Sovereignty as new beginnings: Action beyond the liberal subject, among undercover police investigators in Europe, for example

This article argues that Schmitt's “state of exception” is only one expression of the deeper sovereign phenomenon, specifically the human capacity to inaugurate new beginnings in shared space. Sovereign action thus includes anything from Schmitt's vertically-imposed state of exception, which eliminates political subjecthood, to the thrill of horizontally-arranged movements, which enable it. To make this argument, the article foregoes the idea of the bounded, internally coherent liberal subject in favor of a relational subject, who is both internally divided and inherently tied to others. The subject's instability and relationality make new beginnings possible and renders sovereign action promising, even if risky. An unexpected example of this fuller view of sovereignty appears in an undercover police team in southern Europe that investigates global human smuggling and trafficking rings. Based on extensive ethnographic research, this article shows how they often act on their own ethical judgments, reached by considering the standpoints of people tied to their investigations, rather than through obedience to law, policy, or superior command. Acting outside constitutional order, these investigators, (re)constitute themselves as particular persons through their joint actions and simultaneously constitute modest sovereign spaces, however tentatively.

Civilian Empowerment: A Theological Inquiry

A theological inquiry into civilian empowerment approaches “god” or “gods” as sources of power. Since our conception of god depends on what we can say—our language—the gods of empowerment belong to our various social worlds. We could understand the flow of power here as one where God empowers the church and then shares it with society, or where God empowers people in society and the church gives witness to it. The protestant theologians Paul Lehmann and Edward Hobbs take the second view. Lehmann’s approach opens us to a community-creating power that other language communities besides the Christian church could articulate and celebrate. Hobbs explains how the Christian trinity exposes our limitations, hubris, and the call to care for others. These theologies reveal our human capacity to create caring communities with the power to call for change.

Educar al «animal enfermo». Nietzsche y el problema de la grandeza y la reconfiguración de la intersubjetividad en la experiencia histórica

In this article I am focusing on the problem of greatness and on the social destiny of strong individuals in some moments of Nietzsche’s reflection, investigating the ethical-pedagogical implications of this assumption, without neglecting the importance of the historical experience. On this basis, I value Nietzsche’s attempt to reconfigure subjectivity and intersubjective relations through new models of coexistence (even in democratic contexts marked by decadence), by appealing to the human capacity for self-overcoming, in accordance with the demands of a “concrete reason” which makes explicit the multiple ways of being in the world.

Eradicating xenophobia and aporophobia: Compassion as a key capacity of moral neuroeducation

Drawing on the contributions of some of the most recent and relevant studies on neuroethics and moral neuroeducation, this paper undertakes an analysis of compassion. In order to focus on the results of this neuroscientific research a reductionist naturalist framework is set aside in order to embrace the broader outlook of a moral neuroeducation that, firstly, refuses to reduce its normative character to the human capacity for evolutionary adaptation; and, secondly, seeks to locate within the brain the neuronal foundations for the development of a capacity for compassion towards those of one’s own community, and also those from outside it. Thereby, this capacity for compassion moves beyond empathic tribalism.

Over-Specification of Small Cardinalities in Referential Communication

The paper presents experimental evidence for the over-specification of small cardinalities in referential communication. The first experiment shows that when presented with a small set (2, 3, or 4) of unique objects, the speaker includes a numeral denoting a small cardinality into the description of given objects, although it is over-informative for the hearer (e.g., “three stars”). On the contrary, when presented with a large set of unique objects, the speaker does not include a numeral denoting a large cardinality into their description, so she produces a bare plural (e.g., “stars”). The effect of small cardinalities resembles the effect of over-specifying color in referential communication, which has been extensively studied in recent years (cf. Tarenskeen et al., 2015; Rubio-Fernández, 2016, among many others). This suggests that, like color, small cardinalities are absolute and salient. The second experiment demonstrates that when presented with an identical small set of monochrome objects, the speaker over-specifies a small cardinality to a much greater extent than a color. This suggests that small cardinalities are even more salient than color. The third experiment reveals that when slides are flashed on the screen one by one, highlighted objects of small cardinalities are still over-specified. We argue that a plausible explanation for the salience of small cardinalities is a subitizing effect, which is the human capacity to instantaneously grasp small cardinalities.

Metaphor in Education

<p>Without metaphor there would be no legs on the table, no hands on the clock. These are dead metaphors. Even that expression is a metaphor, for how can something be dead that has never literally been born. It is an expression which cannot be taken literally. In its first use it was 'alive' in the sense of being new or witty or apt and memorable. Without metaphor we are reduced to the bare bones of language, to a kind of Orwellian Newspeak. One can hardly avoid using metaphors to explain them. Even scientists and mathematicians use metaphors but they usually refer to them as models. Metaphor is a function of language which enables us to be creative. Not only the person who coins, invents, or thinks of the new metaphor but also the listener or reader who constructs a personal meaning for him or her self. We speak of creativity in education, as a human capacity to be encouraged and developed. How creative can humans be? Do they ever really 'create' anything new apart from reproductions of themselves? Any creative activity such as painting, building or gardening is really re-organising elements already created. So humans enjoy 'creating' their own order, forms, or patterns which we call art. Language is capable of endless patterns. The basic patterns, usually known as grammar, appear to be innate and in speech and writing we use these 'inbuilt' structures to create new sentences of our own. At its highest level we call this literature. It has taken us some time to realise that a word in itself has no meaning as it is a symbol only. For those aspects of experience which are difficult to explain we turn to metaphor. Thus religions often use myths and symbols. Anthropology describes many human activities as metaphoric, for example myths or totemism. Practically every sphere of human activity is imbued with this magical quality of metaphor, for it extends our understanding of the world by giving us a kind of 'elastic' way of describing our experiences. It is not the prerogative of writers or poets but a power we all possess and one which has been derided and abused at times in our history. Only now is it increasingly being recognized as a human capacity worthy of study. In this work I delve into some aspects of the use of metaphor to show how we need to be aware of its potent, pervasive power, especially those of us involved in teaching for whom I will attempt to demonstrate that teaching is itself a metaphoric activity.</p>

Metaphor in Education

<p>Without metaphor there would be no legs on the table, no hands on the clock. These are dead metaphors. Even that expression is a metaphor, for how can something be dead that has never literally been born. It is an expression which cannot be taken literally. In its first use it was 'alive' in the sense of being new or witty or apt and memorable. Without metaphor we are reduced to the bare bones of language, to a kind of Orwellian Newspeak. One can hardly avoid using metaphors to explain them. Even scientists and mathematicians use metaphors but they usually refer to them as models. Metaphor is a function of language which enables us to be creative. Not only the person who coins, invents, or thinks of the new metaphor but also the listener or reader who constructs a personal meaning for him or her self. We speak of creativity in education, as a human capacity to be encouraged and developed. How creative can humans be? Do they ever really 'create' anything new apart from reproductions of themselves? Any creative activity such as painting, building or gardening is really re-organising elements already created. So humans enjoy 'creating' their own order, forms, or patterns which we call art. Language is capable of endless patterns. The basic patterns, usually known as grammar, appear to be innate and in speech and writing we use these 'inbuilt' structures to create new sentences of our own. At its highest level we call this literature. It has taken us some time to realise that a word in itself has no meaning as it is a symbol only. For those aspects of experience which are difficult to explain we turn to metaphor. Thus religions often use myths and symbols. Anthropology describes many human activities as metaphoric, for example myths or totemism. Practically every sphere of human activity is imbued with this magical quality of metaphor, for it extends our understanding of the world by giving us a kind of 'elastic' way of describing our experiences. It is not the prerogative of writers or poets but a power we all possess and one which has been derided and abused at times in our history. Only now is it increasingly being recognized as a human capacity worthy of study. In this work I delve into some aspects of the use of metaphor to show how we need to be aware of its potent, pervasive power, especially those of us involved in teaching for whom I will attempt to demonstrate that teaching is itself a metaphoric activity.</p>

Knowledge Management and Operational Capacity in Water Utilities, a Balance between Human Resources and Digital Maturity–The Case of AGS

Digitalization and knowledge management in the water sector, and their impacts on performance, greatly depend on two factors: human capacity and digital maturity. To understand the link between performance, human capacity, and digital maturity, six AGS water retail utilities were compared with all Portuguese utilities using Portuguese benchmark data (2011–2019). AGS utilities achieved better results, including in compound performance indicators, which are assumed to be surrogates for digital maturity. These compound indicators were also found to correlate positively with better performance. In fact, AGS utilities show levels of non-revenue water (NRW) (<25%) below the national median (30–40%), with network replacement values similar to the national median (<0.5%). These results seem to imply that higher digital maturity can offset relatively low network replacement levels and guarantee NRW levels below the national average. Furthermore, regarding personnel aging index and digital maturity—two internally developed indicators—there was an increase in the digital maturity and aging of the staff, which, again, raises questions about long-term sustainability. The growing performance and the slight increase in digital maturity can be attributed to group-wide capacity building and digitalization programs that bring together staff from all AGS utilities in year-long activities.