The study of the post-Communist towns of East Europe and Russia does not only present the social sciences with the opening of a new field and the attraction of exoticism close at hand. They are a remarkable observatory of the complex relations which unite the material facets of urban life (extension of the built-up area, architectural forms, types of distribution of infrastructures and services) and the social structures (mode of government, nature of the economic initiative, expressions of sociability). In three-quarters (...) of a century for Russia, in fifty years for the countries of East Europe, cities many ages old were to have two changes of system: from liberal industrial capitalism to the controlled Communist economy, from interventionist autarchy to the globalized market. To give the lie to the poet (Baudelaire), towns change no faster than the hearts of mortals but beat to the rhythm of their continuities, their aspirations and their dreams. (shrink)

This chapter aims to illuminate ways in which hope was significant in the philosophy of classical Greece. Although ancient Greek philosophies contain few dedicated and systematic expositions on the nature of hope, they nevertheless include important remarks relating hope to the good life, to reason and deliberation, and to psychological phenomena such as memory, imagination, fear, motivation, and pleasure. After an introductory discussion of Hesiod and Heraclitus, the chapter focuses on Plato and Aristotle. Consideration is given both to Plato’s direct (...) comments on hope and to the narrative contexts of his dialogues, with analysis of Plato’s positive and negative representations of hope, hope’s relationship to reason, and Plato’s more psychological approach in the Philebus, where hope finds a place among memory, recollection, pleasure, and pain. The chapter then reviews Aristotle’s discussions of confidence, hope, and courage, observing that although Aristotle does not mention hope as a virtue, he does note its importance to human agency and deliberation and as a foundation for the further development of virtue. The chapter concludes that discussions surrounding hope in ancient Greek philosophy are rich and challenging and can serve as a lively stimulus to further exploration of the concept of hope. (shrink)

Anastasia G. Yangaki Amphores crétoises : le cas d'Éleutherna p. 503-523 L'étude des amphores crétoises de la période paléochrétienne mises au jour sur le site d'Éleutherna, dans la région de Mylopotamos, enrichit considérablement notre connaissance des amphores de production crétoise identifiées à la suite des recherches récentes sur plusieurs sites de la Méditerranée. Cet article tend à préciser la datation précédemment proposée pour certains types déjà connus. Il présente un groupe uniforme d'amphores à l'intérieur du type initial, produit par un (...) nouvel atelier, et révèle plusieurs types nouveaux à Éleutherna, utilisés surtout à la fin de la période protobyzantine et même au cours du VIIIe siècle ; parmi ces derniers, on signale les types qui imitent des formes d'amphores importées sur l'île. Des analyses chimiques ont permis d'ajouter le site d'Éleutherna ou la région de Mylopotamos au nombre des centres de fabrication d'amphores crétoises. (shrink)

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In this article, the authors study the problem of balance of trust and mistrust associated with the turbulence of modern society, redundancy, and heterogeneity of information and communication flows creating a contradictory picture of the world. Social networks are considered as one of the basic modern information resources creating previously unavailable opportunities for communication, interaction, information sharing, and commonality construction. Social networks users broadcast the experience of constructing communications in real daily life in the Internet community forming circles of ‘friends‘, (...) building a chain of weak social ties; but the problem of trusting ‘friends‘ remains not solved in global space. A survey of users of social networks, conducted as part of this study, demonstrates conflicting findings. The opinions of ‘friends‘ does not always have an impact on the degree of trusting events, information, groups, likes, and dislikes to other users. Users often trust strangers and less familiar people. The social networks demonstrates the demand for uniting ‘brige-building‘ trust. However, the trust remains extremely narrow throughout, leading to fragmentation and alienation of individuals from each other in an attempt to find their safe niche. Distrust of narrow and wide radius leads to far-reaching consequences and greater uncertainty in society, not creating the preconditions for openness and the vision of the future. (shrink)

This dissertation is an effort to describe the effects of Postmodern thought in a variety of narrative forms, including novels, film, and computer games. Using Brian McHale's description of the focal point of Modernist narratives as being epistemological and Postmodernist narratives as being concerned primarily with ontological issues, I trace the possible meaning of the changing understanding of these concepts in the twentieth century. In addition, I interrogate the ramifications of the Postmodern resolution to the crisis of epistemology presented through (...) the work of Modernist writers to test whether or not the Postmodern idea of "claiming worlds" is, indeed, a reasonable or viable resolution to this crisis. ;It is my contention that a changing sense of the relationship between the definitions of epistemology and ontology in traditional literary narrative has been affected by and has affected the narratives of less traditionally "literary" media. In order to show that this change has occurred, I use a number of texts to serve as examples, first, of the conception of epistemology as presented in Modernist works like James Joyce's "The Dead" and Edith Wharton's A Son At the Front and then of the conception of ontology as presented in Postmodernist work like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. I then examine more popular narrative forms to examine how Postmodernism's focus on what I term an "epistemologically derived ontology" has crept into the general culture. My specific examples in these cases are Norman Spinrad's cyberpunk novel Little Heroes , the film The Matrix, and a number of video games, particularly online games. ;My final conclusions are exemplified by the film Memento, which contains many of the Postmodern tenets I propose are typical of mainstream Postmodern works and which also serves as a basis for revealing some of my ethical concerns about the ramifications of this shift in understanding of the aforementioned philosophical categories. (shrink)

. All personal that belong to a company, has to be consider into their daily agenda theoptimization of the inventory, in matter of create a cost reduction into the organization, an finallyincrement the productivity.The inventory is the element that gives “live” to the companies, in the moment to be manufacturedinto a product, through the works stations, is the case, that the excess of inventory will force thecompany not invert into development, research, training, technology, etc., and this situation willaffect competiveness, and (...) take the risk of be out of the market.The clients pay for a good, with a competitiveness price, excellent quality, and complete all thespecification that they request, plus has to be deliver on time; our responsibility is do wherever ittakes to guaranty the mayor percentage of efficiency in all our process and complete the goal ofsatisfy our clients.Keywords. Competitiveness, cost, inventory management, productivity.Resumen. Todo el personal estratégico, administrativo y operativo perteneciente a una empresa,debe considerar dentro de su agenda diaria la optimización de la gestión de los inventarios,permitiendo con ello un impacto en la reducción los costos de la organización, que se traducirá en unincremento de la productividad.El inventario es el elemento que permite dar vida a las empresas, al momento de ser transformada enun producto, a través de todas las estaciones de trabajo dando paso a paso un valor agregado, sinembargo el exceso de los inventarios ocasiona que la organización no pueda en incurrir en gastos quepermitan el desarrollo y crecimiento, como son las áreas de investigación y desarrollo, capacitación yadiestramiento, tecnología, mercadotecnia, etc., trayendo en consecuencia perder el nivel decompetitividad, y con ello correr el riesgo de quedar desplazado por la competencia.Los clientes pagan por producto que presente un precio competitivo; de la más alta calidad; quecumpla con todas y cada una de sus especificaciones; que sea entregado en tiempo y forma; esnuestra responsabilidad como estrategas, administradores y operadores de los inventarios, elgarantizar el mayor porcentaje de eficiencia en los procesos productivos y administrativos, demanera de lograr el fin último de toda empresa tiene, satisfacer a sus clientes.Palabras claves. Administración de inventarios, competitividad, costos, productividad. (shrink)