Towards a New Politics: Citizenship and Rights in Contemporary Argentina

The emergence of a human rights movement represented a cultural turning point in many Latin American societies. The movement's struggle acted as a catalyst for political learning, triggering a profound renovation of the region's democratic traditions. The most impressive development has been the emergence of a rights-oriented discourse that reunites two elements that populist forms of self-understanding had kept separate: democracy and the rule of law. Cultural innovation gave birth to a new form of politicization that greatly differs from the movementist and corporatist practices of past populist movements, for the former is guided by a liberal concern: establishing clear institutional boundaries between state and civil society. Through the analysis of a series of citizens' initiatives and movements, the paper analyzes this new form of politicization and its contribution to the authorization and effectivization of rights as institutions.     

Marriage and household in the Belgrade elite at the beginning of the 20th century: The Novaković family

After centuries of Ottoman dominance, the emergence of a Christian elite in 19th century Serbia was a new phenomenon. The princedom's administrative, court and military staff mostly assembled Serbians from both Ottoman and Habsburg territories, joined by Tsintsar (Aromunian), German, and other minorities. This staff grew into a small urban upper class until 1900, presenting itself in a gentrified, Western-oriented, but nationally conscious manner. This article explores its marriage and household patterns in a case study. It is based on the rich collection of family letters preserved in the estate of former prime minister Stojan Novaković.     

Safe Seas

As China relies more on the ocean,maritime security becomes a greater concern when Chinese navigator Zheng He explored the deep blue ocean on a royal mission for the Ming Dynasty in the early     

社区治理与可持续发展——由“美丽园事件”探讨自主治理的可持续之道

本文以"美丽园事件"为个案,着眼于冲突解决与可持续发展的制度基础,分析社区治理的管理组织和治理结构,以及各种基本的制度构建和社区治理之间的关系,探讨物业公司、业主和业主委员会、政府行政及司法力量在社区自主治理的信号捕捉、利益平衡、合约实施、集体选择等环节中的优势和劣势。针对美丽园案例反映出的社区治理实践中存在的问题,着重从信号捕捉、社区民主、纠纷解决和监督制裁等方面提出制度建设的努力方向。     

Genetic admixture and diversity estimations in the Mexican Mestizo population from Mexico City using 15 STR polymorphic markers

The 15 AmpFlSTR Identifiler loci D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818 and FGA were analyzed in a sample of 378 unrelated individuals from Mexico City, Mexico. Significant deviations from HW equilibrium in 14/15 STR loci alleles were not detected. The D18S51 locus had the highest power of discrimination (0.970). Genetic admixture estimations revealed a 69% of Amerindian, 26% of European and 5% of African contribution. Comparative analyses between Mexicans and other neighboring populations reveal significant differences in genetic diversity. Our results are important for future comparative genetic studies in different Latin American ethnic groups, particularly Mexican Mestizos and Amerindians. They should also be helpful in genetics, population evolution, forensic and paternity testing.     

The puzzle of success: Hungarian entrepreneurs at the turn of the millennium

Drawing on in-depth interview-based research carried out around ‘the turn of the millennium’, this article examines the emergence of medium and large entrepreneurs in post-socialist Hungary. It seeks to identify the skills necessary to successfully manage property amid the harsh circumstances of the post-socialist socio-economic crisis, and points to the importance of the pre-transition life histories and occupational experiences of the new entrepreneurs. By analysing their family histories and traditional routes of schooling, it shows how the emerging bourgeoisie accumulated knowledge, skills, and the necessary forms of habitual behaviour to construct, within a surprisingly short time, a firm social standing and widespread influence. In the concluding part of this article, an attempt is made to combine the economic and sociological findings discussed here, and also to propose some theoretical conclusions.     

Measuring the efficiency of local police force

This study proposed a methodology of analysis for estimating the efficiency with which the competences in matters of public and road safety are carried out. This proposal seeks to mitigate (i) the subjectivity in the selection of variables; (ii) the partiality inherent to the productivity indicators; and (iii) the generality of the analysis in previous studies. Applying the methodology proposed to the areas of public and road safety, individually and jointly, obtaining the main conclusions: the mean pure technical efficiency of the police force as a whole is 69.42, with eight towns (27.59%) showing efficient behaviour and, in the evaluation of the disparity between behaviour by activity and the overall result, the comparative shows a high degree of similarity between the ordering of the towns in the overall analysis and in public safety. This is not extendable to the road safety service, since they differ notably in the results obtained both with the area of public safety and with the overall action of the force.      

Influence of environmental variables on fear of crime: Comparing self-report data with physiological measures in an experimental design

Objectives

Self-reports and questionnaires have been the preferred research methods in the criminological field of “fear of crime” (FOC) since its rise in the 1960s. Our study had two main goals: (1) to measure the physiological indicators of fear in real time and (2) to compare these data with those obtained through self-reports, designed also to measure the emotion of fear.

Methods

An experimental study was conducted over the course of a week during late February 2016 in Aarhus (Denmark), in which the focus was on traditional environmental variables in the field of FOC (i.e., poor lighting conditions).

Results

Our results support the ideas that: (1) the absence of good luminosity in an open public space in an urban setting elicits physiological reactions of arousal that can be taken as indicators of experiences of fear and (2) heart rate appears to capture aspects of the emotion of fear that are not reflected in data obtained through self-report questionnaires.

Conclusions

This study, introducing a pioneering approach to the study of FOC, presents great potentials in complementing traditional methods in the crime sciences. The many challenges we faced are significant and reported with the hope that subsequent literature will build upon. We propose that traditional methods and new measurements could be combined to advance research in the field by allowing researchers to more unambiguously constrain the interpretation of their data. This becomes particularly relevant in a field like FOC, which has long suffered from irreconcilable results stemming from different investigations.

     

Case of Fatal Starvation: Can Stable Isotope Analysis Serve to Support Morphological Diagnosis and Approximate the Length of Starvation?

The diagnosis of death as a result of starvation is established on anthropological measurements, visual appearance of the deceased on external and internal examination, microscopic analysis, laboratory testing, and exclusion of other causes of death. Herein, we present our findings on a case of 95‐year‐old man who died of starvation. After the diagnosis of starvation was established by traditional forensic medicine methods, we have conducted retrospective segmental analysis of stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios in hair sample. This method reveals periods of starvation through decrease in δ¹³C and increase in δ¹⁵N along the strand of hair. Our analysis revealed the decrease of 0.6 ‰ in δ¹³C during the last 10–12 weeks prior to death, similar as reported in other investigations. Also, a decrease of 0.7 ‰ in δ¹⁵N during the last 8–10 weeks prior to death was determined that was different than observed in previous studies.