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Cass Sunstein has a lovely New York Times essay that tries to give us back the word "Liberal." I hope it works. "Liberal" from "Libertas" means, at bottom, freedom. In the 19th century, "liberals" were devoted to personal, economic, and increasing social freedom from government restraint.  "Conservatives" wanted to maintain aristocratic privileges, and government interventions in the traditional way of doing things. The debate was not so obvious. Conservatives defended their view of aristocratic power in a noblesse-oblige concern for little people that the unfettered free market might leave behind, in a way quite  reminiscent of today's elites who think they should run the government in the name of the downtrodden (or "nudge" them, if I can poke a little fun at Sunstein's earlier work). But by the 1970s, the labels had flipped. "Liberals" were advocates of big-state interventionism, in a big tent that included communists and marxists. It became a synonym of "left." "Conservatives" became a strange  alliance of free market economics and social conservatism. The word "classical liberal" or "libertarian" started to be used to refer to heirs of the enlightenment "liberal" tradition, broadly emphasizing individual liberty and limited rule of law government in both economic and social spheres. But broadly, "liberal" came to mean more government intervention and Democrat, while "conservative" came to mean less state intervention and Republican, at least in rhetoric.  But a new force has come to the fore. The heirs of the far-left marxists and communists are now, .. what shall we call them.. perhaps "censorious totalitarian progressives." Sunstein calls them "post liberals." The old alliance between center-left and far left is tearing apart, and Oct 7 was a wake up call for many who had skated over the division. Largely, then, I read Sunstein's article as a declaration of divorce. They are not us, they are not "liberals." And many of you who call yourselves "conservatives," "free marketers" or even "libertarians" should join us to fight the forces of illiberalism left and right, even if by now you probably completely gave up on the New York Times and read the Free Press instead. Rhetoric: Sunstein is brilliantly misleading. He writes what liberalism "is" or what liberals "believe," as if the word were already defined his way. It is not, and the second part of this post quotes another NYT essay with a quite different conception of "liberal." This is an essay about what liberal should mean. I salute that. It's interesting that Sunstein wants to rescue the traditional meaning of "liberal," rather than shade words in current use. "Classical liberal," is mostly the same thing, but currently shades a bit more free market than he'd like. "Neoliberal" is an insult but really describes most of his views. People have turned insults around to proud self-identifiers before.   "Libertarian," probably has less room for the state and conservativism than Sunstein, and most people confuse "libertarian" with "anarchist." It's interesting he never mentions the word. Well, let's rescue "liberal." Here are some excerpts of Sunstein's 37 theses. I reorganized  into topics. What is "liberalism"? 1. Liberals believe in six things: freedom, human rights, pluralism, security, the rule of law and democracy....6. The rule of law is central to liberalism. ...It calls for law that is prospective, allowing people to plan, rather than retroactive, defeating people's expectations. It requires conformity between law on the books and law in the world. It calls for rights to a hearing (due process of law)....Liberalism requires law evenly applied, not "show me the man, and I'll find the crime." It requires a legal system in which each of us is not guilty of "Three Felonies a Day," unprotected unless we are trouble to those in power. 10. Liberals believe that freedom of speech is essential to self-government....11. Liberals connect their opposition to censorship to their commitment to free and fair elections, which cannot exist if people are unable to speak as they wish. ...They agree with ... "the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."   It's freedom, individual dignity, equality before the law and the state. Economics On economic matters, "liberalism" starts with the basic values of the laissez-faire tradition, because the right to transact freely is one of the most basic freedoms there is:15. Liberals prize free markets, insisting that they provide an important means by which people exercise their agency. Liberals abhor monopolies, public or private, on the ground that they are highly likely to compromise freedom and reduce economic growth. At the same time, liberals know that unregulated markets can fail, such as when workers or consumers lack information or when consumption of energy produces environmental harm.On the latter point, Sunstein later acknowledges room for a variety of opinion on just how effective government remedies are for such "failures" of "unregulated markets." I'm a free marketer not because markets are perfect but because governments are usually worse. A point we can respectfully debate with fact and logic.16. Liberals believe in the right to private property. But nothing in liberalism forbids a progressive income tax or is inconsistent with large-scale redistribution from rich to poor. Liberals can and do disagree about the progressive income tax and on whether and when redistribution is a good idea. Many liberals admire Lyndon Johnson's Great Society; many liberals do not.I endorse this as well, which you may find surprising. Economics really has nothing to say about non-distorting transfers. Economists can only point out incentives, and disincentives. Redistribution tends to come with bad incentives. "Liberals" can and do argue about how bad the disincentives are, and if the purported benefits of redistribution are worth it. Cass allows liberals (formerly "conservatives") who "do not" admire extensive federal government social programs, because of their disincentives. Me.17. Many liberals are enthusiastic about the contemporary administrative state; many liberals reject itI also agree. I'm one of those who largely rejects it, but it's a matter of degree on disincentives, government competence, and the severity of the problems being addressed. "Liberals" can productively debate this matter of degree.  Liberalism is a framework for debate, not an answer to these economic questions. Integrating ConservativismIntegrating "conservative" into "liberal" is one of Sunstein's charms, and I agree. He is also trying to find a common ground in the "center," that tussles gently on the size of government while respecting America's founding enlightenment values, and unites many across the current partisan divide. 2...Those who consider themselves to be leftists may or may not qualify as liberals. You can be, at once, a liberal, as understood here, and a conservative; you can be a leftist and illiberal. 22. A liberal might think that Ronald Reagan was a great president and that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an abomination; a liberal might think that Roosevelt was a great president and that Reagan was an abomination.   "Conserativism" properly means conserving many of the traditions of our society, rather than burning it down once a generation striving for utopia, and having it dissolve into tyranny. Sunstein's "liberalism" is conservative 24. Liberals favor and recognize the need for a robust civil society, including a wide range of private associations that may include people who do not embrace liberalism. They believe in the importance of social norms, including norms of civility, considerateness, charity and self-restraint. They do not want to censor any antiliberals or postliberals, even though some antiliberals or postliberals would not return the favor. On this count, they turn the other cheek. Liberals have antiliberal and postliberal friends.26. .. if people want the government to act in illiberal ways — by, for example, censoring speech, violating the rights of religious believers, preventing certain people from voting, entrenching racial inequality, taking private property without just compensation, mandating a particular kind of prayer in schools or endorsing a particular set of religious convictions — liberals will stand in opposition.The latter includes, finally, a bit of trends on the right that "liberals" do not approve of, and they don't. 28. Some people (mostly on the right) think that liberals oppose traditions or treat traditions cavalierly and that liberalism should be rejected for that reason. In their view, liberals are disrespectful of traditions and want to destroy them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consider just a few inherited ideals, norms and concepts that liberals have defended, often successfully, in the face of focused attack for decades: republican self-government; checks and balances; freedom of speech; freedom of religion; freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; due process of law; equal protection; private property.29. Liberals do not think it adequate to say that an ideal has been in place for a long time. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. put it: "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past." Still, liberals agree that if an ideal has been with us for a long time, there might be a lot to say in its favor.A lover of freedom can also admire rule of law, tradition, and custom. Why do we have private property? A illiberal, like many college students fresh to the world, might start from basic philosophical principles, and state that all of the earth's bounty should be shared equally, and head out to the ramparts to seize power. As a philosophical principle, it can sound reasonable. But our society and its laws, traditions, and customs, has thousands of years of experience built up. A village had common fields. People over-grazed them. Putting up fences and allocating rights led to a more prosperous village. The tradition of property rights, and their quite detailed specification and limitation that evolved in our common law, responding to this experience,  along with well-educated citizens' conception of right and virtue, the moral sense of property right that they learn from their forebears, can summarize thousands of years of history, without us needing to remember each case. This thought is what led me in the past to characterize myself as an empirical, conservative, rule-of-law, constitutional and pax-Americana (save that one for later) libertarian, back when the word "liberal" meant something else. But, as Holmes points out, a vibrant society must see that some of this laws and traditions are wrong, or ineffective, and thoughtfully reform them. Property rights once extended to people, after all. Most of all, the 1970s "liberal" but now  "illiberal" view has been that government defines the purpose and meaning of life and society, be it religious purity, socialist utopia, or now the vanguard of the elite ruling on behalf of the pyramid of intersectional victimization. The role of the government is to mold society to that quest. "Conservatives" have thought that the purpose of life and society is defined by individuals, families, churches, communities, scholars, arts, culture,  private institutions of civil society, via lively reasoned debate; society can accommodate great variety in these views,  and the government's purpose is just to enforce simple rules, and keep the debate peaceful, not to define and lead us to the promised land. I read Sunstein, correctly, to restore the word "liberal" to this later view, though it had largely drifted to the former.  Who isn't liberal? The progressive leftWho isn't a "liberal," to Sunstein? If you've been around university campuses lately, you know how much today's "progressives" ("post-liberals") have turned politics into a tribal, warlike affair. This is who Sunstein is really unhappy with, and to whom this essay is a declaration of divorce: 5. ...liberals ... do not like tribalism. ... They are uncomfortable with discussions that start, "I am an X, and you are a Y,"... Skeptical of identity politics, liberals insist that each of us has many different identities and that it is usually best to focus on the merits of issues, not on one or another identity.I would add, liberals evaluate arguments by logic and evidence, not who makes the argument. Liberals accept an enlightenment idea that anything true can be discovered and understood by anyone. Truth is not just listening to "lived experience." 18. Liberals abhor the idea that life or politics is a conflict between friends and enemies.23. Liberals think that those on the left are illiberal if they are not (for example) committed to freedom of speech and viewpoint diversity. They do not like the idea of orthodoxy, including on university campuses or social media platforms. Ad of course, 30. Liberals like laughter. They are anti-anti-laughter.Old joke from my graduate school days: "How many Berkeley marxist progressives does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Answer: "I don't think that kind of humor is appropriate." ****In case you think everyone agrees on this new definition of "liberal," the essay has a link below it to another one by Pamela Paul, "Progressives aren't liberal." Paul's essay also covers some of the history of how the word was used, but in the end uses it in a quite different way from Sunstein.  In the 1960s and 70s, the left proudly used the word in self-description. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan, who often prefaced [liberal] with a damning "tax and spend," may have been the most effective of bashers. ...Newt Gingrich's political organization GOPAC sent out a memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," urging fellow Republicans to use the word as a slur.It worked. Even Democrats began avoiding the dread label. In a presidential primary debate in 2007, Hillary Clinton called herself instead a "modern progressive." She avoided the term "liberal" again in 2016.I think Clinton was trying to position herself to the right of what "liberal" had become by 2016.  "Progressive" has come to mean something else. But I may be wrong. Never Trump conservatives tout their bona fides as liberals in the classical, 19th century sense of the word, in part to distinguish themselves from hard-right Trumpists. Others use "liberal" and "progressive" interchangeably, even as what progressivism means in practice today is often anything but liberal — or even progressive, for that matter.In the last sentence she is right. Sunstein is not, as he appears, describing a word as it is widely used today,  but a word as it is slowly becoming used, and as he would like it to be used. liberal values, many of them products of the Enlightenment, include individual liberty, freedom of speech, scientific inquiry, separation of church and state, due process, racial equality, women's rights, human rights and democracy.Here you start to think she's got the same basic big tent as Sunstein.  But not so -- this essay is testament to the enduring sense of the "liberal" word as describing the big-government left, just please not quite so insane as the campus progressives: Unlike "classical liberals" (i.e., usually conservatives), liberals do not see government as the problem, but rather as a means to help the people it serves. Liberals fiercely defend Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Voting Rights Act and the National Labor Relations Act. They believe government has a duty to regulate commerce for the benefit of its citizens. They tend to be suspicious of large corporations and their tendency to thwart the interests of workers and consumers.Sunstein had room for disagreement on these "fierce" defenses, or at least room for reasoned argument rather than profession of essential belief before you can enter the debate. "Tout their bona fides" above also does not have quite the reach-across-the aisle non partisan flair of Sunstein's essay. I don't think Paul welcomes never-Trump classical liberals in her tent. For Paul, the divorce between "liberal" and "progressive" is real, as for many other "liberals" since the October 7 wake up: Whereas liberals hold to a vision of racial integration, progressives have increasingly supported forms of racial distinction and separation, and demanded equity in outcome rather than equality of opportunity. Whereas most liberals want to advance equality between the sexes, many progressives seem fixated on reframing gender stereotypes as "gender identity" and denying sex differences wherever they confer rights or protections expressly for women. And whereas liberals tend to aspire toward a universalist ideal, in which diverse people come together across shared interests, progressives seem increasingly wedded to an identitarian approach that emphasizes tribalism over the attainment of common ground.It is progressives — not liberals — who argue that "speech is violence" and that words cause harm. These values are the driving force behind progressive efforts to shut down public discourse, disrupt speeches, tear down posters, censor students and deplatform those with whom they disagree.Divisions became sharper after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when many progressives did not just express support for the Palestinian cause but, in some cases, even defended the attacks as a response to colonialism, and opposed retaliation as a form of genocide. This brings us to the most troubling characteristic of contemporary progressivism. Whereas liberals tend to pride themselves on acceptance, many progressives have applied various purity tests to others on the left, and according to one recent study on the schism between progressives and liberals, are more likely than liberals to apply public censure to divergent views. This intolerance manifests as a professed preference for avoiding others with different values, a stance entirely antithetical to liberal values.Yes. But no Republicans, please. Unlike Sunstein, Paul's "Liberalism" remains unabashedly partisan. I hope Sunstein's version of the word prevails. In any case, it is nice to see the division between the Woodstock Liberals, previously fellow travelers, from the extreme progressive left, and it is nice to see this word drift back to where it belongs. This is an optimistic post for the future of our country. Happy Thanksgiving. Update: I just ran across Tyler Cowen's Classical Liberals vs. The New Right. Excellent. And I forgot to plug my own "Understanding the Left," which I still think is a great essay though nobody seems to have read it.  

En los últimos cincuenta años se han multiplicado en España los colectivos y movimientos de asociaciones de víctimas del terrorismo de diferentes tipologías terroristas, debido a la sangrienta trayectoria que desgraciadamente, ha sacudido a nuestro país. El objeto de esta investigación es el análisis documental de la evolución, incremento, devenir y desarrollo de las asociaciones de víctimas del terrorismo y medios de comunicación (2006-2021). En especial el estudio del origen y desarrollo de la Asociación Canaria de Víctimas del Terrorismo, ACAVITE. A partir de este contexto de crecimiento asociativo, ha emergido un necesario cambio de paradigma respecto a la visibilidad y el relato histórico que va desde los grupos y bandas terroristas del FRENTE POLISARIO, ETA y MPAIAC, hasta el terrorismo yihadista, lo que ha supuesto una nueva concepción de su memoria y narrativa. La aparición de un nuevo colectivo en el mapa de entidades como ACAVITE, fundada y presidida por Lucía Jiménez, que ha puesto el foco en la Justicia, registrando ante la Audiencia Nacional, una denuncia el 23 de mayo de 2021, por los atentados terroristas polisarios. Del mismo modo, ha dado a conocer oficialmente la existencia de aproximadamente 281 casos oficiales de víctimas del terrorismo desconocidas que perpetró este grupo armado terrorista saharaui del POLISARIO, con bombas contra trabajadores civiles nacionales indefensos españoles de la empresa de FOSSBUCRAÁ, causando asesinados y heridos. Así como en paralelo, atentados contra pescadores españoles, sobre todo canarios, que fueron objeto de delitos de terrorismo de lesa humanidad que no prescriben. Dentro de este listado, además están censadas, por OCIACAVITE, víctimas del MPAIAC, ETA, GRAPO y terrorismo yihadista en Afganistán y Líbano, ascendiendo a 322 víctimas canarias en total, contabilizando todas las acciones violentas de estos grupos terroristas. En este sentido, como ha perseguido esta tesis en uno de sus objetivos, se sitúa lejos de los argumentos débiles empleados hasta ahora, ha quedado patente que el FRENTE POLISARIO es una banda que ha cometido atentados terroristas, como demuestran los documentos oficiales desclasificados de la CIA-1979 y los emanados de otros gobiernos y autoridades internacionales. Este hecho conlleva el reconocimiento tácito del brutal daño terrorista y la comisión de otros delitos graves, causados a nacionales españoles por parte del POLISARIO y la impunidad que aún sigue disfrutando ante la justicia, el estado de derecho y la opinión pública desde 1979. La tesis se centra en la aplicación de análisis documental y social a las consecuencias humanas de las acciones terroristas contra ciudadanos españoles, estudiándose aspectos como la complicidad institucional, el apagón informativo, la equidistancia y banalización social y mediática, que han padecido las familias de las víctimas canarias causadas por el POLISARIO. Además, se ha obtenido una categorización de las tipologías de víctimas del terrorismo. Pero, sobre todo, se ha puesto de relieve la banalización calculada hacia las víctimas del terrorismo del FRENTE POLISARIO. La reiterada posición victimista de pueblo saharaui y de los líderes del FRENTE POLISARIO en su relación de supuestamente abandonados por España, se contrapone con la justificación ideológica y el blanqueamiento de las acciones terroristas contra españoles, amparadas tradicionalmente por partidos políticos afines a sus ideologías. ; In the last fifty years, the groups and movements of associations of victims of terrorism of different terrorist typologies have multiplied in Spain, due to the bloody trajectory that, unfortunately, has shaken our country. The object of this research is the documentary analysis of the evolution, increase, evolution and development of the associations of victims of terrorism and the media (2006-2021). The unpublished case of the Canarian Association of Victims of Terrorism, ACAVITE. From this context of increase, a necessary Paradigm Change, visibility and historical narrative has emerged, ranking from the terrorist groups and bands of the POLISARIO FRONT, ETA, MPAIAC, to jihadist terrorism, which has meant a new conception of memory. And narrative, as it has been conceived academically, until now. The appearance of a new, unprecedented group on the map of entities of victims of terrorism, such as the "Canary Association of Victims of Terrorism", founded and chaired by Lucía Jiménez, daughter of a victim of terrorism from the POLISARIO FRONT, has put the spotlight on Justice, registering before the National Court, a Complaint on May 23, 2021, for these Polisario terrorist attacks. In the same way, it has officially announced the existence of approximately 281 official cases of unknown victims of terrorism perpetrated by this armed Saharui terrorist group of POLISARIO, with bombs against defenseless Spanish civilian workers of the FOSSBUCRAÁ Company, causing murders and injuries. As well as in parallel, attacks against Spanish fishermen, -mainly Canary Islands, but also Andalusians, Basques and Galicians- who were the object of crimes of terrorism, torture, mass kidnappings, machine-gunning, disappearances, crimes against humanity, crimes against fundamental rights, genocide, and other very serious of a similar nature, which never prescribe. And within this list, victims of the MPAIAC, ETA, GRAPO and jihadist terrorism in Afghanistan and Lebanon are also registered by OCI-ACAVITE, amounting to 322 Canarian victims in total, accounting for all the violent actions of these terrorist groups. In this sense, as this thesis has shown in one of its objectives, -is far from the weak arguments used so far-, it has become clear that the "El Hamra and Rio Oro Popular Revolutionary Front, POLISARIO FRONT-POLISARIO FRONT", proving that it is a terrorist band / group that has committed attacks, as collected in the declassified official documents of the CIA since 1979, by the United States Government, (USA) and those emanating from other governments and international authorities of anti-terrorism, which implies the tacit recognition of the brutal terrorist damage and other serious crimes, caused to Spanish nationals by the POLISARIO and the impunity that continues to be enjoyed before the courts, the rule of law and public opinion since 1979. Based on the above, this thesis focuses on the implementation and given the temporal coincidence of circumstances that occurred, related to the serious international diplomatic crisis with Morocco, Europe, the United States, of America and third countries, as a consequence of the entry with a false identity and stay in Spain to treat Covid 19 and cancer, for "alleged humanitarian reasons in the midst of a pandemic, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, González-Laya of the socialist Government of Pedro Sánchez," by allowing the current president to cure in our country Polisario and former Polisario Defense Minister, Brahim Ghali, - despite the fact that he had a search and arrest warrant issued by the National Court in Spain. And where later, Judge S. Pedraz, facilitated the release without taking into account, nor being investigated, or clarified, the Complaint officially registered before the Justice by OCIACAVITE before the National Court, on May 23 2021. The results of the study carried out also reveal a focus of attention, from the point of view of terrorist victimology, the consequences, and the suffering inflicted, by terrorist actions and other very serious crimes against Spanish national citizens, studying aspects such as the institutional complicity, the information blackout, the equidistance and social and media trivialization, suffered by the families of the Canarian victims of the terrorism committed by POLISARIO, which has been constant. In addition, an academic categorization of types of victims of terrorism has been obtained; "Victims of Vitemenoc terrorism" (less known in the media), "victims of Vitemasmedi terrorism" (victims more known in the media). But above all, it has highlighted the trivialization calculated towards the victims of terrorism of the POLISARIO FRONT, it has been carried out above all, from the class and political parties of the left and nationalists, both in the Canary Islands, as well as in the national political class by the different governments of Spain; PP, PSOE, Podemos, Coalición Canaria CC, Nueva Canarias NC, etc., during and after the Transition. In short, it has perpetuated these injustices towards the affected Canarian families. And it is that, traditionally the reiterated position and victimist mantra of the Saharawi people and leaders of the POLISARIO FRONT in their relationship - supposedly abandoned by Spain -, is opposed to the ideological justification and whitewashing of terrorist actions against Spaniards, traditionally protected by related political parties to their revolutionary ideologies. ; Programa de Doctorado en Documentación: Archivos y Bibliotecas en el Entorno Digital por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid ; Presidente: Antonio Hernández Pérez.- Secretario: Mónica Izquierdo Alonso.- Vocal: Luis Fernando de Iturrate Cárdenes

The city has been the political unit of organization in the international system for long periods of history. As actors in international society, cities have left irreplaceable classics: Athens, Imperial Rome, the Hanseatic League or Machiavelli's Florence. However, the dominant school of thought has diminished the role of the city on the international scene. The Westphalian model consolidated the nation-state as the axis and macro-political unit object and subject of study. Following this logic, cities' capacity for international action was limited and, as a field of study, was reduced to cultural activities or of little diplomatic relevance (e.g. twin cities). This state-centered approach, both in theory and practice, finds its place in the legal approach over the political one in the development of international society and international relations theories. However, the global dynamic has changed substantially, and it opens the door to new structures or vectors of transnational analysis. The Westphalian system loses weight in the face of the concatenation of phenomena and transformations of international society. Taking this to be the case, the current international structure opens avenues of research in the international political activity of the city, diplomatic practice, global and economic hub relations, or the rise of city brands as a marketing strategy. Of course, the nation-state will not disappear in the short term, but it does seem that new actors and dynamics are emerging in the construction of the post-liberal order. Above all, the city emerges as a new point of reference for solving globalization problems: climate change, migrations, diversity, or identity. The effect is relevant to the epistemological bases of a transversal discipline: the city is incorporated as a reference subject in the reformulation of the general theory of International Relations. The consensus around the liberal order, born after 1945, has been broken. The current theoretical doctrine only agrees on one element: there is no new consensus on the foundations of the international system. The global architecture of institutions, the effective capacities for the exercise of power, the decline of multilateral practices, or the difficulty in establishing a common economic agenda are symptoms of a change in global power structures. With or without legitimacy, cities act in the international sphere with the aim of influencing, modifying knowledge, behavior, or judgment. In this context, the institutionalization of the city as an actor in international relations is one of the most relevant fields for studying the new organizing principle of international society. The city lacks the normative and institutional instruments, but it does promote principles that later become public policy practices that affect the international order. The theoretical approach emphasizes the economic aspects of the global city, since the economic and industrial capacity has reinforced the ability to influence the transformation of the international system. From a methodological point of view, urban cosmopolitanism is not a theory closed by the very diversity of global cities. Therefore, the areas of interest of each city can vary from one to the other, as well as the global action repertoire. Working in collaborative networks and alliances of a political and economic nature is facilitated. In its relationship with the State, the global city poses agency problems that are relevant to the future of theory: will they be cooperative or competitive? In what disciplines? The asymmetry of interests can deepen dissonances and accelerate the theoretical basis of development. The proposed methodology affects the impact of climate change on the reformulation of the theoretical bases of international studies. It is theorized from practice. The institutionalization of urban diplomacy refers to the search for practical solutions of a collective nature. There are networks such as C40, the Clean Air Coalition or We are Still In that are led and organized from urban practice. The climate issue gives moral strength to the city as an international actor insofar as it does not deal with political borders, but with the consequences of climate change on the lives of residents. It fits in with the cosmopolitan tradition insofar as it affects all individuals, without discrimination of origin, gender, or nationality; and it is a matter of universal status, because it impacts all territories and human life conditions. There is no arbitrariness in Anthropocene reason. The article studies the succession of changes in the international political structure before the reconfiguration of the sources of power. It establishes three aspects in the theoretical bases of urban cosmopolitanism. The first indicates what the foundations of a theoretical elaboration should be. The international city contributes to the reconfiguration of the structure and the exercise of interstate power by occupying or creating new spaces that contribute to the plurality of international relations. The second aspect analyzed is the growth of the city as a unit of measurement in the global economy. Capital flows circulate and operate on a local basis with global destinations. It is the cities and their metropolitan areas that benefit from the economic system. Large pockets of internal inequality appear and, above all, with a rupture between cities within and outside the economic order, including the relational inequality that is generated in the least populated territories. Finally, anthropogenic reason is stressed, that is, the impact of human action on natural conditions and its consequences on the world order. Climate change changes the main substrate of international relations, which is the physical environment and geography. On these two tangible dimensions, the bases of power and the basic theory of international studies are ordered. By changing the strategic board, the city conquers positions of non-coercive power, facilitating collaboration through networks and structures. The military and security aspect are not relevant to urban diplomacy, which focuses on aspects of economic and social power. The results indicate that the new cosmopolitanism has urban bases and offers a framework for interpreting the tensions between the center and the periphery of foreign action, economic globalization, and new public policies in the fight against climate change. Urban cosmopolitanism emerges as a theoretical reference in the post-liberal order. The present work seeks to establish the foundations of urban cosmopolitanism, a theoretical approach to the current world organized around urban areas, be they cities, megacities, or metropolitan regions. Cities have become structural axes of international society with consequences in the political, economic, and social spheres. There is no closed conclusion, a kind of theory that replaces the previous ones. On the contrary, urban cosmopolitanism aspires to reflect a change in the paradigm of international relations. Thus, climate change is a transforming element of the global scene and opens new avenues for international politics, which can end with a substantial change in the modes of government, representation, and citizen participation. Be that as it may, this first paper addresses difficulties, raises research questions, and supports elements for change. ; El artículo estudia la sucesión de cambios en la estructura política internacional ante la reconfiguración de las fuentes de poder. Establece tres vertientes en las bases teóricas del cosmopolitismo urbano. La primera indica cuáles deberían ser los fundamentos de una elaboración teórica. La ciudad internacional contribuye a la reconfiguración de la estructura y el ejercicio del poder interestatal ocupando o creando nuevos espacios que contribuyen a la pluralidad de las Relaciones Internacionales. El segundo aspecto que se analiza es el crecimiento de la ciudad como unidad de medida en la economía global. Los flujos de capital circulan y operan sobre una base local con destinos globales. Son las ciudades y sus extensiones metropolitanas quienes se benefician del sistema económico. Aparecen grandes bolsas de desigualdad interna y, sobre todo, con una ruptura entre ciudades dentro y fuera del orden económico, incluyendo aquí la desigualdad relacional que se genera en los territorios menos poblados. Por último, se incide en la razón antropocénica, esto es, el impacto de la acción humana en las condiciones naturales y sus consecuencias en el orden mundial. El cambio climático cambia el sustrato principal de las Relaciones Internacionales, que es el medio físico y la geografía. Sobre estas dos dimensiones tangibles, se ordenan las bases del poder y la teoría básica de los estudios internacionales. Al cambiar el tablero estratégico, la ciudad conquista posiciones de poder no coercitivo, lo que facilita la colaboración mediante redes y estructuras. El aspecto militar y de seguridad no es relevante para la diplomacia urbana, que se centra en aspectos de poder económico y social. Los resultados indican que el nuevo cosmopolitismo tiene bases urbanas y ofrece un marco de interpretación de las tensiones entre centro y periferia de la acción exterior, la globalización económica y las nuevas políticas públicas en la lucha contra el cambio climático. El cosmopolitismo urbano emerge como referencia teórica en el orden postliberal.

The traditional knowledge of our indigenous peoples has allowed them to balance and preserve the environment; it is related to cultural, social, environmental, political, economic and historical aspects that, all together, contribute to the proper management of biodiversity and represent a strategic value in one's development and in the whole of humanity. The research is carried out in the Amazon region, considered as a strategic area and necessary for the world, having a great wealth of natural resources; where, at the same time, there are traditional systems based on mechanisms of government and control not yet fully known, sacred sites that represent centers of ceremonies and spiritual centers to which we are to give great respect, since they are an important part of our indigenouspeoples¿ cultural identity. It presents an indigenous perspective, from my status as part of the Uitoto people, around the protection of traditional knowledge, conservation, use of biodiversity and the importance of cultural diversity in society for environmental preservation. These components are inherent to our communities because they touch the very life, being and feeling of indigenous peoples. In this context, I reflect on the history, organization and management of the environment of the Andoke people of Aduche, as an example of a people who have achieved their cultural survival, guaranteeing, through their traditional knowledge, the conservation of nature and cooperation with its own sustainable production activity. I analyze the tools that are the basis of legal protection of indigenous traditional knowledge and factors that are part of the spaces in the construction of identities within multicultural nations, such as Colombia, in this case. Finally, from the research I deduct the matter of sovereignty and organization in the cultural life, the protection of the communitarian spaces and practices, as alternatives for the protection of the collective property, the biodiversity, the local development, the complete survival of our peoples from the foundation of an indigenous vision and the construction of tools that respect and are consistent with this vision; because, what is at stake is the most valuable of our communities, our knowledge, our language, our understanding of the world and the phenomena that surround us, ultimately the legacy that will allow our next generations to continue to recognize each other as different peoples, indigenous peoples. ; Los conocimientos tradicionales de nuestros pueblos indígenas han permitido el equilibrio y la preservación del medio ambiente; se relacionan con aspectos culturales, sociales, ambientales, políticos, económicos e históricos que contribuyen en todo su conjunto al manejo adecuado de la biodiversidad y representan un valor estratégico en el desarrollopropio y en el de toda la humanidad. La investigación se desarrolla en la región Amazónica, considerada como una zona estratégica y necesaria para el mundo por contar con una gran riqueza en recursos naturales; donde a la vez, se hallan sistemas auténticos tradicionales basados en mecanismos de gobierno y control aún no plenamente conocidos, sitios sagrados que representan centros de ceremonias y centros espirituales a los que se les debe gran respeto, ya que son parte importante de la identidad cultural de nuestros pueblos indígenas. Presenta una perspectiva indígena, desde mi condicón como parte del pueblo uitoto, sobre la protección a los conocimientos tradicionales, la conservación, uso de la biodiversidad y la importancia de la diversidad cultural en la sociedad para la preservación ambiental; componentes inherentes a nuestras comunidades porque tocan la vida misma, el ser y el sentir de los pueblos Indígenas. En este marco, reflexiono sobre la historia, organización y manejo del medio ambiente del pueblo andoke de Aduche, como ejemplo de un pueblo que ha logrado su pervivencia cultural, garantizando por medio de sus conocimientos tradicionales, la conservación de la naturaleza y la cooperación con su actividad de producción propia sostenible. Se analizan las herramientas que fundamentan la protección jurídica del conocimiento tradicional indígena y factores que hacen parte de los espacios en la construcción de identidades dentro de naciones pluriculturales y multiculturales, como lo es en este caso, Colombia. Por último, desde la investigación se desprende el tema de la soberanía y organización en la vida cultural, la protección de los espacios y prácticas comunitarias, como alternativas para la protección de la propiedad colectiva, la biodiversidad, el desarrollo local, la pervivencia íntegra de nuestros pueblos desde la fundamentación de una visión indígena y la construcción de herramientas que respeten y sean coherentes con dicha visión; porque lo que está en juego es lo más valioso de nuestras comunidades, nuestro conocimiento, nuestro lenguaje, nuestra comprensión del mundo y de los fenómenos que nos rodean, en últimas el legado que permitirá a nuestras próximas generaciones seguir reconociéndose como pueblos distintos, como pueblos indígenas. ; Els coneixements tradicionals dels nostres pobles indígenes han permès l"equilibri i la preservació del medi ambient; es relacionen amb aspectes culturals, socials, ambientals, politics, econòmics, històrics i religiosos; contribueixen en tot el seu conjunt al adequat maneig de la biodiversitat i representen un valor estratègic en el seu propi desenvolupament i en el de tota la humanitat. La investigació es desenvolupa a la regió Amazònica, la qual és considerada com a una zona estratègica i necessària per al planeta perquè compta amb una gran riquesa en recursos naturals; tanmateix, s"hi troben autèntics sistemes tradicionals basats en mecanismes de govern i control que encara no són prou coneguts, llocs sagrats que representen centres de cerimònies i centres espirituals als qui devem gran respecte degut a que són una part important de la identitat cultural dels pobles indígenes. Presenta una perspectiva indígena des de la meva condició pertanyent al pueblo uitoto, vers la protecció dels coneixements tradicionals, la conservació, l"ús de la biodiversitat i la importància de la diversitat cultural en la societat per a la preservació ambiental; són components inherents a les nostres comunitats perquè toquen la mateixa vida, l"esser i el sentir del pobles indígenes. Dins aquest marc, faig una reflexió sobre la història, organització y maneig del medi ambient del pueblo andoke de Aduche, com a exemple d"un poble que ha aconseguit la seva pervivència cultural, garantint mitjançant els seus coneixements tradicionals, la conservació de la naturalesa i la cooperació amb la seva activitat pròpia sostenible. S"analitzen les eines que donen fonament a la protecció jurídica del coneixement tradicional indígena i factors que formen part dels espais en la construcció d"identitats dins de les nacions pluriculturals i multiculturals, com ho és en aquest cas, Colòmbia. Finalment, des de la investigació es desprèn el tema de la sobirania i organització a la vida cultural, la protecció dels espais i pràctiques comunitàries, com alternatives per a la protecció de la propietat col·lectiva, la biodiversitat, el desenvolupament local, la pervivència íntegra dels nostres pobles des de la fonamentació d"una visió indígena i la construcció d"eines que respectin i siguin coherents amb aquesta visió; perquè el que és en joc és el més valuós de les nostres comunitats, el nostre coneixement, el nostre llenguatge, la nostra manera de veure el món i dels fenòmens que ens envolten, al cap i a la fi el llegat que permetrà a les nostres properes generacions seguir reconeixent-se com a pobles diferents, com a pobles indígenes. ; UIBIYANO Kaɨ onoigano einamakɨ dɨbefene, jazikɨ moziñua iemo uñua uai; nana joide rafue komɨnɨtaiyafue, nagɨma uñua uai, nɨkaɨ fiokɨe nabedɨ kɨrɨgai. Kue jenua rafue Amazoniamo fɨnoka, birui mameka amenaikɨ ie rakɨno iyano nɨɨ yetárafue uaido kaɨ taɨjɨna urukɨ kaɨ moziñua, danomo jagagɨ urukɨ uai ite, kaɨ einamakɨ nɨ kaɨ fɨmaika uai. Bie taɨjɨe kaɨ komɨnɨ uaido kue jonega, kue izie dɨbene uitoto uai nagɨma kaɨ yɨnua, komɨnɨ taifate. Benori ñue eroikana jonetɨkue, eifene adokɨ komuya rafue, kaɨ enamakɨ uai imakɨ uai eifokɨ jagagɨ nagɨma uai, eraɨfue, ruakɨ, jebuya uai. Nana ñue jonega onoigano uai buna merɨñeiyena nana kaɨ amatɨa diga nue iyena, Colombia daɨnano. Ja fuiyena, bie kue jenuano raninuaɨ iemo nana yetaraɨma onoigano, kaɨ ibɨrɨ dɨbefene, kaɨena kaɨ joneyena buna kaɨna betañeiyena, kaɨ oiakaiya izoi arɨ kaɨ atɨyena, buna zofeñeiyena, kaɨ oiakaiya izoi, mei kaɨ iri kaɨ naɨraɨ dɨga, kaɨ onoigano, kaɨ uai, kaɨ enɨe iemo nana kaɨ abaikɨ kaɨ dɨga iteza, birui ñue kaɨ jonia izoi, fui arɨ urukɨ ñue arɨ atɨyena, kaɨ eimamakɨ daɨna izoi. ; Postprint (published version)

The traditional knowledge of our indigenous peoples has allowed them to balance and preserve the environment; it is related to cultural, social, environmental, political, economic and historical aspects that, all together, contribute to the proper management of biodiversity and represent a strategic value in one's development and in the whole of humanity. The research is carried out in the Amazon region, considered as a strategic area and necessary for the world, having a great wealth of natural resources; where, at the same time, there are traditional systems based on mechanisms of government and control not yet fully known, sacred sites that represent centers of ceremonies and spiritual centers to which we are to give great respect, since they are an important part of our indigenouspeoples¿ cultural identity. It presents an indigenous perspective, from my status as part of the Uitoto people, around the protection of traditional knowledge, conservation, use of biodiversity and the importance of cultural diversity in society for environmental preservation. These components are inherent to our communities because they touch the very life, being and feeling of indigenous peoples. In this context, I reflect on the history, organization and management of the environment of the Andoke people of Aduche, as an example of a people who have achieved their cultural survival, guaranteeing, through their traditional knowledge, the conservation of nature and cooperation with its own sustainable production activity. I analyze the tools that are the basis of legal protection of indigenous traditional knowledge and factors that are part of the spaces in the construction of identities within multicultural nations, such as Colombia, in this case. Finally, from the research I deduct the matter of sovereignty and organization in the cultural life, the protection of the communitarian spaces and practices, as alternatives for the protection of the collective property, the biodiversity, the local development, the complete survival of our peoples from the foundation of an indigenous vision and the construction of tools that respect and are consistent with this vision; because, what is at stake is the most valuable of our communities, our knowledge, our language, our understanding of the world and the phenomena that surround us, ultimately the legacy that will allow our next generations to continue to recognize each other as different peoples, indigenous peoples. ; Los conocimientos tradicionales de nuestros pueblos indígenas han permitido el equilibrio y la preservación del medio ambiente; se relacionan con aspectos culturales, sociales, ambientales, políticos, económicos e históricos que contribuyen en todo su conjunto al manejo adecuado de la biodiversidad y representan un valor estratégico en el desarrollopropio y en el de toda la humanidad. La investigación se desarrolla en la región Amazónica, considerada como una zona estratégica y necesaria para el mundo por contar con una gran riqueza en recursos naturales; donde a la vez, se hallan sistemas auténticos tradicionales basados en mecanismos de gobierno y control aún no plenamente conocidos, sitios sagrados que representan centros de ceremonias y centros espirituales a los que se les debe gran respeto, ya que son parte importante de la identidad cultural de nuestros pueblos indígenas. Presenta una perspectiva indígena, desde mi condicón como parte del pueblo uitoto, sobre la protección a los conocimientos tradicionales, la conservación, uso de la biodiversidad y la importancia de la diversidad cultural en la sociedad para la preservación ambiental; componentes inherentes a nuestras comunidades porque tocan la vida misma, el ser y el sentir de los pueblos Indígenas. En este marco, reflexiono sobre la historia, organización y manejo del medio ambiente del pueblo andoke de Aduche, como ejemplo de un pueblo que ha logrado su pervivencia cultural, garantizando por medio de sus conocimientos tradicionales, la conservación de la naturaleza y la cooperación con su actividad de producción propia sostenible. Se analizan las herramientas que fundamentan la protección jurídica del conocimiento tradicional indígena y factores que hacen parte de los espacios en la construcción de identidades dentro de naciones pluriculturales y multiculturales, como lo es en este caso, Colombia. Por último, desde la investigación se desprende el tema de la soberanía y organización en la vida cultural, la protección de los espacios y prácticas comunitarias, como alternativas para la protección de la propiedad colectiva, la biodiversidad, el desarrollo local, la pervivencia íntegra de nuestros pueblos desde la fundamentación de una visión indígena y la construcción de herramientas que respeten y sean coherentes con dicha visión; porque lo que está en juego es lo más valioso de nuestras comunidades, nuestro conocimiento, nuestro lenguaje, nuestra comprensión del mundo y de los fenómenos que nos rodean, en últimas el legado que permitirá a nuestras próximas generaciones seguir reconociéndose como pueblos distintos, como pueblos indígenas. ; Els coneixements tradicionals dels nostres pobles indígenes han permès l"equilibri i la preservació del medi ambient; es relacionen amb aspectes culturals, socials, ambientals, politics, econòmics, històrics i religiosos; contribueixen en tot el seu conjunt al adequat maneig de la biodiversitat i representen un valor estratègic en el seu propi desenvolupament i en el de tota la humanitat. La investigació es desenvolupa a la regió Amazònica, la qual és considerada com a una zona estratègica i necessària per al planeta perquè compta amb una gran riquesa en recursos naturals; tanmateix, s"hi troben autèntics sistemes tradicionals basats en mecanismes de govern i control que encara no són prou coneguts, llocs sagrats que representen centres de cerimònies i centres espirituals als qui devem gran respecte degut a que són una part important de la identitat cultural dels pobles indígenes. Presenta una perspectiva indígena des de la meva condició pertanyent al pueblo uitoto, vers la protecció dels coneixements tradicionals, la conservació, l"ús de la biodiversitat i la importància de la diversitat cultural en la societat per a la preservació ambiental; són components inherents a les nostres comunitats perquè toquen la mateixa vida, l"esser i el sentir del pobles indígenes. Dins aquest marc, faig una reflexió sobre la història, organització y maneig del medi ambient del pueblo andoke de Aduche, com a exemple d"un poble que ha aconseguit la seva pervivència cultural, garantint mitjançant els seus coneixements tradicionals, la conservació de la naturalesa i la cooperació amb la seva activitat pròpia sostenible. S"analitzen les eines que donen fonament a la protecció jurídica del coneixement tradicional indígena i factors que formen part dels espais en la construcció d"identitats dins de les nacions pluriculturals i multiculturals, com ho és en aquest cas, Colòmbia. Finalment, des de la investigació es desprèn el tema de la sobirania i organització a la vida cultural, la protecció dels espais i pràctiques comunitàries, com alternatives per a la protecció de la propietat col·lectiva, la biodiversitat, el desenvolupament local, la pervivència íntegra dels nostres pobles des de la fonamentació d"una visió indígena i la construcció d"eines que respectin i siguin coherents amb aquesta visió; perquè el que és en joc és el més valuós de les nostres comunitats, el nostre coneixement, el nostre llenguatge, la nostra manera de veure el món i dels fenòmens que ens envolten, al cap i a la fi el llegat que permetrà a les nostres properes generacions seguir reconeixent-se com a pobles diferents, com a pobles indígenes. ; UIBIYANO Kaɨ onoigano einamakɨ dɨbefene, jazikɨ moziñua iemo uñua uai; nana joide rafue komɨnɨtaiyafue, nagɨma uñua uai, nɨkaɨ fiokɨe nabedɨ kɨrɨgai. Kue jenua rafue Amazoniamo fɨnoka, birui mameka amenaikɨ ie rakɨno iyano nɨɨ yetárafue uaido kaɨ taɨjɨna urukɨ kaɨ moziñua, danomo jagagɨ urukɨ uai ite, kaɨ einamakɨ nɨ kaɨ fɨmaika uai. Bie taɨjɨe kaɨ komɨnɨ uaido kue jonega, kue izie dɨbene uitoto uai nagɨma kaɨ yɨnua, komɨnɨ taifate. Benori ñue eroikana jonetɨkue, eifene adokɨ komuya rafue, kaɨ enamakɨ uai imakɨ uai eifokɨ jagagɨ nagɨma uai, eraɨfue, ruakɨ, jebuya uai. Nana ñue jonega onoigano uai buna merɨñeiyena nana kaɨ amatɨa diga nue iyena, Colombia daɨnano. Ja fuiyena, bie kue jenuano raninuaɨ iemo nana yetaraɨma onoigano, kaɨ ibɨrɨ dɨbefene, kaɨena kaɨ joneyena buna kaɨna betañeiyena, kaɨ oiakaiya izoi arɨ kaɨ atɨyena, buna zofeñeiyena, kaɨ oiakaiya izoi, mei kaɨ iri kaɨ naɨraɨ dɨga, kaɨ onoigano, kaɨ uai, kaɨ enɨe iemo nana kaɨ abaikɨ kaɨ dɨga iteza, birui ñue kaɨ jonia izoi, fui arɨ urukɨ ñue arɨ atɨyena, kaɨ eimamakɨ daɨna izoi. ; Postprint (published version)

Nowadays, the concept of mentality - is the object of study of such blighty and foreign scientists as I. Abramova, J. Bychko, I. Habdulhafarova, P. Hnatenko, J. Grabowski, N. Gregoriv, I. Dintselbakh, R. Dodonov, P . Kravchenko, S. Krimsky, A. Lavryk, A. Liseyenko, M. Popovic, I. Starovoit, V. Khramova and others.However, even at present time, science has not gained unanimous and exhaustive definition of what the term "mentality" is . There are represented numerous variants of it: mindset, mental attitude, collective representation, mentality, character of thinking, seeing of the world, and so on. German scientist Peter Dintselbaher determines mentality as a set of methods and contents of thought and perception, which are typical for the relevant collective in the relevant period. The modern Ukrainian Academic Victoria Khramova treats mentality as a worldview, that is formed at a deep psychological level of individual or collective consciousness. We also attempted to summarize our own interpretation and defined it as: mentality - is a character of thoughts, a set of mental skills and spiritual priorities, that are generated by the surrounding reality, which determine the behavior of the individual person or social group.There are many types of mentality: men, women, children, youth, professional, ethnic, national, etc. In the current scientific literature there is some uncertainty about the term "national mentality". It is often treated as synonymous with such concepts as "national character", "national luck", "national consciousness", "the soul of the nation" and others. But S. Grabowski , S. Stavroyani and L. Shkliar treat it as "national political mentality". At the present stage of development of Ukraine, when national relationship are subordinate to two trends: on the one hand the formation and development of nations, and the other – scrapping of the national boundaries by integration processes, we thought that a scientific understanding of the nature of national mentality is one of the primary scientific objectives. We dared to present our version of the understanding of the national mentality. The national mentality is - way of thinking, mental structure, psychological specialties of politically and stately organized nation, which became the cultural, economic, and ideological identity.European integration provides Zatushuvannya not only of legal differences, but also of mental. Between states of the European Union exist extremely serious language barriers, as Margaret Thatcher notes, in the current member - states, people speak not less than on 12 major languages: English, Greek, Danish, Irish (hэlskiy), Spanish (Castilian) Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, French and Swedish languages. Except their native language 41 % of Europeans speak English, 19 % - French and 10 % - German. Moreover, 70 % of Europeans believe that in EU everyone must know English language. Over time, Margaret Thatcher said, Europeans can completely switch to communicate only in English. Language - is not just a way of communication or exchanging of information. This is - one of the most characteristical features, in which historical, cultural and moral experience of native people is focused. Once Ukraine already had to go through the processes of Russification, Polonizing, Germanization. So can we protect our native language? After all, it is the most important mental attribute. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Higher School of Ukraine, Doctor of Psychology Anatoly Furman in his work "Psychological culture of Ukrainian mentality" has formed a number of functions , that mentality performs in society. To this comprehensive characteristics we would add only one thing - mentality integrates people into a nation. Loss of national mentality can lead to the loss of the nation.Social adaptation to the conditions of life in Europe requires from each nation to cede certain principles of mental development, such as the prestige of ethnic values, cultural endonym, ethnic identity, and so on. By survey of Time Magazine, 26 March 2001, every third inhabitant of the EU country feels himself as an European, not a citizen of his own country. However, this figure varies depending on the country: 40 % of young Italians consider themselves primarily Europeans, and in the UK this figure is 25%. Unfortunately today standards of democracy and human rights in the European Union failed to reconcile the fundamental mental values of national states, to create new forms of interaction between people to achieve social harmony. Realistic assessment of modern European ethnicity is characterized by diversity of conflicts. In September 2011, in north Bohemia: City Varnedorf, Usti nad Labem, Rubmurk, Shluknov, Novy Bor and even Prague were covered by anti-Gypsy protests. If previously these moves were the prerogative of skinheads, now victorian Czechs went on demonstrations on T-shirts with the inscription "Bring Hitler back. Gypsies- to the gas chambers ."At the same time anti-Gypsy protests took place in another EU country - Bulgaria. What if after a while similar protests will affect not only the Gypsy nation? Autumn events in France and London in 2012 also tell about complexity, contradiction and ambiguity of ethnic relations. Europe is a dangerous confrontational region already for a long time. Today is a very difficult situation in Belgium, which Flemish nationalism breaks apart. Still is not exhausted the Anglo- Irish conflict, is not subsided ethno-political conflict between the people of Catalonia and the Government of Spain , between the Basque Country people and the central government of Spain. The island of Cyprus is shared by so-called " Green Line ", which is protected by peacekeeping contingents and separates the Republic of Cyprus ( 60% of territory and 770,000 people) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (38 % of the territory - 300 000 people) , which was self-proclaimed in 1983. The Republic of Cyprus is recognized by all countries, except Turkey and the TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ) is recognized by Turkey and Abkhazia. We can remind a series of anti Hungarian moves held in May - early June 2012 by the initiative of the new Romanian government. At the heart of most conflicts in Europe are both objective and subjective contradictions. And one of the main - the desire to confirm their nationality. The historical way, that Ukrainian people passed, formed not militant, but compassionate, sincere Ukrainian nation, to which, as notes D.Chizhevsky, emotionalism , sentimentalism , sensitivity and lyricism is inherent . Even till now Ukrainian mentality is under the influence of ethnic symbols of grain-grower - agriculturist (who represents the Ukrainian peasants ), defender - protector (that is personified with the Ukrainian Cossacks ), Mother Hostess ( Mother - Guardian ). They are formed by the social, genetic , political , religious , legal , moral, ethical , economic , ethnic , ideological , historical and international factors. In independent Ukraine , in our opinion , is fairly weak class of political elite : some of them ideologically stopped in the former of the Soviet Union , and since independence new generation is not yet crystallized, some of them went abroad, some are not working for reunion , but for the separation of Ukrainians. But actually this last part along with a culture-creating elite will be the buffer that will protect Ukrainian from the European individualism and egocentrism, from foreign ideals and values, that have grown on an entirely different ethnic and mental basis.Although mentality is forming for a long time, it is a living organism, to which persistent representations and bedding of new are inherent. It may experience periods of recovery, upturns, decline, destruction and loss of its main features. But then on the basis of vague mental values no national idea can grow, because national mentality is that integrating, unifying factor in the existence of any nation-state. In such conditions development of basic principles of preserving national mentality is extremely important,also as a formation of clear strategic and tactical targets, including those enormous changes that have taken place in Europe and in the world at the turn of XX-XXI centuries. ; Поднимается вопрос о сохранении национальной ментальности как одного из показательных признаков нации в условиях евроинтеграции. Представляется терминологическая дискуссионность и взгляды других ученых. Обобщаются теоретические концепции проблемы, что дает возможность сравнить взгляды других ученых на процесс развития национальной ментальности и выявить структурные элементы или фазы развития. ; Ставиться питання про збереження національної ментальності як однієї із показових ознак нації в умовах євроінтеграції. Представляється термінологічна дискусійність та погляди інших науковців. Узагальнюються теоретичні концепції проблеми, що дає можливість порівняти погляди інших науковців на процес розвитку національної ментальності та виявити структурні елементи або фази розвитку.

Integrity is fundamental to everyone involved in education – students, parents, teachers, lecturers, administrators and future employers, as well as the general public. It is hardly surprising therefore, that research on educational integrity continues to gather momentum, as evidenced by the growing number of conferences and seminars on this subject around the world. I am very pleased to report that while student cheating and plagiarism continue to be topics of interest, practitioners and researchers are also exploring the broader, social context and the changing, globalised and increasingly commercialised nature of education itself. The current issue of the International Journal for Educational Integrity is introduced by William Astore's Plenary Address from the Annual International Center for Academic Integrity Conference, held at Washington University in St Louis, Illinois in October this year. Astore spoke boldly to conference delegates of the 'wider dimensions of academic integrity', using anecdotes from his own experience as a military instructor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and as a history professor at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He convincingly argued that systemic breaches of integrity are far more harmful than individual lapses such as student cheating because they compromise the institution as a whole. In his Address, Astore was openly critical of the marketisation of higher education, a topic which was also explored at the 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity: Creating an Inclusive Approach, held in September at the University of Wollongong in NSW, Australia. The four best refereed papers from the Asia-Pacific Conference are included in this issue of the IJEI. Kim awyer from the University of Melbourne, and Jackie Johnson and Mark Holub from the University of Western ustralia, provide a candid analysis of the decline in academic standards and integrity in Australian higher education. This paper provides a thorough overview of recent changes in Australian higher education. As Richard Davis commented in his review, "Critics of the modern university face an uphill task. Accused of advocating old, inefficient ways and lamenting a decadent past, they are easily silenced by self-satisfied colleagues enjoying their large research grants and consultancies. Some critics can do little more than condemn local personalities. All would be well if the vice-chancellor was less authoritarian or the university council less mean in its refusal of salary increases. The strength of the current paper lies in its remorseless analysis of the system which developed inexorably from the government's determination to educate more students while cutting its higher education costs. The 'new' corporate market-based university replaced the 'old' university dedicated to the ideals of free enquiry and education as an end in itself". Moving from the broad educational context to specific practices, the next four papers in this issue investigate issues of learning, teaching, assessment and adjudication. Clair Hughes from the University of Queensland addresses an apparent shortfall in Australian universities' implementation of 'Graduate Attributes' (GA), including the GA relating to ethical conduct. Hughes maintains that to authentically operationalise GAs, much more is needed than simply mapping specific attributes against existing programs and courses. Hughes argues for a whole of programme approach, the explicit inclusion of ethics in course teaching and assessment plans, and provides specific examples of how this may be achieved. Jon Yorke, Kathryn Lawson and Graham McMahon from Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, ask how those who adjudicate breaches of academic integrity can reliably determine 'intent' in cases of plagiarism. The authors draw on a desktop study of institutional policies and procedures in 20 universities from Australia, US, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the UK to analyse the way that 'intent' is defined and determined. Their findings indicate that despite the espoused significance of 'intent' in determining outcomes for alleged academic misconduct in many policies, there is inconsistency in the way that it is treated. The authors provide a preliminary series of 'probability factors' which might be used to determine 'intent' and call for further research in this little explored aspect of academic integrity. Grace McCarthy and Ann Rogerson from the University of Wollongong in NSW, Australia, share the results of a trial at the Sydney Business School where 61 international students were encouraged to use 'originality reports' provided by the software program Turnitin to assess the originality of their own work and thus avoid inadvertent plagiarism. In conjunction with hands-on support from teaching staff, students were permitted to submit as many drafts as necessary to Turnitin, with the result that all final submissions had a text match of 5% or less. As a consequence of the positive results of the trial, the use of Turnitin as a drafting mechanism, coupled with an extensive program of embedded support and supplementary workshops, has now been mandated for all subjects. The authors share further qualitative and quantitative data to support their thesis that "the use of text-matching software can be a powerful aid to help students improve their writing and to help academic staff identify potential plagiarism". The final paper in this issue is the only one not previously presented at one of the international conferences on academic integrity held during 2009. Mary Davis and Jude Carroll from Oxford Brookes University, using data collected over three years from cohorts of international students in the UK, also explore the role of text-matching software in plagiarism education, with a focus on the importance of formative feedback through tutorial intervention. As one part of an overall educative approach, students worked hand in hand with their tutors to read and interpret the Originality Reports of ungraded drafts of assignments prior to final submission. Students were also surveyed at the end of the module to ascertain their perceptions of the value of using Turnitin in this way. The data indicated that the approach taken at Oxford Brookes University resulted in reductions in the amount of plagiarism, over-reliance on sources, citations errors and insufficient paraphrasing. This study provides an example of best practice in the educational use of text-matching software and provides a potential counter to those who are concerned that the sole function of such software is to police and punish students. I hope that you enjoy this issue of the International Journal for Educational Integrity, and invite you to submit a paper for review directly to me at tracey.bretag@unisa.edu.au or respond to the Call for Papers for Volume 6(2) below. Tracey Bretag, IJEI Editor December 2009 Call for papers, Volume 6(2) 2010 Special issue of IJEI on 'digital technologies and educational integrity' Edited by Chris Moore and Ruth Walker This special issue seeks articles that address the impact of digital technologies on educational integrity. Many different terms have emerged in an attempt to capture the shifting terrain of media and users in various networked environments: 'social', 'participatory', 'user-generated' or simply 'new' media. Common to the online and interactive spaces of Web2.0 is the challenge of technologies and practices that are capable of changing the way we teach, learn, and share knowledge. How can we best engage and support students and colleagues coming to terms with the dynamics of these technologies and the development of new literacies? We are particularly interested in innovative research from scholars in cultural and media studies and/or the scholarship of teaching and learning, and welcome interest from the other disciplinary researchers, who might consider a broad range of questions about digital technologies that critically unpack the conversation about education integrity that goes beyond preoccupation with plagiarism and research ethics. Critical voices of concern, examples of best practice and consideration of the perceived impact of digital technology on institutional boundaries are keenly sought as is research exploring the collaborative approaches to social and participatory media that challenge conceptions about authorial identity and scholarly writing practices. Research examining the development of new literacies that celebrate the appropriation, adaptation and transformation of source material would fit well within the scope of this special issue. Abstract due date: 31 March 2010 Full paper deadline: 1 July 2010 Special issue release date: December 2010 Send all enquiries and 500 word abstract to the guest editors at ruth_walker@uow.edu.au With thanks to our reviewers in 2009: Kate Andre, University of South Australia Peter Bowden, University of Sydney Kylie Brass, University of Western Sydney Deborah Churchman, University of South Australia Geoffrey Crisp, University of Adelaide Richard Davis, University of Tasmania John Dearn, Australian National University Fiona Duggan Lawrence B. Ebert Teddi Fishman, Clemson University Neera Handa, University of Western Sydney Beverley Kokkin, University of South Australia Margaret Lightbody, University of Adelaide Nancy Matchett, University of Colorado Paul Moore, University of Wollongong Gerry Mullins, University of Adelaide Nicholas Proctor, University of South Australia Wendy Sutherland-Smith, Monash University Daniel Wueste, Clemson University

2009/2010 ; Lo scopo di questa ricerca di dottorato è l'analisi geopolitica di una regione transfrontaliera dell'Asia centrale: la valle del Fergana. Tre anni di ricerca sul campo: l'analisi delle frontiere di questa regione attualmente divisa politicamente tra Uzbekistan, Tagikistan e Kirghizistan, la cartografia analitica, le osservazioni, le interviste alla popolazione e agli esperti, la ricerca nelle biblioteche della regione, nella capitale dell'Uzbekistan, Tashkent (presso l'Istituto Francese di Studi sull'Asia centrale – IFEAC) e la ricerca svolta in Francia principalmente presso l'Istituto Francese di Geopolitica (IFG) e la Biblioteca Nazionale di Francia (BNF), sono gli strumenti che hanno permesso lo studio di questo territorio. Il principale obiettivo del lavoro è l'analisi delle rivalità di potere della valle del Fergana. Grazie alla sua fertilità e alla sua importante posizione strategica all'interno del contesto geopolitico centrasiatico, il bacino del Fergana è stato e continua tuttora ad essere una posta in gioco ambita da differenti attori territoriali. La rivalità di potere tra i diversi attori si gioca soprattutto sullo scenario transfrontaliero della regione. Il secondo scopo di questa ricerca è la presentazione e la valutazione di un particolare attore territoriale della valle, il Regionalismo culturale. La parte introduttiva della ricerca si concentrerà su una presentazione del contesto centrasiatico e sulle peculiarità derivanti dalle sue frontiere. In seguito verrà introdotta la "posta in gioco" Fergana con le sue risorse fisiche ed economiche al fine di legittimare l'importanza del territorio. Infine l'introduzione si concluderà con la teoria geopolitica: il perché della scelta della scuola di geopolitica del geografo francese Yves Lacoste per questa ricerca e una prima analisi dello spazio Fergana come regione divisa tra confine e frontiera. Il lavoro è strutturato in due grandi parti. La prima, più teorica, è relativa all'analisi dei tre attori territoriali. Le rappresentazioni dei differenti attori che verranno presentate, non seguiranno un ordine cronologico, ma un ordine concettuale: eventi simultanei verranno dunque analizzati non nello stesso momento, perché relativi a rappresentazioni differenti del territorio Fergana. Il primo capitolo è consacrato all'attore Nazione. Con questa espressione si intende non solo l'attore Stato-Nazione in sé, o meglio gli Stati-Nazione (Uzbekistan, Tagikistan e Kirghizistan), ma anche la Nazione come idea, come politica nazionalistica applicata ad un territorio. La valle del Fergana è diventata una regione transfrontaliera da quando, negli anni '20, fu divisa tra i tre Stati, allora all'interno della Unione delle Repubbliche Socialiste Sovietiche (URSS). Negli anni '90, in seguito alla caduta dell'URSS, il Fergana divenne una regione divisa da frontiere non più interne ma internazionali. Questo capitolo ha come scopo l'analisi di tutte le rappresentazioni dell'attore Nazione per quanto riguarda il contesto Fergana, dalla sua nascita (anni '20) fino all'indipendenza delle Repubbliche (anni '90). Sicuramente la rappresentazione più importante da analizzare è quella della creazione delle sue frontiere. L'attore Nazione è senza dubbio l'attore geopolitico più importante anche perché quello più legittimato in questo contesto territoriale. Il capitolo approfondirà anche le relazioni tra i differenti Stati-Nazione che rappresentano allo stesso tempo: un unico attore (contro la Religione e il Regionalismo culturale) e tre attori differenti quando competono tra loro per il territorio Fergana. Il secondo attore è la Religione. La valle del Fergana è una delle aree centrasiatiche più credenti e praticanti e la religione islamica ha sempre avuto un ruolo importante nella gestione della società ferganiana. Verrà proposta un'analisi di tutte le rappresentazioni della religione nel Fergana: il sufismo autoctono con un'analisi sulla geografia sacra dei luoghi ferganiani importanti per questa corrente dell'Islam; l'Islam tradizionale del periodo sovietico, divenuto un'arma legale utilizzata da Mosca per combattere l'ortodossia religiosa sufi del Fergana; il fondamentalismo wahabbita degli ultimi anni importato dall'Afghanistan, dal Pakistan, dall'Arabia Saudita, come conseguenza dell'invasione sovietica dell'Afghanistan del 1979 e dunque in seguito all'incontro tra i musulmani sovietici e i mujaheddin afgani. In seguito verrà analizzato come le differenti varianti dell'attore Religione si sono opposte, negli anni, all'attore Nazione per il controllo del potere e delle risorse del territorio Fergana. Un fenomeno particolarmente analizzato sarà la politicizzazione dell'attore Religione e come questa politicizzazione ha portato l'attore in questione ad essere l'elemento protagonista di numerosi eventi nel Fergana. Il terzo attore è il Regionalismo culturale. Con questa espressione si fa riferimento all'identità geo-culturale di questo insieme regionale che persiste nonostante le pressioni nazionalistiche e religiose. La valle del Fergana è sempre stata un insieme geografico, politico, sociale, malgrado negli ultimi secoli la sua popolazione si è sempre distinta per il suo alto livello di multietnicità e di disomogeneità linguistica. Questo però, non ha impedito un'amalgamazione sociale di tale popolazione che ha sempre considerato la multietnicità come la normalità e ha sempre attribuito ad ogni "etnia" un ruolo sociale integrato all'interno del sistema Fergana. Popolazioni di lingua e cultura persiana e sedentaria e popolazioni di lingua e cultura turca, sedentaria o nomade hanno sempre condiviso, ognuna con il proprio ruolo sociale, una vita comunitaria all'interno della regione e questa è sicuramente la caratteristica principale del Regionalismo culturale del Fergana. Questo equilibrio cambiò con la perdita di sovranità politica della regione, con l'istituzione dei nazionalismi e la conseguente spartizione della regione tra tre dei cinque nuovi Stati nazionali dell'Asia centrale sovietica. In questo capitolo verranno analizzate le principali rappresentazioni nel tempo dell'attore Regionalismo culturale e come esso si sia opposto agli altri attori territoriali, soprattutto all'attore Nazione. La seconda parte di questo lavoro è stata dedicata all'impatto che gli attori territoriali hanno oggi nella valle del Fergana, soprattutto nelle sue aree di frontiera. Questa parte è il risultato delle interviste e delle osservazioni sul campo effettuate in Asia centrale e in particolare nel Fergana nelle spedizioni del 2007, 2009 e del 2010. Nel primo capitolo verrà analizzata la frontiera di questa regione dal punto di vista teorico, in particolar modo con l'analisi del Fergana come" prima o ultima linea di difesa". Nel secondo capitolo, all'interno di un contesto di base: la differenza tra la frontiera all'epoca sovietica e all'epoca dell'indipendenza, ci sarà un approfondimento della definizione di frontiera centrasiatica, l'esame della burocrazia di frontiera, del posto di blocco e dei documenti del soggetto transfrontaliero. Saranno trattate, inoltre, le tematiche relative alle relazioni commerciali transfrontaliere, come i "tre" Fergana riescono ancora ad interagire malgrado la crescente rigidità delle frontiere e verranno studiate le relazioni sociali transfrontaliere sempre all'interno del panorama ferganiano di oggi. In questo contesto, verranno considerate le interviste svolte nel Fergana, le opinioni riguardo le difficoltà di passaggio e di comunicazione nella valle ed analizzeremo la presenza dei tre attori geopolitici che tuttora giocano un ruolo fondamentale nelle relazioni e nei conflitti di frontiera. Il terzo capitolo sarà dedicato ai centri urbani del Fergana; la loro storia, il rapporto dei ferganiani con le città e soprattutto le rappresentazioni interne ed esterne che i centri urbani hanno assunto all'interno di una regione oggi del tutto transfrontaliera. Il quarto capitolo si concentrerà sulle evoluzioni demografiche della popolazione: il Fergana, che durante gli anni zaristi e sovietici era terra di immigrazione, con l'indipendenza e dunque con la concretizzazione delle frontiere, si ritrova terra di emigrazione. Il quinto capitolo sarà dedicato al Fergana delle infrastrutture: come la strada ferrata e la rete stradale influiscono e sono influenzate dalle mutazioni frontaliere di questa regione. Il sesto capitolo riprenderà degli interrogativi teorici posti all'inizio del lavoro, con un analisi conclusiva sull'odierno "Fergana delle frontiere". La conclusione di questa ricerca, in realtà, è una vero e proprio capitolo di analisi, dove si farà il punto della situazione e si constaterà la persistenza dell'attore Regionalismo culturale, la sua evoluzione e il suo rapporto attuale con gli altri attori geopolitici. Un punto di arrivo fondamentale della ricerca è il fatto che la regione Fergana è cambiata, sotto differenti punti di vista e la popolazione ferganiana ha nuovi punti di riferimento culturali, politici e sociali. Differenti forme politiche e nuove strutture culturali hanno portato la popolazione del Fergana, nel tempo, a mutare la propria immagine e la propria identità: "russa, musulmana, ferganiana", in seguito "sovietica, uzbeca (o tagica o kirghiza), atea, ferganiana" e infine "uzbeca (o tagica o kirghiza), laica, ferganiana". Il territorio, le sue frontiere e la società che lo abita sono cambiati, ma vedremo che, nonostante i forti ostacoli posti dall'attore Nazione, il Regionalismo culturale riuscirà a sopravvivere, adattandosi alle nuove tendenze e ai nuovi modi di interpretare il Fergana. Come ultimo studio sul territorio, faremo degli esempi riguardanti gli eventi più recenti concernenti il Fergana (massacro di Andijan nel 2005, scontri ad Osh nel giugno 2010) ed analizzeremo questi fenomeni alla luce delle rivalità di potere geopolitiche che ancora persistono nella regione. ; Cette thèse de Doctorat propose une analyse géopolitique d'une région transfrontalière de l'Asie centrale, la vallée du Ferghana, aujourd'hui divisée entre les Républiques d'Ouzbékistan, du Tadjikistan et du Kirghizistan. Des séjours sur le terrain répartis sur trois ans ont constitué la base de la recherche, au travers de l'analyse des frontières, de la cartographie analytique, d'entretiens qualitatifs avec experts et habitants, et de recherches bibliographiques dans le Ferghana ainsi que dans la capitale ouzbèke Tachkent – notamment près l'Institut Français d'Etudes sur l'Asie Centrale (IFEAC). Ces périodes de terrain ont été complétées par un séjour de recherche en France, articulé principalement autour d'un approfondissement théorique à l'Institut Français de Géopolitique (IFG) de l'Université Paris VIII-Vincennes et de recherches bibliographiques à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France. L'objet de ce travail est donc l'analyse des rivalités de pouvoir entre les acteurs territoriaux sur l'enjeu territorial de la vallée du Ferghana, bassin fertile à la position stratégique dans le contexte géopolitique centrasiatique élargi. Si le Ferghana a toujours constitué un enjeu disputé par différents acteurs territoriaux, les rivalités des acteurs actuels jouent aujourd'hui surtout au niveau frontalier et transfrontalier. Ce faisant, cette thèse introduit un nouvel acteur dans le schéma d'analyse géopolitique classique: le Régionalisme culturel. Le Régionalisme culturel en tant qu'acteur territorial y fait donc l'objet d'une présentation approfondie ainsi que d'une évaluation de son importance passée et actuelle. Concentrée d'abord sur le contexte centrasiatique et les particularités qui découlent de ses frontières, l'introduction présente ensuite « l'enjeu » Ferghana et ses ressources physiques et économiques, qui expliquent l'importance de ce territoire. Elle se poursuit sur un rapide point théorique sur la géopolitique et la justification du choix de l'école de pensée géopolitique de Yves Lacoste comme cadre théorique de cette recherche, avant de s'achever sur une première analyse de l'espace Ferghana à l'aune des catégories de frontières et de confins. La thèse est structurée en deux grandes parties. La première, à dominante théorique, analyse à tour de rôle les trois acteurs territoriaux qui rivalisent pour le pouvoir sur le Ferghana: il s'agit de la Nation, de la Religion, et du Régionalisme culturel. La présentation des acteurs, de leurs différentes incarnations et de leurs représentations respectives du territoire ferghanien sont ainsi abordés selon un ordre conceptuel ; des évènements s'étant produits simultanément ne sont ainsi pas analysés chronologiquement mais séparément, en tant qu'ils se rapportent aux acteurs évoqués. Le premier chapitre est consacré à l'acteur Nation. Par cette expression nous entendons non seulement l'entité effective Etat-Nation et ses trois incarnations (Ouzbékistan, Tadjikistan, Kirghizistan), mais aussi la Nation comme idéologie qui agit sur le territoire au travers de politiques nationalistes. La force de légitimation de l'acteur Nation n'est pas étrangère à l'accroissement de son importance sur ce territoire, qui l'a sans aucun doute mené au sommet de la hiérarchie des acteurs géopolitiques dans cette région. Ce chapitre analyse les représentations du Ferghana définies et mises en oeuvres par l'acteur Nation depuis son apparition dans les années 1920. La vallée du Ferghana est en effet devenue une région transfrontalière à cette époque, avec son intégration à l'Union des Républiques Socialistes Soviétiques (URSS) et sa partition entre trois des cinq Républiques Socialistes Soviétiques nouvellement créées en Asie Centrale. Dans les années 1990, avec la chute de l'URSS et l'indépendance des trois Républiques, les frontières qui divisaient le Ferghana ne sont plus simplement internes, mais deviennent bel et bien internationales. Parmi les représentations majeures qui font l'objet d'une étude dans ce chapitre, une attention particulière est portée aux frontières nationales, leur création et leur évolution. Le chapitre s'intéresse également aux relations entre les différents Etats-Nations, qui constituent un acteur unique lorsqu'ils rivalisent contre les autres acteurs territoriaux – la Religion et le Régionalisme culturel – mais aussi trois acteurs différenciés lorsqu'ils se disputent le territoire Ferghana entre eux. Le deuxième chapitre est consacré au deuxième acteur territorial, la Religion. La vallée du Ferghana est l'une des régions d'Asie centrale les plus croyantes et pratiquantes, et la religion islamique y a toujours eu un rôle important dans la gestion de la société. Ce chapitre propose d'abord une analyse des représentations de la religion dans le Ferghana : le soufisme autochtone et la "géographie sacrée" des hauts lieux de ce courant de l'Islam dans le Ferghana ; l'Islam traditionnel de la période soviétique, devenu une arme légale utilisée par Moscou pour combattre l'orthodoxie soufie du Ferghana ; le fondamentalisme wahabbite récemment apparu, importé d'Afghanistan, du Pakistan et d'Arabie Saoudite à la suite de l'invasion de l'Afghanistan par les Soviétiques en 1979 et de la rencontre qui s'en est ensuivie entre les musulmans soviétiques et les moudjahiddines afghans. Ensuite est examinée la manière dont les différentes variantes de l'acteur Religion se sont opposées, au cours des années, à l'acteur Nation pour le contrôle du pouvoir et des ressources du territoire Ferghana. Nous y voyons comment la rivalité géopolitique entre deux acteurs varie du tout au tout selon que l'on parle de l'acteur Nation au cours de la période Soviétique ou bien au cours de l'ère ayant succédé à l'indépendance. Une attention particulière est portée au phénomène de politisation de l'acteur Religion et à la manière dont cette politisation a amené la Religion à assumer un rôle de protagoniste dans de nombreux évènements du Ferghana. Le troisième acteur est le Régionalisme culturel. Avec cette expression nous faisons référence à l'identité géo-culturelle de cet ensemble régional, qui persiste malgré les pressions nationalistes et religieuses. Car aussi loin que remonte son existence en tant que lieu, la vallée du Ferghana a toujours constitué un ensemble géographique, politique et social à part entière. Bien que sa population se soit distinguée au cours des derniers siècles par une grande multiethnicité et hétérogénéité linguistique, cela n'a pas empêché un amalgame sociétal de cette population qui a toujours considéré la multiethnicité comme normale, et toujours a attribué à chaque « ethnie » un rôle social déterminé au sein du système Ferghana. Qu'elles soient de langue et de culture persane et sédentaire, de langue et de culture turque et sédentaire, ou bien de langue et de culture turque et nomade, ces populations ont toujours partagé, chacune dans son propre rôle social, une vie communautaire au sein de la région, et ce phénomène est la caractéristique principale de ce que nous appelons le Régionalisme culturel du Ferghana. Cependant, cet équilibre change avec la perte de souveraineté politique de la région, l'avènement du nationalisme sous l'action de l'URSS, et la partition de l'espace entre trois Etats nations de l'Asie centrale soviétique. Ce chapitre analyse ainsi les principales représentations de l'acteur Régionalisme culturel au cours du temps, et comment il s'est opposé aux autres acteurs territoriaux, en particulier à l'acteur Nation. La seconde partie de ce travail est dédiée aux manifestations actuelles des acteurs territoriaux dans la vallée du Ferghana, plus spécialement dans ses zones de frontière. Cette partie est le résultat des entretiens et des observations de terrain réalisés en Asie centrale et dans le Ferghana au cours de séjours en 2007, 2009 et 2010. Le premier chapitre analyse la frontière de cette région du point de vue théorique, à la lumière notamment des catégories géostratégiques de "première ligne de défense" ou "dernière ligne de défense". Dans le contexte d'une modification de la frontière entre l'époque soviétique et celle de l'indépendance, le deuxième chapitre approfondit la définition de frontière centrasiatique, au travers principalement de l'analyse de la bureaucratie de frontière, des postes de contrôle et des documents requis pour le passage de la frontière. Les thématiques liées aux relations commerciales transfrontalières y sont examinées : comment les "trois" Ferghana parviennent encore à interagir malgré la rigidité croissante des frontières, quelles relations sociales transfrontalières subsistent au sein du Ferghana d'aujourd'hui. Les entretiens qualitatifs réalisés dans le Ferghana jouent un rôle majeur pour recenser les difficultés de passage et de communication dans la vallée et déceler, dans les descriptions et jugements recueillis, la présence des trois acteurs géopolitiques qui toujours jouent un rôle fondamental dans les relations et conflits de frontière. Le troisième chapitre est dédié aux centres urbains du Ferghana : leur histoire, le rapport que les Ferghaniens entretiennent avec eux, et surtout les représentations internes et externes que les centres urbains assument au sein d'une région désormais tout à fait transfrontalière. Le quatrième chapitre se concentre sur les évolutions démographiques de la population. Jusque là terre d'immigration tout au long des années tsaristes et soviétiques, le Ferghana est devenu une terre d'émigration avec l'indépendance et la concrétisation des frontières. Le cinquième chapitre s'intéresse au Ferghana des infrastructures, notamment les réseaux ferré et routier, et leur rapport d'influence réciproque mutations frontalières de cette région. Le sixième chapitre reprend les interrogations théoriques posées dans l'introduction et développe une analyse conclusive sur le Ferghana des frontières aujourd'hui. La conclusion de cette recherche dresse le bilan actuel du Ferghana et des rapports entre les différents acteurs géopolitiques, et observe la persistance de l'acteur Régionalisme culturel. Force est de constater l'existence de changements dans la région Ferghana à différents points de vue. La population ferghanienne dispose de nouveaux cadres de référence culturels, politiques et sociaux qui ont pris une importance majeure. Des nouvelles formes politiques et de structures culturelles ont eu un impact sur son image d'elle-même, sur son identité: "russe, musulmane,ferghanienne", puis "soviétique, ouzbèke (ou tadjike ou kirghiz), athée, ferghanienne", et enfin "ouzbèke (ou tadjike ou kirghiz), laïque, ferghanienne". Cependant, bien que le territoire, ses frontières et la société qui l'habite aient changé, et malgré les obstacles forts posés par l'acteur Nation, que Régionalisme culturel a réussi à survivre, en s'adaptant aux nouvelles tendances et aux nouveaux modes d'interprétation du Ferghana. La conclusion s'achève sur les évènements les plus récents du Ferghana; massacre d'Andijan en 2005 et affrontements à Osh en juin 2010, qui sont analysés à la lumière des rivalités de pouvoir géopolitique qui persistent encore dans la région. ; This PhD dissertation proposes a geopolitical analysis of a centrasiatic transborder region, the Ferghana Valley, which is today divided between the Republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. A basis of the research, field trips spread over the past three years enabled the development of instruments such as border analysis, analytical cartography, qualitative interviews with experts and inhabitants, and bibliographical research in the Ferghana as well as the Uzbek capital city Tashkent – noticeably at the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC). As a complement to the field trips in Central Asia, a research period in France permitted both a consolidation in geopolitical theory at the French Institute of Geopolitics (IFG) of the University of Paris 8-Vincennes, and additional bibliographical research at the French National Library (BNF). The topic of the research is hence the analysis of power rivalries between "territorial actors" over the "territorial stake" of the Fergana Valley, a fertile basin of strategical location within the larger geopolitical context of Central Asia. Always a stake disputed by various territorial actors over time, the Fergana Valley now experiences power rivalries from contemporaneous territorial actors first and foremost on the border and transborder levels. By doing so, the dissertation introduces a new actor in the classical geopolitical pattern of analysis: the cultural regionalism. The dissertation hence offers a detailed presentation of the cultural regionalism as well as an evaluation of its past and current importance. First focusing on the centrasiatic context and the peculiarities which stem from its borders, the introduction presents the "stake" Fergana and its economic and physical resources which explain its importance as a territory. A rapid summary of the theory of geopolitics follows, with the justification of the choice of the French Lacostian school as the theoretical frame of this work. The introduction closes on a first analysis of the Fergana as a space of border or frontier. The thesis is structured in two main parts. The first, more theoretical, analyses each of the three territorial actors which aim for power over the Fergana: the Nation, the Religion, and the Cultural Regionalism. The presentation of the actors, of their respective embodiments and of their manifestations within the ferganian territory is organised according to a conceptual rationale; events that occurred simultaneously are thus not considered following a chronological order, but separately, according to their respective relations with the actors evoked. The first chapter focuses on the actor Nation. By this word we understand not only the effective entity of the Nation-State, and its three embodiments (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan), but also the Nation as an ideology which acts upon the territory through nationalistic policies. The force of legitimation of the actor Nation did certainly not have a neutral role in the rise of this actor in the Ferganian landscape, a process which led the Nation to the top of the geopolitical actors' hierarchy in the region. This chapter also analyses the representations of the Fergana which are defined and implemented by the actor Nation since its birth in the 1920s. In fact, the Fergana valley first became a transborder region only in these years, through its integration to the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and its partition between three of the five newly created Socialist Soviet Republics in Central Asia. In the 1990s, following the fall of the USSR and the independence of the three Republics, the borders which divided the Ferghana stopped being only internal, but became real and proper international borders. Among the main representations that this study looks at, a particular attention is devoted to the study of the national borders , their creation and their evolution. The chapter also looks at the relations between the different Nation-States, which form a unique actor when they rival against the other territorial actors – the Religion and the Cultural Regionalism –, but three well different ones when they rival among themselves. The second chapter concentrates upon the second territorial actor, the Religion. The Fergana valley is one of the most pious and practicing region of Central Asia, and the Islamic religion always played a major role in the society's administration and organization. The chapter proposes first an analysis of the religion's representations in the Fergana: the autochthonous sufism and its sacred geography within the Fergana valley ; the traditional Islam of the soviet times, which became a legal weapon used by Moscow to fight the sufi orthodoxy in the Fergana ; the recently appeared wahabbite fundamentalism, imported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the encounter it induced between the soviet muslims and the afghan mujaheddins. It is then examined how the different variations of the actor opposed themselves to the actor Nation, over the years, for the control over the power and the resources of the Fergana. We look at how the geopolitical rivalries vary dramatically from the soviet era to that of the independence. A special attention is devoted to the phenomenon of politization of the actor Religion and the way this led the Religion to endorse a role of protagonist in many of the Fergana's events. The third actor is the Cultural Regionalism. It is hereby referred to the geo-cultural identity of this regional entity, which persists in spite of nationalistic and religious pressures. In fact, as long as the Fergana has existed as a place, it has always constituted a geographical, political and social whole. Although its population has been characterized during the past centuries by high levels of multiethnicity and linguistic heterogeneity, this did not prevent the societal amalgamation of populations which always held multiethnicity as normality, and always attributed to each "group" a specific social role within the system Fergana. Be they of language and culture persian and sedentary, turk and sedentary or turk and nomadic, these populations always shared, each in its own social role, a common life within the region. This very phenomenon is the main characteristic of what we call the Cultural Regionalism of the Fergana. However, this equilibrium changes with the loss of political sovereignty of the region and the rise of nationalism under the soviet sovereignty. This chapter analyzes the main representation of the actor Cultural Regionalism over time, and how it took stand against the other territorial actors, especially the Nation. The second part of the dissertation as dedicated to the current manifestations of the territorial actors in the Fergana valley, particularly in its border zones. This part results from the interviews and field observation undertaken in Central Asia and the Fergana in 2007, 2009 and 2010. The first chapter analyzes the border of this region from a theoretical point of view, especially in the light of the geostrategical categories of "first line of defence" or "last line of defence". In the context of a transformation of the border from the soviet era to that of the independence, the second chapter explores the definition of the centrasiatic border, mainly through the analysis of border bureaucracy, control posts and documents required to cross the border. The chapter looks at themes connected to the commercial transborder relations : how the "three" Fergana still manage to interact despite growing border rigidity, which social relationships subsist today. The qualitative interviews led in the Fergana are a major source in this process of reviewing the difficulties of passage and communication within the valley, and of tracking the actual presence of the three geopolitical actors which play a major role in the border relations and conflicts. The third chapter focuses on the Ferganian urban centres: their history, the relations that the Ferganians have with them, et above all the internal and external representations of these centres in a now fully transborder region. The fourth chapter concentrates on the demographical evolutions of the Ferganian population. Up until then a land of immigration, the Fergana became a land of emigration following the independence and the materialization of the borders. The fifth chapter deals with the Ferganian infrastructures, especially the rail and road networks, and their relationship of reciprocal influence with the mutation of the borders in the region. The sixth chapter builds on the theoretical interrogations evoked in the introduction of the dissertation and develops a conclusive analysis of the Fergana of the borders nowadays. The conclusion of this research depicts the current Fergana, the relations between the different geopolitical actors and underscores the persistence of the actor Cultural Regionalism. It establishes the existence of tremendous changes in the region Fergana from various viewpoints: the Ferganian population has new frames of cultural, political and social reference whose importance increased dramatically ; new political forms and cultural structures influenced its self-image, its very identity: "russian, muslim, ferganian", then "soviet, uzbek (or tajik or kyrgyz), atheist, ferganian", finally "uzbek (or tajik or kyrgyz), secular, ferganian". However, although the territory, its borders and inhabitants changed, and despite the strong obstacles set by the actor Nation, the cultural regionalism succeeded in maintaining itself, by adapting to the new tendencies and ways of interpretation of the Fergana. The conclusion ends with the most recent events of the Fergana, the Andjian massacre in 2005 and the Osh clash in 2010, which are both analysed in the light of the geopolitical power rivalries which persist in the region. ; XXIII Ciclo

Ein Überblick über die bedeutendsten Ereignisse und Entwicklungen in China seit den Opiumkriegen in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis in die Gegenwart. Rezension: Eingeführte Reihe. Der Autor, Sinologe an der Universität Göttingen und Direktor der Herzog August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, befasst sich in dieser gering aktualisierte Geschichte Chinas mit der Zeit vom ersten Opiumkrieg (Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts) bis zum Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. "Das Buch bietet eine komprimierte Einführung für Leser/-innen ohne besondere Vorkenntnisse. Knapp werden die wichtigsten Ereignisse, mit dem Schwerpunkt auf politische Entwicklungen, referiert" (A. Ufen zur Erstauflage 1999). Zur Erstinformation geeignet, daher zum Ersatz- oder Erstkauf empfohlen. (1)

The Europeanization of private international law, a major breakthrough in the past two decades, has led to an unprecedented uniformization of international jurisdiction and conflict of laws rules. However, the European Union law making process has come up against significant difficulties questioning the rationality of its development. On the one hand, the uniformization's legal basis has come under well-founded criticism. On the other hand, the legal technique, although never disavowed, has quickly failed to reach the required consensus among all member states, adding a geographical fragmentation of the European judicial area, shifting according to the regulation taken into account, to the characteristic material fragmentation of uniformization. Analyzing European private international law in family matters in view of the methodological principle of coherence, which governs the creation of law, allows for the identification of the sources of the aforementioned difficulties and the proposal of adjustments in compliance with the legal basis and the aim pursued. Firstly, a comparison with the evolution of the personal status has brought out the new approach of free movement of people, through the enforcement of "free movement" of decisions. Based on the loosening of the ties between individuals and the state, the pursuit of this freedom has led to a modification of the competences conferred upon the European Union. That alteration has allowed uniformization of private international rules, with no regard whatsoever for the uselessness of the latter to achieve its goal. Secondly, the methodological analysis has revealed that this approach reflects the European legislator's erroneous vision of a uniform European judicial area. Nonetheless, such an idea rests on the insubstantial theoretical foundation of a principle of mutual recognition based on a questionable vision of an absolute mutual trust between member states. Therefore, it has aroused strong reactions from member states willing to protect their own national views, challenging that trust and the precedence of Union law which ensures it. Studying primary law leads to lay aside these representations of a uniform judicial area and of a hierarchical organization between the European Union and the national legal orders resulting from the objective of free movement of people. Regarding to the cooperation in civil matters and especially in family matters, the European Treaties promote, on the contrary, a fundamentally pluralist vision, respectful of the diversity of the national legal orders of the member states and seeking to ease access to justice for the parties. From that point of view, a renewed reflection on the elaboration of European private international law in family matters, from a much less integrationist perspective, is inevitable. ; L'européanisation du droit international privé de la famille, fait majeur de ces deux dernières décennies, s'est traduit par une uniformisation sans précédent des règles de compétence internationale et de conflit de lois. Son évolution se heurte toutefois à des difficultés fondamentales interrogeant la rationalité de sa construction. D'une part, les fondements de l'uniformisation font encore l'objet de critiques déterminantes. D'autre part, la technique mise en œuvre, jamais remise en cause, a rapidement échoué à réunir l'unanimité des États membres requise en la matière. À un morcellement matériel caractéristique de l'uniformisation s'adjoint alors un morcellement géographique de l'espace judiciaire européen, fluctuant au gré du texte considéré. Aussi, l'analyse du droit international privé de la famille européen à l'aune du principe méthodologique de cohérence, qui gouverne l'élaboration du droit, permet d'identifier les sources de ces difficultés et de proposer des solutions en considération des fondements de la matière et des fins poursuivies. Dans un premier temps, une comparaison avec la formation du statut personnel met en évidence la logique nouvelle qu'impose, au travers de la « libre circulation » des décisions, l'objectif de libre circulation des personnes. Reposant sur un relâchement des liens entre les individus et l'État, sa poursuite a conduit à une altération des compétences attribuées à l'Union européenne en faveur de l'uniformisation des règles, sans que cette dernière justifie son utilité au regard de la fin visée. L'analyse révèle, dans un second temps, que cette démarche traduit la vision erronée, adoptée par le législateur européen, d'un espace judiciaire uniforme. Une telle conception repose cependant sur l'assise théorique fragile d'un principe de reconnaissance mutuelle fondé sur une vision absolue contestable de la confiance mutuelle. Elle suscite dès lors de vives réactions de la part d'États membres désireux de protéger leurs conceptions nationales et remettant en cause cette confiance et la primauté du droit de l'Union qui la garantit. Un retour au droit primaire conduit à constater que, loin d'une telle approche uniformisatrice et hiérarchique dictée par l'objectif de libre circulation des personnes, c'est une vision fondamentalement pluraliste, respectueuse de la diversité des ordres juridiques des États membres et orientée vers l'accès à la justice des parties, que véhiculent les traités en matière de coopération judiciaire en matière civile, et notamment familiale. Ce constat appelle dès lors, dans une perspective bien moins intégrationniste, une réflexion renouvelée relative aux modalités de la réglementation européenne du droit international privé de la famille.

The Europeanization of private international law, a major breakthrough in the past two decades, has led to an unprecedented uniformization of international jurisdiction and conflict of laws rules. However, the European Union law making process has come up against significant difficulties questioning the rationality of its development. On the one hand, the uniformization's legal basis has come under well-founded criticism. On the other hand, the legal technique, although never disavowed, has quickly failed to reach the required consensus among all member states, adding a geographical fragmentation of the European judicial area, shifting according to the regulation taken into account, to the characteristic material fragmentation of uniformization. Analyzing European private international law in family matters in view of the methodological principle of coherence, which governs the creation of law, allows for the identification of the sources of the aforementioned difficulties and the proposal of adjustments in compliance with the legal basis and the aim pursued. Firstly, a comparison with the evolution of the personal status has brought out the new approach of free movement of people, through the enforcement of "free movement" of decisions. Based on the loosening of the ties between individuals and the state, the pursuit of this freedom has led to a modification of the competences conferred upon the European Union. That alteration has allowed uniformization of private international rules, with no regard whatsoever for the uselessness of the latter to achieve its goal. Secondly, the methodological analysis has revealed that this approach reflects the European legislator's erroneous vision of a uniform European judicial area. Nonetheless, such an idea rests on the insubstantial theoretical foundation of a principle of mutual recognition based on a questionable vision of an absolute mutual trust between member states. Therefore, it has aroused strong reactions from member states willing to protect their own national ...

Ende Februar 2014 brach das Regime Janukovyc zusammen, als die Führungseliten dem Präsidenten die Gefolgschaft verweigerten. Der Majdan und der im Blut erstickte Versuch, die Protestbewegung zu zerschlagen, hatten den Boden dafür bereitet. Das Parlament erklärte den Präsidenten für abgesetzt, wählte einen Übergangspräsidenten und eine Übergangsregierung. Es gelang in kurzer Zeit, die Staatskrise abzuwenden und eine außenpolitische Neuorientierung auf den Weg zu bringen. Doch die Ukraine geriet in schwere Turbulenzen, weil Russlands Führung den Machtwechsel in Kiew nicht akzeptierte. Mit der Begründung, das "historische Russland" wieder zu errichten, annektierte Russland die Krim und destabilisiert mit Instrumenten der verdeckten Intervention den Osten des Landes. Das Ziel ist offenbar, die Ukraine in den russischen Hegemonialbereich zurückzuführen. (Osteuropa (Berlin) / SWP)

This dissertation studies 'the Arctic in Change'. In contrast to a traditional research setting, its aim is to engage with questions that respond to both 'the Arctic' and 'in Change' as preformed answer and outcome. Since 'the Arctic' is not constituted by a single definition, mode, science, art, discipline, method, state, continent, image, symbol, instance, agent or unit, it is considered and treated with the means and matters of bricolage in the spirit of post-qualitative inquiry. Accordingly, this approach requires involvement from a multiplicity of theoretical, methodological and research material: the intra-actions of performativity theory, the genealogy of discursive material practices, studies on perception, visual culture, aesthetics and ethics, art & design, ecology and ethology, as well as the politics residing in them. Furthermore, the recognition of the partiality, influence and agency of the elements constituting this study beyond the rationalised and controlled research design requires a more fluid manner of writing, deriving from the ideals of writerly and open text, infused with inter- and intratextuality and co-conducted in phenomenological writing to produce a novel conduct in avoiding firm structuring and hierarchy while pursuing open-ended objectives. The analysis begins by compromising the cohesion of Arctic representations as objects with unaltered identities, exhibiting a diorama of a polar bear. The seemingly neutral and passive object occupies several inherited subject positions that emerge from it as material outcomes. The representation holds the capacity to record the audience's corporeality through sensory and motoric traces and to perform through their bodies as fixed prepositions. The encounter endangers and re-establishes the participatory subject and object positions as co- and counter to each other. How representations are conducted is foremost a question of the manipulation of distance, which proceeds from aesthetics to epistemological and ontological conditions. Different characteristics emerge, disappear, become manageable or are in reach depending on their distance, which is defined as the relationship between the point of perception and the perceived. Attempts to overcome this distance with various scientific technologies and artistic techniques are inevitably influenced by what comes in-between. To penetrate the distance with direct bodily engagements for the purpose of Arctic investigation, is an act limited to the ontology of the knowing body. In order to perform under the natural and cultural environmental conditions related to the Arctic, the body is contained and reproduced as non-Arctic with specific material arrangements within the research vessel, from labour to recovery, to maintain it as a societal human subject. These discursive–material arrangements constitute the human body through an incorporeal–animal binary, constructed within the equipment of ergonomics and exercise inherited from agriculture and industrialisation. When the same adjustment, human–animal, is conducted in micro-space, it is transferred into the colonial project of discipline and cultivation as a rectilinear school: it emerges as an invasive species in the regional circular 'ecology' and as cultural violence towards the landscape that is formed by seasonal and regional movement that happens in circles, conducting the livelihood and the identity of the People. The reading and rewriting of the landscape, as well as the history and memory of the bodies within it, do not place these human–animal binaries beneath one another, but rather within an act of performative restructuring. While certain iconic animals, are considered representatives of the Arctic region, in the animal activist's attempt to speak for the other, to witness animal subjectivity with documentary techniques and technologies, they do not succeed in ethically mediating or negotiating the subjectivity of the animal-other as such. Such technique produces a hybrid subjectivity of the human, animal and recording technology combined that also fails to free itself from the weight of the genealogy of the human–animal relations of trapping, hunting, slaughter and putting on display. While problematising the capability to engage with the animal subject as an animal, the study further indicates the 'small other' taking place in subject–object encounters, restating 'in-between' as 'in-the-midst'. The human–animal relation contained in an artefact, and its capacity to contain and surface such genealogies, is finally studied in the context of contemporary political debate on the use, meaning and matter of the inuksuit, communities building and enacting stone figures erected traditionally by the Inuit for various purposes. While the inuksuit have been adopted by the national state with its colonial practices towards the indigenous peoples, the inukshuk re-emerges as a re-establishment of identity and power over life and region, natural, social and political bodies. The questions throughout the thesis suggest that 'the Arctic' is not accessible or returnable as the 'truth'; it is not capable to exist in the Lacanian Real, resisting all definitions and relations. It is composed in linguistic, imaginary and symbolic manner and matter as a figuration 'arcticulated' into an entity existing only 'in Change'. This entity is to be expressed with a figure that bends and reads in multiple modes. The Arctic is therefore a bearing in which one can dwell as a human being, where this being owes and invests itself in an intra-face, named a 'homunculus', a transferring and conducting of human characteristics. The outcomes ought to enable radical and critical thinking towards the 'taken for granted' truths of the Arctic as an object of inquiry through established metatheoretical conceptualisations. The 'homunculus' is offered as a guide for understanding the forms and matters of politics on the issue in a new way in order to have an impact on political science and beyond. ; Väitöskirjan tutkimuskohteena on "Arktinen muutoksessa". Perinteisesti tutkimuskysymyksestä johdettavan tutkimusasetelman sijaan tutkimuskohteen osat "Arktinen" ja "muutoksessa" tulkitaan ennakko-olettamina, tutkimusvastauksina, jolloin tutkimustavoitteeksi syntyy näihin lopputulemiin johtavien tutkimuskysymysten löytäminen. Koska Arktinen ei koostu yhdestä määritelmästä, modaliteetista, tieteen- tai taiteenalasta, oppiaineesta, metodista, valtiosta, mantereesta, kuvasta, symbolista, tilanteesta, toimijasta tai yksiköstä, käsitellään sitä brikolaasina jälkilaadullisen tutkimuksen hengessä. Lähestymistapa edellyttää useiden erilaisten teoreettisten, metodologisten ja tutkimusaineistollisten lähtökohtien hyödyntämistä performatiivisuusteoriasta genealogiaan, havainnon, visuaalisen kulttuurin, estetiikan, etiikan ja taiteen tutkimukseen, ekologiasta eläinten käyttäytymistieteeseen, sekä niiden poliittisen luonteen tunnistamiseen. Tavoitteen saavuttaminen edellyttää tiukasti kontrolloitua tutkimusasetelmaa ja raportointia joustavampaa kirjoittamistapaa, liikkuen fenomenologisesta kirjoittamisesta ja avoimesta tekstistä, intertekstuaalisuuteen ja intratekstiin, välttäen tutkimusta rajoittavia rakenteita ja hierarkioita, uudenlaisten sisältöjen ja avointen lopputulosten tuottamiseksi. Tutkimusanalyyttinen matka alkaa Arktisen representaatioiden koheesion ja identiteetin muuttumattomuuden kyseenalaistamisella. Tiedekeskuksen jääkarhudiorama ymmärretään performatiivisena artefaktina, joka ilmeisen neutraalina ja passiivisena esillepanona sisällyttää joukon polveutuvia subjektipositioita ja materiaalisia voimasuhteita. Jääkarhun representaatiolla on kapasiteetti tallentaa yleisön ruumiillisuus sensorisina ja motorisina jälkinä, ja liikuttaa yleisöään prepositioihin, asemoiden subjektin ja objektin tietynlaiseen keskinäissuhteeseen. Representaatioiden tuottamisessa on keskeisesti kysymys etäisyyden manipuloinnista, edeten estetiikasta, epistemologisiin ja ontologisiin kysymyksiin. Eri piirteet ilmaantuvat, katoavat, tulevat hallittaviksi tai tavoitettaviksi riippuen etäisyydestä eli suhteesta havaitsijan ja havainnoitavan välillä. Yritykset ylittää etäisyys tieteen käyttämien teknologioiden sekä taiteellisten tekniikoiden avulla tuottavat välittävän ja väliin tulevan tason, josta tulee erottamaton osa havainnoitavaa kohdetta. Yritys ylittää etäisyys Arktiseen suoran kehollisen kontaktin keinoin rajoittuu väistämättä tietävän kehon ontologiaan. Kuten tutkimusaluksella, Arktisen luonto- ja kulttuuriympäristössä suoriutuva keho on säilötty ja uudelleentuotettu ei-arktisena erityisillä materiaalisilla järjestelyillä ja tekniikoilla, säilyttääkseen inhimillisen kehon länsimaiseen yhteiskuntaan sovitettavana. Ihmiskehoa tukeva eläinten hyötykäytöstä liikkumisessa sekä maatalouden ja teollisuuden voimansiirrossa. Näin ollen ihmiskehoa muokkaavat diskursiivismateriaaliset käytännöt rakentuvat ihmisen ja eläimen yhdistävästä teknologisesta suhteesta, jossa eläimen ruumiillisuus on muutoin poissaolevana. Kun ihmisen ja eläimen agraarisesta suhteesta syntyvä mikro-tilallinen rakennekaava siirretään osaksi koloniaalista koulutusta ja kurinpitoa, ilmenee kultivointi suorakaiteenmuotoisena kouluympäristönä. Lineaarisuus ja suorakulmaiset muodot toimivat vieraslajin tavoin vaarantaen alueellisen kehällisen ekologian, toimien kulttuurisena väkivaltana kehällisen ja kausittaisen liikkeen muodostamaa maisemaa kohtaan, joka liittyy erottamattomana osana luontaiselinkeinoihin ja alueelliseen ryhmäidentiteettiin. Maiseman lukeminen ja uudelleenkirjoittaminen, ja sen sisältämien kehojen historia ja muisti, eivät aseta eläin-ihmis binaarin osapuolia toisilleen alisteisiksi, vaan keskinäiseen performatiiviseen suhteeseen. Tiettyjen ikonisten eläinten, kuten poron, tunnistetaan edustavan Arktista aluetta. Eläinaktivistiset yritykset todistaa eläimen subjektiivista kokemusta eri dokumentointitekniikoiden ja teknologioiden välittämänä epäonnistuvat todentamaan eläimen kokemuksen eettisesti. Kyseiset tekniikat tuottavat eläimen sijaan hybridisen subjektiviteetin koostuen ihmisen, eläimen ja tallentavan teknologian yhdistelmästä, joka ei onnistu vapautumaan tappamisen genealogiastaan, kuten ansapyynnistä, metsästyksestä, teurastuksesta ja voitonmerkeistä. Eläimen subjektiviteetin autenttisen esittämisen problematiikka paljastaa "pienen toisen" läsnäolon subjektin ja objektin välisessä suhteessa, jolloin suhteen tarkastelu "toista" kohtaan muuttuu välisestä keskiseksi. Ihmisen ja eläimen suhteen genealogian tallentuminen artefaktiin, joka toimii niin säilönä kuin esiintulopintana, tutkitaan lopuksi osana poliittista debattia koskien Kanadan Inuiitti- yhteisöjen eri tarkoituksiin perinteisesti kivistä pystyttämien inuksuk-hahmojen käyttöä ja merkitystä. Inukshuk edelleen toimii maisemallisesti alkuperäiskansaan kuuluvia ihmisiä toisiinsa, elinkeinoonsa, sekä ympäristönsä eläimistöön konkreettisesti sitovana sosiaalisen ja poliittisena ruumiina, samalla kun kansallisvaltio on kolonisoinut sen käyttöä. Kysymykset läpi tutkielman johtavat ymmärrykseen että "Arktinen" ei avaudu tai palaudu "totuudeksi" Lacanilaisessa ymmärryksessä, jossa "Todellinen" vastustaa kaikkia määritelmiä ja suhteellistuksia. Arktinen koostuu lingvistisestä, kuvitteellisesta, kuvallisesta ja symbolisesta hahmotelmasta, joka on "arktikuloitu" olevaksi vain "muutoksesssa". Tämän kokonaisuuden voi ilmaista hahmolla, joka taipuu ja on luettavissa eri modaliteeteissa. Arktinen on siten asema ja suuntima, jossa voidaan säilyä ihmisinä, investoiden siihen oman inhimillisen jälkensä 'homunculuksen'. Tutkimustuloksen on tarkoitus mahdollistaa radikaali ja kriittinen tapa ajatella Arktista totuudellisuutta, joka on "otettu annettuna", kehitettyjen metateoreettisten konseptien avulla. Homunculus toimii oppaana ymmärrykseen arktisen poliittisuudesta, uudistaen käsityksiämme yli politiikkatieteen rajojen.

As teoretiese raamwerk vir die bestudering van die mens-plant-verbintenisse in Die sideboard word vertrek vanaf die teoretiese beginsels van die nuwe materialisme. Die konsep materie verwys na sowel menslike as niemenslike liggaamlikheid, na sowel organiese as anorganiese substansies en kragte. Natuurelemente word beskou as in besit van aktiewe krag en nie as passiewe sosiale konstruksies en objekte vir menslike uitbuiting nie. Die afgelope tyd het 'n fokusverskuiwing in die omskrywing en gebruik van die konsep materialiteit plaasgevind – die klem val nou op verhoudings as konteks vir die interaksie tussen magte van beïnvloeding en die substansies wat beïnvloed word, op vorme van vervlegting of netwerke eerder as op individuele kragte van lewende of nielewende aard. Hierdie onlangse neiging in die nuwe-materialisme-benadering is rigtinggewend vir die huidige ondersoek. Die doel daarvan is die ontleding en beskrywing van relasionele aspekte in die uitbeelding van die mens-plant-verbintenisse in die roman Die sideboard (2014) van Simon Bruinders. Só word gepoog om literêre bevestiging te vind van die teoretiese standpunt dat plante as vorme van aktiewe of beïnvloedende krag kan optree binne die konteks van interafhanklike verbintenisse met die mens. Die ontrafeling en beskrywing van die mens-plant-interaksie in die roman lei tot interessante insigte. Die hooffiguur en groenteboer, Abraham, blyk op 'n veel ingrypender wyse beïnvloed te word deur die gewasse wat hy kweek as ten opsigte van sy finansiële welstand. 'n Ooglopende aanhanklikheid van hierdie plante en 'n subtiele beïnvloeding van sy psige, lewe én lewensingesteldheid daardeur word uitgebeeld. Die roman belig op genuanseerde wyse verskeie vorme en aspekte van die vervlegting wat ontstaan wanneer mense en plante in kontak tree. Dit open nuwe perspektiewe op die rol van plante in die mens se lewe. In Die sideboard word verhoudingsdimensies geïllustreer wat antroposentriese beheer as aanvaarde uitgangspunt in die hantering van plante uitdaag ; Die sideboard (2014), Simon Bruinders's first novel, is about Abraham de Bruin who grows vegetables on his mother's rented plot near George in 1939. His dream of owning land is crushed by the political system of the time. An interesting aspect of the novel is the role that Abraham's farming with vegetables, even on a small scale, plays in his life. It becomes clear that the crops Abraham grows have a much more profound influence on his psyche than on his income. The portrayal of nuanced or meaningful relations with plants is rare in Afrikaans narratives. The influence of plants as portrayed in Die sideboard involves a form of positive contribution to Abraham's (and later his whole family's) life and well-being, on a psychological level as much as regarding their physical needs. Relational aspects emerge that highlight the importance of plants to people in a way that's different from the anthropocentric perspective of nature's being a passive servant of man. This novel offers fertile ground to explore the real roles given to man and plant. As a theoretical framework for studying the plant-people relationships in Die sideboard the principles of ecocriticism are used. Ecocriticism can be described as "a cross-disciplinary initiative that aims to explore the environmental dimensions of literature and other creative media in a spirit of environmental concern not limited to any one method or commitment" (Buell, Heise and Thornber 2011:418). Marijke van der Veen's article "The materiality of plants: plant-people entanglements", published in World Archaeology in 2014, emphasises the central place of plants in man's life and forms the theoretical basis for studying Die sideboard. Van der Veen uses the concept of materiality and the idea of "plant agency" to investigate man-plant relationships. The focus of her research falls on intricate forms of entanglement or meshworks that are created, often unintentionally, when plants and people interact. Van der Veen's research is supported by the new materialism as a theoretical field within which the concept of materiality is rethought. Matter is viewed as including "human and nonhuman bodies, organic and inorganic substances and forces" (Oppermann 2013:71), so that the strict dualisms of living/non-living, human/non-human are discarded, and also the idea that elements of nature are passive social constructions. Oppermann (2013:72) states: "The new materialists perceive nature as an active, signifying force; an agent in its own terms [.]. Being thus liberated from its previous conceptualizations as a blank, silent source for the exploits of culture [.] nature is discussed as a significant participatory force field in the entanglement of meaning and matter." Van der Veen (2014:799) stresses the fact that the concept of materiality has changed over recent years in terms of its precise definition and use: "(It) has changed from an initial focus on the agency of objects, that is the recognition of material and non-human agency, to a greater emphasis on relationships, networks and meshworks, rather than on the individual agency of either person or object." This observation is endorsed by several other researchers. Robb (2016:505) describes the property of agency as always relational and contextual: "(I)t is always defined in the context of a relationship between an agent and a recipient. Hence material things can be agents as long as humans interact meaningfully with them. [.] The idea of material [.] makes perfect sense within a relational view of agency; people act within relationships with things as much as with other individuals and groups." Coole and Frost (2010:9) also pertinently include the aspect of relationality in their description of matter as "a force, vitality, relationality". Ingold (2016:14) sees the environment as a world that is continually unfolding in relation to the beings who make a living in it. He is convinced that "its reality is not of material objects but for its inhabitants". Ingold (2016:14) concludes: "Thus the properties of materials, regarded as constituents of an environment, cannot be identified as fixed, essential attributes of things, but are rather processual and relational." This study follows the most recent trend in the new materialism approach to the understanding of the agency of plants. The purpose of this investigation is the tracing, analysis and description of relational characteristics in the depiction of the plant-people interactions in Die sideboard. It is guided by a sharp focus on the phenomenon of interdependent relationships in this novel, on the ways in which man becomes entangled with plants in body and mind, and how people are influenced by plants at the levels of the psyche and identity. This is an attempt to find confirmation for the theoretical view that plants act as agents, as forms of an active force, within the context of dynamic relationships with man. If approached from the latest premise that matter should be viewed within the context of networks and relationships, Die sideboard becomes a fascinating text for the purpose of literary investigation. It is clear that Abraham's dream of a patch of land becomes much more than the mere desire to manage a piece of land profitably. Several dimensions of the relationship between farmer and plant are revealed in this novel. These relationships are portrayed in a way that challenges anthropocentric control as the accepted point of departure in the handling of plants and offers a new perspective on the role of plants. Van der Veen (2014:806) refers to "webs of relationality" between man and plant, and explains: "Both plants and humans become caught up or trapped in the relationships: humans get caught up in a double-bind, depending on things (plants) that depend on humans." The results of the unravelling and description of the plant-people relationships in Die sideboard are instructive. This novel illuminates in a nuanced way the phenomenon that is the focal point of the investigation: the literary embodiment of the idea that man and plant influence each other and function in a strong relational context. Aspects of plant-people interdependence and of the interwovenness of human and non-human existence are powerfully illustrated in this novel. These are central concepts in the contemporary way of thinking about and emphasising the relational dimensions that have recently begun to emerge in the field of the new materialism. It becomes evident that Abraham grows vegetables not only for his family's use, or to earn something. There are relational elements that come into play. A form of devotion to the processes of planting and witnessing growth is portrayed. In addition to that, an obvious dependency on plants as well as signs of the subtle influencing by plants of the character's mind, life and attitude towards life are depicted. Being busy with planting and harvesting also has an impact on Abraham's realisation and confirmation of his identity. He finds it possible to express himself through pampering his plants. The novel also clearly illustrates how this self-interpretation manifests in the demonstration of his self-esteem, beliefs, pride and behaviour. Abraham's interaction with plants and an awareness of his life's intertwinement with the rhythm and routine that plants and caring for them require, inspire the will to rise above personal misfortune and disruption. This is of vital importance in the process of adaptation after each episode of uprooting in his life. The novel opens new perspectives on opinions about the place and role of plants in man's life. This is particularly significant in an era in which anthropocentric views are influencing us to see plants in their subservient role with regard to people: as passive objects within the context of farming, trade and nutritional needs. The findings from this study support Van der Veen's (2014:799) argument that "concepts such as materiality and entanglement help us not only to foreground the vital importance of plants in human life, but to appreciate that these plants are best studied within the complex webs of relationships that exist between plants, environments and people". Between the pages of Die sideboard man and plant indeed live as if interwoven in a web of relationality