Registration of Off-Road Practices as Intangible Heritage and Implementation of the Off-Road Ecomuseum in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais

The project for Registration of off-road practices as intangible heritage and implementation of the Off-Road Ecomuseum in Nova Lima is a popular initiative that seeks to safeguard tradition and the benefits generated by off-road practices on the city's trails. This is a pioneer initiative in the country and has a multidisciplinary character, as it involves three major areas: sport, culture and tourism. From the first indigenous occupations in Minas Gerais, through pioneers, pathfinders, drovers, rural producers who transported their items for sale and to local markets to the present day, the trails of Nova Lima are traveled by sportsmen and tourists. Thus, the aim is to use the trails from their conception as places of memory Keywords: Ecomuseum, culture, tourism, ecotourism, territory.

When Evaluative Adjectives Prevent Contradiction in a Debate

This paper argues that some words are so highly charged with meaning by a community that they may prevent a discussion during which each participant is on an equal footing. These words are indeed either unanimously accepted or rejected. The presence of these adjectival groups pushes the antagonist to find rhetorical strategies to circumvent them. The main idea we want to develop is that some propositions are not easily debatable in context because of some specific value-bearing words (VBWs), and one of the goals of this paper is to build a methodological tool for finding and classifying these VBWs (with a focus on evaluative adjectives). Our study echoes the importance of “cultural keywords” (as reported by Wierzbicka, Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese, 1997) in argument (as reported by Rigotti & Rocci, Argumentation in practice, 2005), but is rather based on a German approach developed by (as reported by Dieckmann, Sprache in der Politik: Einführung in die Pragmatik und Semantik der politischen, 1975), (as reported by Strauss and Zifonun, Der politische Wortschatz, 1986), and (as reported by Girnth, Sprache und Sprachverwendung in der Politik: Eine Einführung in die linguistische Analyse öffentlich-politischer Kommunikation, 2015) about “Miranda” and “Anti-Miranda” words that is expanded and refined here. In particular, our study tries to understand why some statements, fueled by appreciative (Tseronis, 2014) or evaluative adjectives, have such rhetorical effects on a pragmatic level in the particular context of a vote on the Swiss popular initiative called “for more affordable housing”. This context is fruitful since two parties offer reasons for two opposing policy claims: namely, to accept or to reject an initiative. When one party uses arguments containing such universally unassailable adjectival groups to defend a “yes” vote (in our example, pleading for more affordable housing rents), the opposing party cannot use a symmetrical antonym while pleading for the “no” vote. The methodological tool that is proposed here could shed light on the use of certain rhetorical and referential strategies in conflicting policy proposition contexts.

The Level of Interest and Attitude of the Local Community in Home Gardening during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Assessment

Introduction: People are facing uncertain and challenging times in the surge of COVID-19 Pandemic; unemployment rate increases, incomes dramatically decline, and movement restrictions are evident in every household here in the Philippines. Due to income disruption, the underprivileged encounter shortage of their food resources. As such, home gardening becomes a popular initiative of the government and non-government agencies. Objectives: The primary aim of this paper is to determine the level of interest and attitude of the residents from the Municipality of Cantilan, Surigao del Sur towards home gardening during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Methodology: The study made use of the descriptive normative design by using a convenience sampling method. The sample selection was based on participants’ willingness to answer the questionnaire which serves as the primary tool in gathering the data. Wherein there are 115 total of respondents participated in the study. The collected data were treated using a simple percentage and weighted mean. Results and Conclusions: The result shows that majority of the respondents were interested in home gardening and believed that it helps their family to eat better and save money during a pandemic. It also indicates that they have time to work in their garden, to be recreational, and conform that they enjoy this activity. It would strengthen their family values and the benefits of home gardening to our environment. However, they are not fully aware of the other benefits of home gardening. Meanwhile, they are unsure if they became successful in home gardening or not.

Banning burkas and niqabs? Exploring perceptions of bias in media coverage of Islam and Muslims in Switzerland and their relation to people’s voting intention concerning the burka-initiative

In Switzerland, Islam and Muslims are repeatedly the subject of political debates and, thus, of media reporting. While content analyses show a certain bias in Western media coverage of Islam and Muslims, relatively little is known about the audience’s perspective on media bias in this context. Using data from an online survey of the Swiss population (n = 976), this study examines people’s perceptions of bias in the media coverage of Islam and Muslims in Switzerland and how it relates to their intention to vote on the popular initiative “Yes to a veil ban”. The study was conducted in March 2019, two years before the actual vote took place on 7 March 2021. The results show that the majority of the Swiss non-Muslim population perceives the reporting as distorted. In the study’s investigation of media bias perceptions, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims, political orientation and personal contact with Muslims proved to be the most relevant influencing factors. By contrast, exposure to political information via traditional news media and social media was not associated with bias perceptions. Finally, a stronger perception that the media understate certain problems related to Islam and Muslims in Switzerland was positively related to people’s intention to vote for a national ban on wearing burkas or niqabs in public.

Zmiany w realizacji inicjatywy ludowej w Austrii w warunkach pandemii COVID-19

The article is devoted to popular initiative in Austria with reference to actions aimed at preventing COVID-19 from spreading. Due to the emergence of threat in the form of COVID-19, the popular initiative expressed in Article 41(2) of the Constitution of Austria has changed in terms of its meaning. The state of COVID-19 pandemic forced Austrian legislature to change the law, including amendments to the act of 2016 on popular initiative. The popular initiative act was amended in § 24(1) and (2) by introducing certain restrictions on the fulfillment of this initiative. In April 2020, the popular initiative act was amended by suspending the deadlines referred to in § 4(1) and § 6(1), and revoking the already established periods of entry, pursuant to § 6(2). This modification was made with a view to smoothly implement the popular initiative with regard to counteracting COVID-19. Based on these provisions, the implementation of the popular initiative has changed its shape.

Assurance-maladie et libéralisme économique: l’échec de l’initiative populaire du Parti socialiste suisse de 1974

In 1974, the Swiss citizens voted against a popular initiative aimed at reforming the health insurance, launched by the Swiss Socialist Party. They refused as well a less ambitious counter-proposal elaborated by the government. This failure of the left-wing reformers is worthy of interest. This was, indeed, the main attempt until now to implement a healthcare subsidization based on social funding that would provide a wide risk coverage. In fact, shortly after the vote, the emerging economic crisis rather reinforced the advocates of a limitation of social welfare benefits. This durably hindered the political Left’s hopes of transforming in depth the Swiss healthcare system. The 1974 failure of the socialist initiative thus contributed to strengthen the conservative model, which received support from right-wing forces and the business community.

UMA PROPOSTA DE CATEGORIZAÇÃO DO PROCEDIMENTO LEGISLATIVO DE INICIATIVA POPULARPROPOSAL FOR CATEGORIZING THE LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE FOR POPULAR INITIATIVE

O presente artigo tem como tema a Iniciativa Popular Legislativa observada a partir do procedimento legislativo adotado para seu trâmite. O objetivo é problematizar os seus ritos, verificando em que medida eles a efetivam como meio de exercício da soberania popular. De maneira ensaística, a Iniciativa Popular Legislativa é apresentada em categorias, ilustradas com a ajuda de características procedimentais de modelos já praticados. A categorização geral obtida pode ter por fim enquadrar procedimentos já existentes, bem como oferecer um parâmetro de referência para a criação de novos modelos.

Female Empowerment and the Politics of Language: Evidence Using Gender-Neutral Amendments to Subnational Constitutions

This letter explores language politics as it concerns gender, and investigates the adoption of amendments that introduce gender-neutral language to subnational constitutions via popular initiative. Embracing theories of female empowerment based on resource acquisition and shrinking gender differentials in economic resources, the authors argue that popular support for these initiatives will be higher in contexts where female and male incomes are closer to parity. The study tests this expectation using city-level historical administrative data in California on Proposition 11 in 1974 – the first American state to hold a popular vote on amending its constitution to include only gender-neutral language. It finds that greater parity in income between women and men is associated with greater voter support for the initiative. This result holds after controlling for conceivable confounders, fails to emerge when analyzing gender-irrelevant ballot measures, and replicates when analyzing similar measures held in three jurisdictions in other states.

The Latvian direct democracy tools in a comparative European context

This article analyses and compares the legal tools of direct democracy in Latvia and other European countries. Based on comparison, the author draws concludes the shortcomings of the legal framework of direct democracy in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia. The author analyzes functioning of the direct democracy tools in Latvian practice and compares them with similar tools in other European countries, expressing his criticism towards Latvian legislation on the referendum and people’s initiative, finding that some mechanisms included in the Constitution are old-fashioned and ineffective. The article identifies actual shortcomings of the legal framework of the referendum and popular initiative both at the level of the Constitution and that of the law and makes suggestions for improvements of the mechanisms of direct democracy, particularly taking into account the experience of the other Baltic countries. Este artículo analiza y compara las herramientas legales de la democracia directa en Letonia y en otros países europeos. Sobre la base de la comparación, el autor extrae conclusiones sobre las deficiencias del marco legal de la democracia directa letona. El autor analiza la legislación y la práctica letona sobre el referéndum y la iniciativa popular comparándola con las de otros países europeos, incluido el referéndum sobre la disolución del Parlamento, expresando críticas de que una serie de institutos parecen anticuados e ineficaces. El artículo identifica las deficiencias actuales del marco legal del referéndum y de la iniciativa popular tanto a nivel constitucional como legislativo e indica sugerencias para mejorar los mecanismos de la democracia directa letona, particularmente teniendo en cuenta la experiencia de otros países bálticos.

Peace in the minds: UNESCO, mental engineering and education

UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – is often associated with its prestigious world heritage list. For a good reason. The list is undeniable the most popular initiative in the organization’s entire history. But UNESCO is of course more than world heritage. It has over the years been preoccupied with a series of what appears to be extremely diverse topics, such as education for global citizenship, literary translation programs, copyright rules, nuclear power research and technical assistance to developing countries. But how exactly are the many different activities related to peace-making and mentality construction and what exact role does education play besides constituting the «e» in the organization’s name? In order to answer that, I will bring the reader back to three unpretentious but rather important seminars that took place simultaneously in Paris at the beginning of the organization’s existence, because I believe the subsequent projects they initiated embody what the employees at UNESCO initially defined as the organization’s core tasks.