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Este trabajo reclama la pertinencia de una práctica epistemológica feminista de la conciliación, capaz de aunar sensibilidades y quehaceres modernos y posmodernos. Esta mirada conciliadora permite abordar en su amplia complejidad las relaciones entre las dimensiones macroestructurales, mesoinstitucionales y microencarnadas de las vidas de las mujeres, así como transitar los actuales debates en torno a la (in)validez de las categorías de género y mujer. Para ello, se toma como referencia de partida la Teoría del Punto de Vista de Sandra Harding, paradigma de la nueva epistemología feminista y foco de discrepancias científicas y políticas entre los propios feminismos. A partir de la propuesta de Harding, se analizan críticamente las tensiones feministas que esta teoría plantea y que apuntan hacia ciertos riesgos esencialistas y universalistas y, al mismo tiempo, hacia posibles derivas individualistas o relativistas. Se sugiere entonces el encuentro de esta Teoría del Punto de Vista con un enfoque posmoderno que la complejice y actualice al calor de las actuales discusiones feministas. Ya desde este punto de vista posmoderno, se plantean una serie de enmiendas para afinar la mirada epistemológica feminista: enfrentar el relato único sobre las mujeres a partir de sus diversas experiencias; explorar las distintas experiencias encarnadas para conectarlas y analizarlas en contexto, esto es, sujetas a las relaciones estructurales de poder; sustituir el privilegio epistémico automático por una preferencia crítica y argumentada por las experiencias y relatos de las mujeres; y, finalmente, poner en valor las experiencias y relatos de la propia investigadora para orientar el estudio y, también, exponer los privilegios y limitaciones de su punto de vista. ; This essay claims the relevance of a feminist epistemological practice of conciliation, capable of bringing together modern and postmodern sensibilities and works. This conciliatory gaze makes it possible to address the relationships between the macro-structural, meso-institutional and micro-incarnate dimensions of women's lives in their broad complexity, as well as to go through the current debates on the (in)validity of the categories of gender and woman. To this end, Sandra Harding's Standpoint Theory, a paradigm of the new feminist epistemology and the focus of scientific and political discrepancies between feminisms themselves, is taken as a starting point. Based on Harding's proposal, a critical analysis is made of the feminist tensions that this theory raises. These tensions point to certain essentialist and universalist risks and, at the same time, to possible individualist or relativist drifts. It is then suggested that this Standpoint Theory should meet with a postmodern approach that would make it more complex and update it in the eyes of current feminist discussions. From this postmodern standpoint, a series of amendments are proposed to refine the feminist epistemological gaze: to confront the single narrative about women from their diverse experiences; to explore the different embodied experiences to connect and analyse them in context, that is, subjected to structural power relations; to replace automatic epistemic privilege with a critical and argued preference for women's experiences and narratives; and, finally, to value the experiences and stories of the researcher to guide the study and, also, to expose the privileges and limitations of their own point of view.

The idea of hegemony, in its Gramscian sense, contributed to the renewal of several fields of social sciences in the 1970s and 1980s. This idea circulates between different geocultural spaces and different times. The approach adopted in this article starts from the contexts in which this idea is mobilized, in order to show to which theoretical and practical stakes it answers. Focusing on four authors (Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Pablo Iglesias) and on the transfers from one author to another, the aim is to highlight the social conditions conducive to the deployment of this idea and to identify the (dis)continuities that punctuate its history. Throughout the socio-historical course marked out by the written productions of these four authors, one constant appears: the vitality of the concept of hegemony seems linked to periods of crisis - theoretical and / or strategic - of the left. ; Peer reviewed

L'idée d'hégémonie, dans son acception gramscienne, a contribué au renouvellement de plusieurs pans des sciences sociales au cours des années 1970-1980. Cette idée circule entre différents champs, différents espaces géoculturels et différentes époques. La démarche adoptée dans cet article part des contextes dans lequel cette idée est mobilisée, afin de montrer à quels enjeux théoriques et pratiques elle répond. En se focalisant sur quatre auteurs (Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe et Pablo Iglesias) et sur les transferts d'un auteur à l'autre, il s'agit de mettre en exergue les conditions sociales propices au déploiement de cette idée et d'identifier les (dis)continuités qui jalonnent son histoire. A travers le parcours socio-historique jalonné par les productions écrites de ces quatre auteurs, une constante apparaît : la vitalité de l'idée d'hégémonie semble liée à des périodes de crise – théorique et/ou stratégique – de la gauche. ; Peer reviewed

The philosophical and political advantages tied to a break with Marxist thinking have been notable. With such a break with Marxism, economic and scientific determinism have been discounted – and it is in this sort of determinism that a classic critique of Marxism finds a reason for discrediting the Marxist-Leninist project. However, it seems the cost of totally abandoning Marxist thinking has not been sufficiently examined. This article seeks to remedy this with a comparative study of two philosophers' conceptions of conflict: Mouffe's perspective will be examined and compared to Castoriadis' view of radical democracy and its treatment of conflict. The paper seeks to show that a full break with Karl Marx weakens political radicalism. In other words, by opting for a perspective on conflict which fully renounces the Marxist view, Mouffe is doing away with both the idea of direct democracy and/or that of a revolutionary project. Her approach differs from that of Castoriadis who seeks, in some sense, to remain faithful to the emancipatory aspects of Marxian thought. ; Peer reviewed

Chantal Mouffe's is presented as one of the leading theoreticians of the radical left, as a disciple of Carl Schmitt and as a resolute opponent of the liberal tradition. However, according to the her own admission, Chantal Mouffe is more in the "social democratic" camp than in the "radical left" camp, she marks a fundamental difference with regard to Carl Schmitt and she claims her attachment to the liberal ideal. Starting from these discrepancies, this article defends the idea that Chantal Mouffe's thought is perceived as more radical than it really is. Chantal Mouffe intends to reform the liberal tradition rather than denying it. ; Peer reviewed

In public relations research, the concept of engagement is often theorized but seldom observed in practice. This research focuses on what public leaders learn when they undertake actions centered on learning by listening to society to implement governmental citizen engagement programs. Taking an inductive grounded approach to data analysis which draws on tools and methods of grounded theory as well as including a review of key concepts from public relations literature, a reflexive analysis of an action learning intervention involving the members of a provincial government was conducted. Results show that, when reflecting on interaction with stakeholders of the program, government members: increase their knowledge about both sides of the public organization-society relationship; become more sensitive to what listening is and implies, and, hence, more supportive of two-way communication; are challenged about the authenticity of the motivations behind their listening; become more aware of ways in which they work to build social capital; and, subsequently, increase their willingness to act together with society. This paper shows that reflection on the real implementation of engagement programs gives policy makers a better understanding of normative assumptions, and hence it instantiates public relations theories and concepts about engagement. By identifying acting-by-listening as integral to citizen engagement, it presents implications for the study and practice of public relations in public sector organizations.

How do changes in climatic conditions and disaster patterns affect the persistence of civil unrest across countries over time? Existing studies postulate that changing climate conditions will exacerbate various social conflicts through their impacts on degraded environmental and economic conditions, which is further conditional on political institutions. Nevertheless, there are two major pitfalls in the existing studies. First, vulnerability as a major underlying mechanism has been used as an umbrella term or been presumed. Using vulnerability as an umbrella term has a detrimental effect on climate-conflict theory-building because it prevents scholars from deriving testable empirical implications for relevant concepts. Second, previous research has pinpointed the importance of political institutions in moderating impacts of climate on conflict, but the literature says little about what aspects of political institutions might aggravate or alleviate vulnerability to climate in ways that are simmering or amplifying civil strife. Using the structural causal approach and machine learning methods, this dissertation improves the identification of the mediation effect of vulnerability and the moderation effect of political institutions on the climate-conflict relationship. The important mechanisms and implications revealed by this study are twofold. First, this dissertation finds that the impacts of extreme climatic events are more important in shaping local vulnerability than that of annual weather variations, and that adaptive capacity is more important than economic sensitivity in mitigating local vulnerability. Annual weather variations (i.e., the slow-moving mechanics) have a significant impact on cumulative conflict hazards, whereas extreme climatic events (i.e., the fast-moving drivers) fuel onset of a new conflict. In the presence of socio-psychological vulnerabilities, an increase in annual weather variations can boil new conflicts. Second, the state capacity is more important than democracy in exacerbating a country's vulnerability to climate, and the degree of executive bribery especially plays a crucial role in moderating the impacts of vulnerability to climate on civil conflict. However, of different aspects of democracy, freedom of academic and cultural expression has the most important moderating effect on conflict. What is striking is the role of socio-psychological vulnerability in transmitting the impacts of extreme climate and weather variations on civil conflict. Mainstream conflict theory has shown that institutional and economic conditions are the most important factors determining conflicts even though socio-psychological factors are meaningful contexts. However, this present study shows that socio-psychological vulnerability is more important than institutional and economic conditions in shaping civil conflict.

This paper aims to investigate the concept, context and socio-economic consequences of fiscal competition in the integrated economic space of EMU in completion, to pinpoint the positive and negative factors at work via a case study of the Benelux countries – both founder members of the EU and pioneers of EMU – and to examine the impact on European and international regulations in the field. In particular, it will endeavour to provide a comprehensive interpretation of fiscal policy in the Benelux countries via a comparative approach and from a historical perspective. It will look at the development of respective domestic fiscal policies, driven by national interests and by membership of a Community that is subject to requirements in terms of harmonisation and taxation, but also by constant contact (and frequent clashes) with the multilateral international environment.

Doutoramento em Economia ; By focusing on the relationship between financial stability and monetary policy for the cases of Chile, Colombia, Japan, Portugal and the UK, this thesis aims to add to the existing literature on the fundamental issue of the relationship between financial stability and monetary policy, a traditional topic that gained importance in the aftermath of the GFC as Central Banks lowered policy rates in an effort to rescue their economies. As the zero-lower bound loomed and the reach of traditional monetary policy narrowed, policy makers realised that alternative frameworks were needed and hence, macroprudential policy measures aimed at targeting the financial system as a whole were introduced. The second chapter looks at the relationship between monetary policy and financial stability, which has gained importance in recent years as Central Bank policy rates neared the zero-lower bound. We use an SVAR model to study the impact of monetary policy shocks on three proxies for financial stability as well as a proxy for economic growth. Monetary policy is represented by policy rates for the EMEs and shadow rates for the AEs in our chapter. Our main results show that monetary policy may be used to correct asset mispricing, to control fluctuations in the real business cycle and also to tame credit cycles in the majority of cases. Our results also show that for the majority of cases, in line with theory, local currencies appreciate following a positive monetary policy shock. Monetary policy intervention may indeed be successful in contributing to or achieving financial stability. However, the results show that monetary policy may not have the ability to maintain or re-establish financial stability in all cases. Alternative policy choices such as macroprudential policy tool frameworks which are aimed at targeting the financial system as a whole may be implemented as a means of fortifying the economy. The third chapter looks at the institutional setting of the countries in question, the independence of the Central Bank, the political environment and the impact of these factors on financial Abstract stability. I substantiate the literature review discussion with a brief empirical analysis of the effect of Central Bank Independence on credit growth using an existing database created by Romelli (2018). The empirical results show that there is a positive relationship between credit growth and the level of Central Bank Independence (CBI) due to the positive and statistically significant coefficient on the interaction term between growth in domestic credit to the private sector and the level of CBI. When considering domestic credit by deposit money banks and other financial institutions, the interaction term is positive and statistically significant for the case of the UK for the third regression equation. A number of robustness checks show that the coefficient is positive and statistically significant for a number of cases when implementing a variety of estimation methods. Fluctuations in credit growth are larger for higher levels of CBI and hence, in periods of financial instability or ultimately financial crises, CBI would be reined back in an effort to re-establish financial stability. Based on the empirical results, and in an effort to slow down surging credit supply and to maintain financial stability, policy makers and governmental authorities should attempt to decrease the level of CBI when the economy shows signs of overheating and credit supply continues to increase. The fourth chapter looks at the interaction between macroprudential policy and financial stability. The unexpected interconnectedness of the global economy and the economic blight that occurred as a result of this, recapitulated the need to implement an alternative policy framework aimed at targeting the financial system as a whole and hence, targeting the maintenance of financial stability. In this chapter, an index of domestic macroprudential policy tools is constructed and the effectiveness of these tools in controlling credit growth, managing GDP growth and stabilising inflation growth is studied using a dynamic panel data model for the period between 2000 and 2017. The empirical analysis includes two panels namely an EU panel of 27 countries and a Latin American panel of 7 countries, the chapter also looks at a case study of Japan, Portugal and the UK. Our main results find that a tighter macroprudential policy tool stance leads to a decrease in both credit growth and GDP growth while, a tighter macroprudential policy tool stance results in higher inflation in the majority of cases. Further, we find that capital openness plays a more important role in the case of Latin America, this may be due to the region's dependence on foreign capital flows and exchange rate movements. Lastly, we find that, in times of higher perceived market volatility, GDP growth tends to be higher and inflation growth tends to be lower in the EU. In the other cases, higher levels of perceived market volatility result in higher inflation, higher credit growth and lower GDP Abstract growth. This is in line with expectations as an increase in perceived market volatility is met with an increased flow of assets into safer markets such as the EU. This thesis establishes a relationship between financial stability and monetary policy by studying the response of Chile, Colombia, Japan, Portugal and the UK in the aftermath of the GFC as Central Banks lowered policy rates in an effort to rescue their economies. In short, the results of the work conducted in this thesis may be summarised as follows. Our results show that monetary policy contributes to the achievement of financial stability. Still, monetary policy alone is not sufficient and should be reinforced by less traditional policy choices such as macroprudential policy tools. Secondly, we find that the level of CBI should be reined in in times of surging credit supply in an effort to maintain financial stability. Finally, we conclude that macroprudential policy tools play an important role in the achievement of financial stability. These tools should complement traditional monetary policy frameworks and should be adapted for each region. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This book looks at the interplay between criminal law and other branches of public law pursuing similar objectives (referred to as 'quasi-criminal law'). The need for clarifying the concepts and the interlink between criminal and quasi-criminal enforcement is a topic attracting a lot of discussion and debate in both academia and practice across Europe (and beyond). This volume adds to this debate by bringing to light the substantive and procedural problems stemming from the current parallel or dual use of the different enforcement systems. The collection draws on expertise from academia, practice and policy; its high-quality analysis will appeal to scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike.