: his or her intrinsic willingness to pay taxes, motivated by purely ethical reasons, or a feeling of reciprocity towards the government that provides public goods and services of varying quality. We evaluate this hypothesis by tracking the local business tax compliance of over 6,000 firms in a major municipality in Caracas, which we randomly assigned to a control of no stimulus, or to one of five treatment arms that received letters from the local tax administrator with different types of messages regarding tax compliance. We find that an enforcement message has the largest compliance effect, while moral suasion appears less effective. However, differences between letter types have impacts that cannot be statistically distinguished from each other, which we interpret as an effect of being contacted by the tax authority by written communication, regardless of the content. This is most likely to matter for firms unaccustomed to contact with the government –small firms– which are also those for which we find economically large effects.

We provide the first experimental attempt at measuring reciprocity in tax collection in developing countries, where enforcement institutions are weak, and where tax rates and in general tax observance is lower. In a household survey carried out in 17 Latin American cities, we randomly provide respondents with positively or negatively information on the local Government's administration; this information significantly altered perceptions on the quality of the local government in two cities, and we find that in Rio de Janeiro -where a relative high degree of tax autonomy allows citizens to make a clear link between taxes and the provision of public services- people's perception on the quality of the local government can have sizable effects on their willingness to pay taxes.