The EU after Brexit

This chapter focuses on the European Union after Brexit and articulates the case for constitutional reforms. Reforms are necessary to address the substantive and institutional shortcomings that patently emerged in the context of Europe’s old and new crises. Moreover, reforms will be compelled by the exigencies of the post-Covid-19 EU recovery, which pushes the EU towards new horizons in terms of fiscal federalism and democratic governance. As a result, the chapter considers both obstacles and opportunities to reform the EU and make it more effective and legitimate. On the one hand, it underlines the difficulties connected to the EU treaty amendment procedure, owing to the requirement of unanimous approval of any treaty change, and the consequential problem of the veto. On the other hand, it emphasizes the increasing practice by Member States to use intergovernmental agreements outside the EU legal order and stresses that these have set new rules on their entry into force which overcome state veto, suggesting that this is now a precedent to consider.

“Different than an infantry unit down in Georgia”: Narratives of queer liberation in the post-DADT military

More than five years out from its implementation, we still know relatively little about how members of the US military and its ancillary institutions are responding to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Contrary to what one might expect given the long history of LGBTQ antipathy in the military, I found in interviews with Boston area Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC) cadets unanimous approval for the repeal of DADT. When pressed to explain why there was so much homogeneity of favorable opinion regarding the repeal, interviewees repeatedly offered the same explanation: that Boston, in particular, is such a progressive place that even more conservative institutions like the ROTC are spared anti-gay sentiment. They imagined the Southern and/or rural soldier they will soon encounter when they enter the US military, one who represents the traditionally homophobic attitudes of the old military in contrast to their more enlightened selves. This “metronormative” narrative has been critiqued elsewhere as inadequate for understanding the relationship between sexuality and place; this article contributes to that critique by taking a new approach. Rather than deconstruct narratives of queer rurality, as the majority of metronormativity scholarship has done, I deconstruct these narratives of urban queer liberation. I find that such narratives mask the murkier realities of LGBTQ attitudes in urban contexts and allow residents like the ROTC cadets in this study to displace blame about anti-gay prejudice to a distant Other, outside of their own ranks.

Problems and perspectives of development of the European Union’s identity

The article deals with the problem of developing the European Union’s identity. The confirmation of the hypothesis can be considered as an argument for the necessity to interpret the European identity in the context of an imagined community. The ideas of developing the European Union’s identity as a joint national identity of the EU member-states which are differently engaged in the global post-industrial economy, interpreted the EU and their relations therewith in many ways, served as the theoretical background of the article. Therefore, these member-states possessed substantively divergent national identities. The expansion in the range of issues which did not require the unanimous approval of the EU member-states but solely by voting after the principle of qualified 50 majority was to promote the enforced cooperation between the EU member-states. These vectors were chosen due to the changes on the international arena which occurred during the researched period of time and echoed rather in the abovementioned areas than in the economic policy, since the state received the freedom of action in the search of a new balance of powers. Besides, the EU institutions governing the common foreign and security policy and the European defense remained weak even after the Maastricht treaty has been revised and the Amsterdam treaty has been signed. The monetary union serves in the capacity of an identity instrument of the EU. The multi-ethnic identity represents the feature of the migration processes in the European Union

The Performance Analysis and Research about a Type of New Tubular Belt

The tubular belt conveyor system is one of the most widely-used deferent manners in bulk material. It is a relatively important continuous deferent manners in modern intensive production, widely applied in metallurgy, coal, building materials and other different industries. The belt conveyor has advantages in long distance convey, large conveying volume, high efficiency, with simple structure. Now with the development of the machinery manufacturing technology, rubber industry and the requirements of the environmental aspects, the new type tubular belt type conveyor has obtained unanimous approval, and possessed vast vista in application and use value

Head-mounted display efficacy study to aid first responder indoor navigation

A custom head-mounted display (HMD) integrated into a firefighter's facemask was evaluated for its ability to aid in navigating through large buildings in low-visibility conditions. The HMD was a monocular occluded design with a colour 640×480 pixel LCD mounted low in one's field of view. It showed the subject their real-time location on a floor plan. Subject location was found with an 802.15.4 wireless sensor network by using the received signal strength indicator localization method. The study consisted of two different courses of similar difficulty in different buildings in the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. There were 21 subjects, of which eight of them were firefighters and five of them were female. The subjects completed the courses in the same order, but alternated in treatment condition. Subjects with the HMD returned on average a 38 per cent faster course completion time, a 44 per cent shorter distance travelled, 60 per cent fewer navigation errors, and 60 per cent more accurate map marking. A follow-up questionnaire showed a strong preference for use of the HMD in navigation tasks, and unanimous approval of the occluded optical design and low mounting location.

Six feet Under, a quality series: narrative analysis of the pilot program

Following the success of the film American Beauty, in 2000, the script writer and producer Alan Ball created the series Six feet under for HBO, the cable television channel. The awards, recognition and excellent reviews, as well as the national and international public response, have confered the series with a seal of unanimous approval. But, why is Six feet under a quality series? What do we mean by that? What are the basic features that explains such a great welcome throughout the world? Our purpose is to address these and other questions through the narrative analysis of the pilot program. First of all, the program welcomes its potential audience and introduces them to its most characteristic features. But, at the same time, it sets the distinctive traits of a serialized discourse with long-lasting prospects. As such, that first program is the prototype of the product's expressive personality and creates the genetic map that will guide its development before the public's watchful eye. For all those reasons, we feel we should reflect on the more outstanding narrative aspects of Six feet under's first program. In particular, we are proposing an analysis centered around the building of the dramatic tenor of the series, in the introduction of the characters, in the establishment of exclusive singularities, in the parameters of the story structure and in the introduction of the plot being developed continuously from the start and that will help to put together the narrative framework for the present season and even future ones – that's why they are known in some circles as horizontal plots -. Likewise, we will dwell on those aspects related with the subject matter at hand. We shall definitely try to untangle the reasons why Six feet under is considered as a clear show of quality television, with a blend of black humour and drama, of custom and fantasy, of the common and the strange. En el año 2000, y tras el éxito cosechado con el largometraje «American Beauty», el guionista y productor Alan Ball creó la serie A dos metros bajo tierra («Six feet under») para la cadena de televisión por cable HBO. Los premios, los reconocimientos y las excelentes críticas, así como la aceptación del público, tanto nacional como internacional, han otorgado al producto un sello de calidad generalmente admitido. Pero, ¿por qué es «A dos metros bajo tierra» una serie de calidad? ¿Qué entendemos por tal? ¿Cuáles son las cualidades básicas que explican su encomiable consideración en el panorama televisivo mundial? Nuestra comunicación pretende dar respuesta a estas y otras cuestiones a partir del análisis narrativo del capítulo piloto. Dicho capítulo, en primer lugar, da la bienvenida a los espectadores potenciales de la serie y los introduce en sus señas de identidad más características. Pero, complementariamente, fija los rasgos distintivos de un discurso serializado que tiene la vocación de prolongarse en el tiempo. Ese primer capítulo, por lo tanto, es prototípico de la personalidad expresiva del producto y fija el mapa genético que guiará su desarrollo ante la vigilante mirada del público. Por todos esos motivos, nos parece interesante reflexionar sobre los aspectos más sobresalientes establecidos en la primera entrega de «A dos metros bajo tierra». Concretamente, proponemos un análisis centrado en la construcción del tono dramático de la serie, en la presentación de los personajes, en el establecimiento de posibles franquicias– o singularidades exclusivas– , en la delimitación de las estructuras del relato y en la introducción de las tramas que serán desarrolladas a partir de ese momento de arranque y que –por eso son conocidas en algunos sectores como tramas horizontales– servirán para la articulación del esqueleto narrativo de la temporada de marras e incluso de las futuribles. De igual modo, nos detendremos en los aspectos relacionados con el ámbito temático del discurso propuesto. Intentaremos, en definitiva, desentrañar las razones que justifican que «A dos metros bajo tierra», con su matizada mezcla de humor negro y de drama, de costumbrismo crítico y fantasía, de cotidaneidad y extrañeza, sea tenida por una diáfana muestra de televisión de calidad.

A Preferential Option for the Spirit: The Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America's New Religious Economy

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), the Latin American church's largest and most dynamic lay movement, demands scholarly attention for its extraordinary appeal among Catholic laity and its unanimous approval by national episcopacies. If the church is finally using mass media and other Protestant techniques for evangelization, it is because of the Charismatics, whose missionary zeal rivals that of their chief competitors, the Pentecostals. This study uses the tools of religious economy to analyze the reasons for the Renewal's rapid growth and acceptance. In attempting to explicate the CCR's success, the study also examines the major ecclesial trends during the movement's three decades in Latin America.

Social Practice, Interdisciplinary Perspective

The structuration and definition of disciplines – an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century project – gave way, in the second half of the twentieth century in the European and American academies, to their destructuration, although certainly not everywhere, nor to unanimous approval. For all the resistance that it has encountered, however, this movement towards the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries has taken root. It can be traced back to the 1960s, a period whose economic growth and economic optimism freed up mental space, allowing energies to focus on political and sociocultural injustices and inequalities and thereby fermenting that ‘cultural revolution’ for which the 1960s are now most remembered in the affluent ‘western’ world. ‘Cultural’ here embraces, as it did at the time, the anthropological notion of culture as belief, knowledge, morals, customs and, among others, symbolic representation, thus also theatre and performance.