scholarly journals ROLE OF THE SOCIAL DIMENSION IN THE SUSTAINABILITY-ORIENTED MAINTENANCE OPTIMIZATION OF BRIDGES IN COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS

Author(s):  
IGNACIO J. NAVARRO ◽  
VÍCTOR YEPES ◽  
JOSÉ V. MARTÍ
2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 43-81
Author(s):  
Patrizia Calefato

This paper focuses on the semiotic foundations of sociolinguistics. Starting from the definition of “sociolinguistics” given by the philosopher Adam Schaff, the paper examines in particular the notion of “critical sociolinguistics” as theorized by the Italian semiotician Ferruccio Rossi-Landi. The basis of the social dimension of language are to be found in what Rossi-Landi calls “social reproduction” which regards both verbal and non-verbal signs. Saussure’s notion of langue can be considered in this way, with reference not only to his Course of General Linguistics, but also to his Harvard Manuscripts.The paper goes on trying also to understand Roland Barthes’s provocative definition of semiology as a part of linguistics (and not vice-versa) as well as developing the notion of communication-production in this perspective. Some articles of Roman Jakobson of the sixties allow us to reflect in a manner which we now call “socio-semiotic” on the processes of transformation of the “organic” signs into signs of a new type, which articulate the relationship between organic and instrumental. In this sense, socio-linguistics is intended as being sociosemiotics, without prejudice to the fact that the reference area must be human, since semiotics also has the prerogative of referring to the world of non-human vital signs.Socio-linguistics as socio-semiotics assumes the role of a “frontier” science, in the dual sense that it is not only on the border between science of language and the anthropological and social sciences, but also that it can be constructed in a movement of continual “crossing frontiers” and of “contamination” between languages and disciplinary environments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javiera Chocobar ◽  
Bernhardt Johst ◽  
Rolf Bracke ◽  
Erik H. Saenger

<p>     The development of geothermal exploration has benefited from the inclusion of exploration protocols based on geological Plays classically used in hydrocarbon exploration projects. Despite being a research topic in which many efforts have been devoted, it presents weaknesses when evaluating the role of the communities (the social dimension) during the exploration process. To address the lack of studies, a qualitative research has been carried out in Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panamá) to determine the necessary factors to be considered in the social dimension within the geothermal exploration based in Plays.</p><p>     We have identified the social factors within each social dimension (demand, infrastructure, land access) and from this, a catalogue of the necessary activities required in the social dimension during the geothermal exploration process based on plays is proposed. The results of our survey will greatly contribute to the implementation of the Play-based exploration in geothermal projects because it reduces the risks associated in the initial phase of the exploration process and offers a step-by-step methodology that, when adapted to the needs of each country, can improve the efficiency of the current geothermal exploration protocols.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Vogelauer ◽  
David M. Herold ◽  
Elmar Fuerst

Abstract Although companies increasingly focus on the social dimension in corporate sustainability, there seems to be a lack of understanding how and to what extent disability and accessibility frameworks and activities are integrated in corporate sustainability reports. In this article, we aim to close this gap by (a) analysing the disability and accessibility (D&A) activities from the largest 50 companies in Europe based on their corporate sustainability reports, and (b) advancing a simplified conceptual framework for D&A that can be used in corporate reporting. In particular, we provide an overview about corporate D&A reporting and associated activities according to three identified areas: (a) workforce, (b) workplace, and (c) products and services. Our findings are twofold: First, the majority of the companies address D&A in their corporate sustainability reports mainly under the diversity umbrella, but lack a detailed debate about the three identified areas. Second, we found that existing frameworks for D&A are hardly used because either they are not focused on corporate reporting or seem too difficult or complicated to complete. Thus, our framework not only represents a first opportunity to foster the implementation of a D&A framework within the social dimension of corporate sustainability reports, but also presents a holistic yet flexible management tool that takes into account the most critical elements while shaping implementation, directing evaluation and encouraging future planning of D&A initiatives. As such, this study contributes to and extends the limited amount of research of D&A activities in the social dimension in corporate sustainability reporting.


Sociologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 534-553
Author(s):  
Biljana Lungulov ◽  
Aleksej Kisjuhas

This paper begins with a sociohistorical analysis of the university as a specific community of interacting intellectuals, which enabled the creation of an epistemological and institutional core for the development of the social sciences. On the other hand, we critically consider and analyze the contemporary university reforms in Europe, in terms of bringing universities and the social community closer together through the social dimension, as well as the dimensions of entrepreneurship and innovation. This paper aims to investigate the role of the university from its inception as a specific and unique intellectual community, towards its current aspirations to connect and integrate with the wider community. Two research tasks have been defined: the first refers to determining the importance of the interaction among intellectuals within the university for the production of scientific knowledge, while the second task involves analyzing the importance of interaction between the university and the social community through the university?s third mission. The research results indicate that the institutional and interactionist framework for the establishment of the university as an institution that communicates with the wider community was gradually formed through its various roles and reforms in the course of social history. However, we also conclude that the social role of the university has always been relatively complementary to the current third mission requirements, and with the historical development of knowledge concerning human society.


2009 ◽  
pp. 71-85
Author(s):  
Francesco Amoretti ◽  
Fortunato Musella

The challenge of convergence has become a core issue in the European agenda, as the existence of widely accepted administrative standards represents one of the most important preconditions to promote sociopolitical development and to reinforce the single Market. Indeed many initiatives have been launched by European institutions to ensure uniformity in terms of administrative action and structures, and several communications by the European Commission have considered the impact of new technologies in creating systems of integrated and interoperable administration in the Old Continent. In this chapter it will be investigated the role of communication and information technologies in the formation of an European administrative space, the process for which administrations become more similar and close to a common European model. The contribution will consider ICTs as a key element of Europe’s economic competitiveness agenda as well as the interconnection between e-government programs and the social dimension of development. In addition to this, in the final part of the chapter it will be also analyzed the nature and implications of the process of uniformity produced by the new digital infrastructures, a peculiar mix of attractiveness and imposition.


Author(s):  
Antonio A. R. Ioris

Hydroinformatics tools have increasingly offered a contribution towards the assessment of water management problems and the formulation of enhanced solutions. Nonetheless, the search for improved basis of water management requires not only a combination of technical and managerial responses, but also a firm action against socioeconomic injustices and political inequalities. This chapter problematises the role of hydroinformatics in situations of established inequalities and acute management distortions. A case study of the Baixada Fluminense, in the Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro, illustrates the challenges to reverse unsustainable practices where water problems have been exploited by local and national politicians. Although the hydroinformatics community is certainly aware of the social dimension of water management, the aim is to further emphasise the centrality of issues of power and political disputes. The chapter concludes that the agenda of hydroinformatics needs to expand in order to combine state-of-the-art information technology with a critical understanding of how social and spatial differences affect the use and conservation of water systems.


PMLA ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev Petrovich Yakubinsky ◽  
Michael Eskin

Although the pivotal role of the Russian linguist L. P. Yakubinsky (1892-1945) in the development of modern linguistics and literary theory has been repeatedly stated by prominent scholars, he has remained virtually unknown outside Russia. Yakubinsky was educated at Petersburg University in 1909–15 during a period of academic renewal and challenge in Russian linguistics, a field that hitherto had been dominated by the neogrammarian study of language. The neogrammarians' positivist and historicist concerns were contested by a range of scholars interested in the functional diversity of language and concomitantly in the processuality of language as an individual and a collective activity. In this heated atmosphere of reevaluation and change Yakubinsky, with some of his fellow students and colleagues, such as Osip Brik and Viktor B. Shklovsky, initiated the movement that later came to be called Russian formalism. In fact, the functional distinction between “poetic” and “practical” language that Yakubinsky introduced in his groundbreaking study “On the Sounds in Poetic Language” (“O ”; Jakubinskij 163-76) became the cornerstone of formalist criticism and “served as the activating principle for the Formalists' treatment of the fundamental problems of poetics” (Èjchenbaum 8). Yakubinsky thus laid the foundation for structuralism. However, he soon moved away from the formalists' preoccupation with poetic and literary texts and devoted himself to the social dimension of the functions and forms of language.


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