Flux Of People Research Articles

Caretakers as mediators in household waste separation

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of building caretakers in waste handling and in the application of source separation schemes. The topic is approached through the concept of mediators (or intermediaries). It is discussed with reference to both transition theory and ANT how mediators must be perceived in terms of not only transition agents, instigating change, but also in terms of stabilization, local embedding and maintenance of (relatively) stable socio-technical configurations. Based on mainly qualitative studies, the waste mediating role of caretakers’ work is explored and it is demonstrated how caretakers through a constant flow of interventions seek to maintain the stability of their buildings, i.e. the stability of the buildings’ flux of people and materials. As part of their continuous effort to keep their buildings’ infrastructures functional and keep their communal and recreational spaces as pleasant as possible, they take steps to integrate source separation into the flow of the building’s daily operations, making sure that it runs smoothly, yet also seeking to optimize the quality of source separation.

A Subjectivist Model of School Leadership for International Schools: Greenfield Revisited

Greenfield’s subjectivist approach to the construction and interpretation of social reality is examined and applied to school organizations in an attempt to demonstrate that such organizations may be advantageously viewed as entities constructed and sustained by ideas in people’s minds. The path to understanding schools and their administration lies with the interpretation and analysis of the experience of people in these institutions rather than in the use of overarching theories of educational management. International schools have always provided education for the ever-increasing flux of people across frontiers, either temporarily because of job postings (globally mobile families) or more permanently because of migration. The high degree of cultural diversity in these schools augments the complexity of leadership because staff, students, and parents bring their own cultural heritage, experience, and expectations to bear, together, in a single school setting. This also increasingly applies in government schools in many countries because of migration. Ethnic cultural repertoires play a major role in the creation, deciphering, and juxtaposition of individual social realities and have an important bearing on organization culture. The article concludes with the importance of communicative and cultural competencies as the main tools for effective school leadership in international schools.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding the leishmaniases among inhabitants from a Paraguayan district in the border area between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay

Leishmaniasis is caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania sp. that differ in their geographical distribution, hosts, and vectors. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of the population are important to understand their relation to the disease. The aim of this study was to characterize KAP with regard to the leishmaniases in inhabitants of the triple border area Argentina–Brazil–Paraguay in specific neighborhoods where infected dogs were found and phlebotomine were captured, identifying a transmission focus. This is an observational, descriptive design based on a quantitative transversal survey. Sixty-two surveys were applied in homes located in areas at risk. Surveys were carried out in households in the San Francisco and Santa Rosa neighborhoods where the presence of infected reservoirs (dogs) was confirmed and Lu. longipalpis had been previously identified and captured. Seventy-one percent of respondents stated that they had heard about the disease. Knowledge about types, mode of transmission, and symptoms of the disease was rare. Attitudes and practices were closely related to pet dogs, and confusion between human and canine cases was noticed. There was a major flaw in the public services responsible for the transfer of knowledge to the population. These results suggest the necessity of conducting an educational intervention in these vulnerable populations, to improve conditions for prevention and control of leishmaniasis in the triple border where the flux of people is very intense and the chances of outbreaks are currently very high.

Densidade e distribuição espacial do caranguejo Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius, 1787) (Crustacea, Ocypodidae) em três praias arenosas do Espírito Santo, Brasil

Density and spatial distribution of the crab Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius, 1787) (Crustacea, Ocypodidae) on three sandy beaches of Espirito Santo, Brazil. The relative density (number of burrows/m2) and spatial distribution of the crab Ocypode quadrata were evaluated on three sandy beaches of Vila Velha-ES: Itaparica, Itapoa and Praia da Costa. These beaches were sampled on 05/25, 06/13, 06/26 and 07/11/2006. On each day, two 5m width transects were randomly distributed on each beach, perpendicular to the waterline anddivided into 2 x 5m rectangles. Within each transect, all burrows were counted, the diameters were measured (mm), and their locations in relation to the waterline were recorded. Itaparica beach presented a greater mean density of burrows (mean = 0.33, SD = ± 0.26), followed by Praia da Costa (0.16 ± 0.14) and Itapoa (0.08 ± 0.02). Regarding the burrow diameters, Itaparica and Itapoa showed greater values (16.2 ± 8.88 and 16.2 ± 8.91, respectively) than Praia da Costa (12.6 ± 6.40). The density of burrows and the burrow diameters differedsignifi cantly among the beaches. A greater abundance of small burrows occurred near the waterline and a greater abundance of large burrows were situated on the upper beach. The fl ux of people and the passage of the urban cleansing vehicles apparently had an infl uence on the density and spatial distribution standards found for the O. quadrata crabs.

Spirits as ‘ready to hand’

The Upper Kolyma Yukaghirs, a small group of indigenous hunters in north-eastern Siberia, rarely give names to spirits and have no neatly ordered system of classification. I develop an argument that relates this to the nature of Yukaghir experience, going beyond the academically widespread view of knowledge as a matter of linguistic representations or cognition and focusing instead on the way things occur in the flux of people’s everyday activities. Moreover, drawing on recent findings within cognitive science, which show that concepts can and do exist independently of language, and that dreaming shares basic cognitive structures and processes with waking life, I suggest that it is possible that children, before they learn to talk, could develop prototypical concepts of spirits through dream experiences. In this case, language would not be essential for conceptual thought about spiritual beings.