Geographical Indication Building Process for Sharr Cheese (Kosovo): “Inside Insights” on Sustainability

This article aims to contribute to the reflection on sustainability in the field of Geographical Indications (GI). GIs are instruments for organizing collective action that have great interpretative flexibility. They are mobilized by a set of qualifying actors of differing natures, with diverse and sometimes divergent interests. For this reason, we focus on how the dimension of sustainability emerges from a collective learning process. Based on the approaches developed by Organization Studies, this article describes and analyzes the process of creating a GI for Sharr Cheese, a Balkan seasonal sheep pastoral cheese highly typical of a mountain range in Kosovo ◆ (◆ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.). The authors occupied an embedded research position in this learning process, from 2015 to 2019. The article describes boundary work carried out by the facilitators of collective action (brokers) within experimental spaces during the GI-building process. It analyzes how environmental accountability within the Sharr Cheese GI emerges from a strategic knowledge-brokering process and intensive institutional work.

Conceptual Graphs and Terminological Idiosyncrasy in UNCLOS and CBD

Do two conventions of international environmental law necessarily endow the same word with the same meaning? A single counterexample is enough to answer in the negative: this is the case of the term “resource” in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Beyond this result, we tackle the questions, raised by the method of analysis implemented, about the semantics of legal texts, a source of interpretative flexibility but also of cognitive amalgamations and confusions of various types. A conceptual graph is associated with each proposition or sentence comprising the term “resource.” Some expressions, especially those of a deontic nature and noun phrases naming a group of interrelated entities or a fact, are encoded in nested graphs. The scope of a term is revealed by the neighbourhood of its uses. Neighbouring expressions, positioned along the paths of conceptual graphs, are ranked owing to their distance from the target expression. Then the neighbours the most contributing to the distributional meaning of the targets are classified in a coarse taxonomy, providing basic ontological traits to “resource” and related expressions in each convention. Although the two conventions rely on the same language, the weak overlap of their respective neighbourhoods of the term “resource” and associated expressions and their contrasted ontological anchorages highlight idiosyncratic meanings and, consequently, divergent orientations and understandings regarding the protection and conservation of resources, especially of living resources. Thus, the complexity of legal texts operates both in the gap between language semantics and cognitive understanding of the concepts used, and in the interpretative flexibility and opportunities for confusion that the texts offer but that the elementary operations of formalisation allow to deconstruct and clarify.

CORVI, tipologías de viviendas racionalizadas: un ejercicio de estandarización

The social housing designed by the teams of the Corporación de la Vivienda (CORVI) constitutes a material presence of enormous influence within Chilean society and within the community of architectural practices. This paper observes the work of these teams, by analyzing the information contained in the CORVI document called "Tipologías de viviendas racionalizadas 1966-1972 (Rationalized Housing Typologies 1966-1972)", which provides data on the shapes, dimensions, materials, and programs of eighteen housing typologies developed by the design teams between 1966 and 1971. Not all of these prototypes were built, but as a whole, it shows how the idea of social housing rationalization was conceived, and how it became an exercise in standardization, based on typologies, from which it is possible to learn both the forms of order and layout of everyday life that they propose, along with the interpretative flexibility used in their communication.

Revisiting donkey anaphora in Mandarin Chinese

In their article published in this journal, Pan and Jiang (2015) challenge the claims and proposals made in Cheng and Huang (1996) concerning both the distributional patterns and interpretive strategies for donkey anaphora in Mandarin conditional. They claim that all three types of conditionals (rúguǒ-, dōu- and bare conditionals) allow either a wh-phrase or a pronoun in the consequent clause, and that both the wh-phrase and the pronoun may be either unselectively bound or interpreted by the E-type strategy. We show that, except for an observation already mentioned and accommodated in Cheng and Huang’s (1996) analysis of rúguǒ-conditionals, their distributional claims are incorrect. It is also shown that the interpretative flexibility they propose is untenable, as it leaves a number of otherwise well-predicted properties unaccounted for.

Predefined criteria and interpretative flexibility in legal courts’ evaluation of expertise

This study examines two different approaches in empirical analysis of judges’ evaluation of expertise in court: first, an analyst-based approach that employs predefined normative criteria to measure judges’ performance, and second, an actor-based approach that emphasizes interpretative flexibility in judges’ evaluation practice. I demonstrate how these different approaches to investigating judges’ adjudication lead to differing understandings about judges’ abilities to evaluate scientific evidence and testimonial. Although the choice of analytical approach might depend on context and purpose in general, I contend that in assessing judges’ competence, an actor-based approach that adequately describes the way in which judges relate to and handle expertise is required to properly understand and explain how judges evaluate expertise. The choice of approach is especially important if the resulting understanding of judges’ competence is subsequently used as a basis for making normative and prescriptive claims with potential consequences for trial outcomes.

De-Konvergensi Ruang Media di Indonesia

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis bagaimana resistensi kultur, kualitas produk berita, serta beban kerja wartawan memengaruhi perubahan model bisnis media Tempo dari newsroom terkonvergensi menjadi de-convergence. Adapun metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah studi kasus dengan jenis dan sifat kualitatif deskriptif. Penelitian ini fokus pada paradigma konstruktivis di mana peneliti berusaha menilik konstruksi sosial yang diciptakan kelompok sosial atas teknologi. Untuk melengkapi bahan, peneliti menggunakan tiga teknik pengumpulan data, yakni wawancara, observasi, dan dokumen. Beberapa teori dan konsep penelitian, di antaranya Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), relevant social group (kelompok sosial yang relevan), interpretative flexibility (fleksibilitas interpretasi), closure and stabilization (penutupan dan stabilisasi), wider context (konteks yang lebih luas), de-convergence, resistensi kultur, serta kualitas produk dan beban kerja wartawan. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan bahwa Tempo tidak lagi menerapkan konvergensi integrated newsroom (newsroom 3.0). Penyebabnya lantaran adanya definisi ulang konsep konvergensi, resistensi kultur, dan bertambahnya beban kerja wartawan yang disertai dengan penurunan kualitas konten. Penurunan kualitas konten pun berdampak pada berkurangnya sirkulasi media cetak. Di sisi lain, pendapatan iklan Majalah Tempo dan Koran Tempo merosot. Hal ini mengindikasikan bahwa konsep konvergensi terintegrasi tidak efektif bagi Tempo untuk mempertahankan bisnis medianya, khususnya media cetak. Untuk mengantisipasi penurunan profit, Tempo memutuskan de-convergence dan mengimplementasikan strategi konvergensi baru. Strategi itu adalah mengembangkan platform digital Majalah Tempo dan Koran Tempo berupa aplikasi. Aplikasi tersebut tak sekadar menawarkan berita yang dikemas dalam format PDF, tetapi juga interaktivitas. Kata Kunci: de-convergence newsroom, konvergensi media, Tempo, social construction of technology.