Blog over Erasmus+ uitwisseling met Universidad Complutense de Madrid
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Veuger, J. (2021), Review on: A Local Spatial STIRPAT Model for Outdoor NOx Concentrations in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Mathematics 2021, 9(6), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/math9060677Mathematics | Free Full-Text | A Local Spatial STIRPAT Model for Outdoor NOx Concentrations in the Community of Madrid, Spain (mdpi.com)
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International Week workshop in Madrid over Sustainable Risk Leadership
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This article delves into the acceptance of autonomous driving within society and its implications for the automotive insurance sector. The research encompasses two different studies conducted with meticulous analysis. The first study involves over 600 participants involved with the automotive industry who have not yet had the opportunity to experience autonomous driving technology. It primarily centers on the adaptation of insurance products to align with the imminent implementation of this technology. The second study is directed at individuals who have had the opportunity to test an autonomous driving platform first-hand. Specifically, it examines users’ experiences after conducting test drives on public roads using an autonomous research platform jointly developed by MAPFRE, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The study conducted demonstrates that the user acceptance of autonomous driving technology significantly increases after firsthand experience with a real autonomous car. This finding underscores the importance of bringing autonomous driving technology closer to end-users in order to improve societal perception. Furthermore, the results provide valuable insights for industry stakeholders seeking to navigate the market as autonomous driving technology slowly becomes an integral part of commercial vehicles. The findings reveal that a substantial majority (96% of the surveyed individuals) believe that autonomous vehicles will still require insurance. Additionally, 90% of respondents express the opinion that policies for autonomous vehicles should be as affordable or even cheaper than those for traditional vehicles. This suggests that people may not be fully aware of the significant costs associated with the systems enabling autonomous driving when considering their insurance needs, which puts the spotlight back on the importance of bringing this technology closer to the general public.
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Este artículo busca señales de discursos de odio aparecidos en comentarios sobre el procés y el independentismo catalán publicados en las noticias en prensa sobre Lionel Messi en Madrid y en Barcelona (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo y As) en el periodo 2019-2021. Partiendo de 2.639 noticias con Messi en el titular, se usaron métodos cuantitativos para identificar los hilos con comentarios políticos para estudiarlos después a través de análisis cualitativo del discurso. Los resultados reflejan que en Madrid se usan noticias y comentarios sobre Messi para hablar del procés y del independentismo, mientras que en Barcelona (tanto medios como comentaristas) no relacionan al jugador con la política. Dos periódicos de Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) y dos de Madrid (Marca y El mundo) reúnen los 12 hilos con más comentarios políticos en ambas ciudades: 487, en total. Su análisis revela que la prensa deportiva concita opiniones más diversas que la generalista y, por tanto, recoge más conflicto y más presencia de discursos de odio por ideología política. Los primeros mensajes (1-25) en los hilos de comentarios aparecen un 77% de las veces como los más seguidos y, por lo tanto, los usuarios que escriben primero influyen más. Esta investigación concluye que los discursos de odio se detectan más en estructuras y argumentaciones que en palabras concretas, pero su existencia no tiene por qué ser negativa y puede derivar en un efecto búmeran contra el propio mensaje de odio si aparece derrotado en la dinámica de intervenciones.This paper examines hate speech traces within comments about the Catalan independentist procés embedded in news published about Lionel Messi in Madrid’s and Barcelona’s online newspapers (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo, As) during the period 2019-2021. Starting from 2,639 news with Messi in the title, quantitative techniques were applied to identify those with the highest volume of political terms, and their comments’ threads were later studied in depth by means of qualitative discourse analysis. The results show that in Madrid news and comments about Messi are leveraged to discuss the procés, while in Barcelona both press and commenters refrain from tying politics to the footballer. Two newspapers from Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) and two from Madrid (Marca, El mundo) gather the 12 threads with the highest prevalence of political comments: 487 in total. Their analysis reveals that opinions in sports newspapers are more diverse than in the general press and, consequently, show more conflict and more hate messages linked to opposing political views. The few first (1-25) of the threads’ comments turn out to be the most followed 77% of the times, making the users who comment first become more influential than the latecomers. This research concludes that hate speech appears more in structures and argumentations than in specific words, but their presence isn’t necessarily negative and can create a boomerang effect against the hate message if this becomes defeated during the subsequent online dispute.
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This article considers how lecturers can use human rights education as a core element of preparing students for professional social work practice. This paper is based on a symposium held at the EASSW conference in Madrid 2019 which was hosted by members of an interest group of lecturers, from Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland. The symposium elaborated on the interest groups action plan: ‘Human Rights, turning words into action’. The group posit that the application of human rights in social work practice should follow the rights and interests of service-users. The challenge for educators is that that in the first instance, students must learn about human rights instruments and enforcement mechanisms and then they must be schooled about the discursive, dialogical and democratic particularity of rights. Ignoring this character of human rights risks reducing rights to a technical debate. This article reflects on some of the difficulties, pitfalls and drawbacks that we have encountered, and some of the critiques of current human rights structures. The aim is to try to develop a ‘practice of critique’ and propose a strategic human rights agenda for professional social work education and practice.
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Elke dag worden wij geconfronteerd met de internationalisering van ons bestaan en met het doorbreken van grenzen. Dramatische gebeurtenissen zoals terreuraanslagen in New York, Moskou, Istanbul of Madrid, maar ook zaken als de georganiseerde misdaad, de uitbraak van ziekten in de veestapel, de immigratie, het internet- en e-mailverkeer, het wegverkeer of vliegverkeer - het zijn allemaal verschijnselen, die zich weinig lijken aan te trekken van landsgrenzen. Toch verwachten wij, als zich problemen voordoen, dat onze overheid - of liever gezegd onze overheden - met een effectief antwoord komen. Om zo'n antwoord te kunnen waarmaken, moeten overheden hun plaats, en dus hun grenzen, kennen. Vandaar het onderwerp van deze intreerede.
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(English below)Esta investigación estudia las características de los comentarios que logran más impacto en un entorno digital. Se emplea una metodología cualitativa que analiza los 50 mensajes con más likes del foro de una noticia, publicada en Marca.com, en la que el jugador del Real Madrid Vinicius Junior denuncia los episodios racistas sufridos en los estadios de fútbol españoles. Se tienen en cuenta las emociones expresadas por los autores, así como las estrategias retóricas y argumentales utilizadas en los comentarios. Se concluye que los mensajes escritos con empatía, aunque estén en contra de la opinión mayoritaria, pueden tener cierto impacto si formulan un argumento dual que reconoce las opiniones contrarias como valiosas en algún punto, incluso sin validarlas. En el análisis de la eficacia de los mensajes se observa que lo distinto se premia, como aportar un dato inesperado de forma inteligente (ironía) o presentar una opinión contraria a lo que se espera por pertenecer a un determinado grupo (afiliación):en este último caso el comentario resulta más auténtico y, por lo tanto, es más impactante. Se demuestra también que la percepción de los mensajes es compleja y que algunos elementos o rasgos que habitualmente se consideran eficaces pueden no serlo. Así sucede con los comentarios breves, que no siempre tienen trascendencia y pueden aparecer como inconsistentes si no incluyen una argumentación. Tampoco la diversidad o la acumulación de argumentos es positiva en cualquier circunstancia: compensa más usar los argumentos por separado para no distraer del objetivo persuasivo. This research examines the characteristics of comments that achieve the greatest impact in a digital environment. A qualitative methodology is used to analyse the 50 most liked messages in the forum discussion prompted by a news article published on the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.com. The article focuses on Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior’s denunciation of racist incidents in Spanish football stadiums. This study considers the emotions expressed by the authors, as well as the rhetorical and argumentative strategies employed in the comments. The findings suggest that messages written with empathy, even when opposing the opinion of the majority, can have a significant impact if they present a dual argument that acknowledges opposing views as valuable in some respects, even without validating them. The analysis reveals that originality is rewarded, such as introducing an unexpected fact in an intelligent manner (e.g., irony) or expressing an opinion contrary to expectations based on group belonging (affiliation). In the latter case, the comment appears more authentic and, therefore, more impactful. The study also demonstrates that the perception of messages is complex, and some elements traditionally considered effective may not always be so. For example, brief comments do not always carry weight and can come across as inconsistent if they lack sufficient argumentation. Similarly, the diversity or accumulation of arguments is not universally positive; it is often more effective to present arguments separately to avoid distracting from the persuasive objective.
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This article provides a description of the emergence of the Spanish ‘Occupy’ movement, Democracia real ya. The aim is to analyse the innovative discursive features of this movement and to connect this analysis to what we consider the innovative potential of the critical sciences. The movement is the result of a spontaneous uprising that appeared on the main squares of Madrid and Barcelona on 15 May 2011 and then spread to other Spanish cities. This date gave it its name: 15M. While the struggle for democracy in Spain is certainly not new, the 15M group shows a series of innovative features. These include the emphasis on peaceful struggle and the imaginary of a new democracy or worldview, transmitted through innovative placards and slogans designed by Spanish citizens. We consider these innovative not only due to their creativity, but also because of their use as a form of civil action. Our argument is that these placards both functioned as a sign of protest and, in combination with the demonstrations and the general dynamics of 15M, helped to reframe the population’s understanding of the crisis and rearticulate the identity of the citizens from victims to agents. In order to analyse the multimodal character of this struggle, we developed an interdisciplinary methodology, which combines socio-cognitive approaches that consider ideological proposals as socio-cognitive constructs (i.e. the notion of narrative or cognitive frame), and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in the analysis of discourses related to processes of social imagination and transformation. The socio-constructivist perspective is used to consider these discourses in relation to their actors, particular contexts and actions. The use of CDA, which included a careful rhetoric analysis, helped to analyse the process of deconstruction, transformation and reconstruction that 15M uses to maintain its struggle. The narrative analysis and the discursive theoretical concept of articulation helped to methodologically show aspects of the process of change alluded to above. This change was both in terms of cognition and in the modification of identity that turned a large part of the Spanish population from victims to indignados and to the neologism indignadanos, which is a composition of indignado and ciudadano (citizen).
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