Albanian Question Today

The paper deals with three interrelated topics: the recent parliamentary elections in Albania, the current situation in neighboring Kosovo, and the renewed dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade. It contains the analysis of the run-up to the election and its result along with the longstanding assumptions regarding the specificities of Albania’s electoral geography. It also assesses the pan-Albanian rhetoric of the leading politicians in Tirana and Pristina which is actively exploited for political strengthening and used as a right means for blackmailing Brussels. Nonetheless, whoever resorts to it looks upon other as rivals and is not ready to give up leadership in the implementation of the national ideal. The author also speculates about the prospects for the future negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, believing that a serious result cannot be expected until the presidential elections 2022 in Serbia.

Ecology and power engineering of the future

Object and purpose of research. The object of the research is the influence of the world power industry on the ecology and safety of human and nature. The purpose is to identify ways of energy industry development based on the basic criterion of "harmony with nature". Materials and methods. Analysis of regulatory documents, literature, Internet sources, calculation systematization and classification of statistical data. Main results. A convincing evidence base has been provided for the vector of world power engineering development based on the active replacement of hydrocarbons by nuclear energy. Conclusion. Conclusion. Global warming and the energy crisis are just around the corner, and only nuclear power can solve these problems, providing humanity's increasing energy needs in harmony with nature. The main question today is not related to technology, but to psychology. The task is to systematically form public opinion about the safe operation of nuclear power.

As artes visuais na educação: das habilidades às estratégias de conhecimento

This text proposes a reflection on art education, more specifically on plastic and visual expression and some of its main problems at a theoretical and practical level. Starting by analyzing the path of teaching and learning throughout history, we question today, its practices, between traditional teaching and the need to find alternative paths, appropriate to a world in permanent change. We try to understand the conception of art from which we started and its importance in educational practices, as well as the influence of the philosophical conception of the human being by teachers and educators, regarding the way they approach the educational proposals they develop.

The Research of Heavy Metals Stabilization in the Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash Using Silica Nanocomposites

Municipal solid waste has become a serious problem because of rapid urbanization and great economic growth. As a result of these, huge impacts on the environment lead to a lot of problems not only air, soil or water pollution but human health too. One of the solutions to manage MSW problem is incineration with energy recovery that can reduce a large amount of waste in volume. But the activity of incineration plant is associated with the formation of a large amount of hazardous waste, a significant part is fly ash which is by-products of MSW contains a high number of heavy metals and salts which are very toxic. Fly ash is a really topical question today and it is important to find out how to dispose of it properly due to hazardous contents. In this study was performed the municipal solid incineration fly ash evaluation, experimental research of heavy metal composition of seven types of a concrete mixture containing different amounts of MSWI fly ash, silica nanocomposites for the determination of the best alternative and employing a SWOT analysis.

Living data

We see new technologies changing how we live, and seemingly set to do so at a rising pace. How should we describe these changes, and what exactly is changing? I discuss the theory of technical change in Simondon, On the Modes of Existence of the Technical Object. Once we understand precisely what sort of change qualifies as “technical,” we see that the changes in question today have little to do with technology as such, more with a new infrastructure for its deployment.

Roadmap for the adoption of the euro in Hungary: dangers and opportunities

In April 2003, the EU Accession Agreement was officially signed for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. These countries are destined to become EU members in May 2004. As part of the “acquis communautaire”, participation in the new version of the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II), and subsequently in the European Monetary Union (EMU) is obligatory for all new EU members (no opt-out clause is available). Therefore, the question today for the accession countries is no longer whether or not to enter the eurozone but rather the time horizon when the entry should happen. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: E42, E58, F33.

A New Quarrel

This chapter assesses the new “quarrel of universals” that now occupies philosophy and other overlapping disciplines. In this new quarrel, the question today is not only whether one is for or against the universal; the question is also how one defines the universal—a term whose surprising equivocity has become increasingly clear. Still more fundamentally, the question is how one should articulate the relationship between three related but heterogeneous terms whose widespread use has prompted conflicting claims: the universal, universality, and universalisms. The chapter begins by situating the question of the universal and its variations within the field that seems to constitute the strategic site of intersecting domains: philosophical anthropology, understood as the analysis of the historical differences of the human and of the problem that those differences pose to their bearers. It then outlines the difficulties which can be identified in every philosophical and political usage of the universal and its “doubles” according to three aporias. The first is the aporia of the multiplicity of the “world,” or of the universe as multiversum; the second is that of Allgemeinheit or All(en)gemeinheit, in other words, the irreducible gap between the universal and the common (or community); and, finally, that of co-citizenship, the form of belonging to a political unity to come, a unity whose law of belonging (membership) would be the heterogeneity within equality or the political participation of those foreign to the community.

Asset Manager Capitalism as a Corporate Governance Regime

Who holds power in corporate America? Scholars have invariably answered this question in the language of ownership and control. This paper argues that tackling this question today requires a new language. Whereas the comparative political economy literature has long treated dispersed ownership and weak shareholders as core features of the U.S. political economy, a century-long process of re-concentration has consolidated shareholdings in the hands of a few very large asset management companies. In an historically unprecedented configuration, this emerging asset manager capitalism is dominated by fully diversified shareholders that lack direct economic interest in the performance of individual portfolio companies. The paper compares this new corporate governance regime to its predecessors; reconstructs the history of the growth and consolidation of the asset management sector; and examines the political economy of asset manager capitalism, both at the firm level and at the macroeconomic level.

New Nationalisms and Identity Politics: Minorities, Majorities and Universal Emancipation

A defining feature of new nationalisms, with their right-wing populist rhetoric, is the way they exploit the regime of truth prevalent in liberal democratic societies. Their use of the language of democracy, human rights and identity is sometimes hard to differentiate from the mainstream convention. Despite being majoritarian in the way it seeks democratic legitimacy, new nationalist discourse consistently advances demands framed in terms of minority protection. This is done by presenting the existence of ‘our’ nation as threatened by overwhelming forces of neo-liberal globalisation (embodied in the EU, the West or even in ‘the Washington establishment’). By using the Pussy Riot case as an empirical example, this article argues that there is no way of preventing the language of minority protection from being hijacked by ‘predatory identities’ unless one foregrounds the universal dimension of equality and emancipation, as opposed to rights and entitlements associated with particular identities. The key political question today, as always, is how to navigate between the totalitarian disregard of the local and the parochialist concentration on the particular.