Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:21:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Iracema Andrea Arantes da Cruz.pdf: 978519 bytes, checksum: 3c1635bc026bcfbd03092fa9af36950f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study analyses the Economy of Communion (EoC), a Project launched within the Focolare Movement - a Catholic, Ecumenical, Interreligious and Intercultural Movement present in 182 countries. The study is based on the hypotheses that the EoC represents a possible means of Catholicism to influence the economic system by acting simultaneously both at civil and religious level. The importance and relevancy of this study lies in the fact that it introduces the EoC in a wider context according to the theory of Social Systems by Niklas Luhmann, which understands modern societies as an entity composed of sub-systems, each of them representing diversified, specialized and relatively autonomous, but inter-related functions for the maintenance and evolution of the major society. Thus religion is recognized as a system co-existing side by side with others, finding ways to maintain itself in relation to them, once it lost its hegemony as a source for social order. Based on the analyses to the emergence, delimitation and the role of the EoC according to Luhmann s approach, the present study argues that EoC can be considered a means in which Catholicism influences non-religious fields by assuming an inter-systemic relation / A presente pesquisa analisa a Economia de Comunhão (EdC), um projeto que surgiu no interior do Movimento dos Focolares católico, ecumênico, inter-religioso e intercultural, presente em 182 países, a partir das hipóteses, segundo as quais, a EdC atua simultaneamente nas esferas civil e religiosa, além de ser um possível meio de a religião cristã católica atuar sua influência na esfera civil, neste caso, no sistema econômico. A importância e pertinência deste estudo podem ser justificadas pelo fato de introduzir a EdC em um contexto mais amplo, a questão da função da religião na contemporaneidade, segundo a abordagem da Teoria dos Sistemas Sociais de Niklas Luhmann, considerada adequada, exatamente, por entender a sociedade contemporânea funcionalmente diversificada e especializada, organizada em sistemas relativamente autônomos, que possuem uma lógica própria, mas que estão continuamente em relação com os demais sistemas da sociedade. Assim sendo, a religião é entendida como um sistema que co-existe ao lado dos outros, tendo de encontrar modos de manter-se em relação com eles, uma vez que, a partir da modernidade, perdera a hegemonia como fonte da ordenação social. Ao final da pesquisa, esta dissertação conclui que a EdC pode ser considerada um meio de a religião cristã católica influir em âmbitos não religiosos, a partir da relação inter-sistêmica, tendo analisado a surgimento, a delimitação e o desempenho do projeto, de acordo com a abordagem luhmanniana

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:20:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gizela Maria Bodi.pdf: 1032398 bytes, checksum: bd4ee49c317d436e6b6fac01c760a6b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-19 / This research has the scope of analyzing the informal work, very common in the current Brazilian scenario, into the current social insurance system, starting from the communicative conception of law. Indeed, the informality of employment relationship proves to be a major challenge for contemporary states, notably in the social insurance sphere, in which the exercise of paid work, by itself, is insufficient to the membership and to the consequent social protection of the members from this category. Considering that the informal work corresponds to the activity performed outside of the statutory rule, the chosen method of study was the logical and systematic examination, starting from the premise that the law is a system of communication, operationalized through verbal written language, as proposed by Paulo de Barros Carvalho. Thus, based on the idea of autopoiesis of law, in which law creates its own reality, separated and more restrictive than social reality, we seek to examine critically whether there is indeed dialogical interaction between the social insurance system and the social one, which echoes on the incidence of social insurance laws, especially the membership rule. Based on these premises, after examining the differential systems of low-income insured and the individual microentrepreneurs recent mechanisms of social insurance inclusion we will set out proposals to overcoming informality in the legal framework, considering not only a change on the evidence paradigm of gainful activity, but also an structural reformulation of the social insurance system, which is caused today on formal worker protection, based on the contingency risk of the activity. This circumstance leads also to reflection on the need of a new social pact in the country / A presente pesquisa tem por escopo a análise do trabalho informal, tão presente no cenário brasileiro atual, frente o sistema de previdência social em vigor, partindo-se da concepção comunicacional do Direito. Com efeito, a informalidade das relações de trabalho revela-se um dos principais desafios para os Estados Contemporâneos, notadamente na esfera previdenciária, em que o desempenho de atividade remunerada, por si só, é insuficiente à filiação e consequente proteção social dos integrantes dessa categoria. Considerando-se que o trabalho informal, em linhas gerais, corresponde à atividade desenvolvida à margem da regulamentação legal, foi eleito como método de estudo o exame lógico-sistemático do tema, partindo-se da premissa de que o Direito é um sistema comunicacional, somente se operacionalizando através da linguagem verbal escrita, tal como proposto por Paulo de Barros Carvalho. Assim, pautando-se na ideia de autopoiese do Direito, segundo a qual este cria a sua própria realidade, distinta e mais restrita que a social, busca-se analisar de forma crítica se há, efetivamente, interação dialógica entre os sistemas previdenciário e o social, o que repercute, em última análise, na incidência das normas jurídicas previdenciárias, especialmente a de filiação. Com base em tais premissas, após examinado o regime diferenciado dos segurados baixa renda e o especial dos microempreendedores individuais (MEI) - mecanismos recentes de inclusão previdenciária -, serão formuladas propostas de superação da informalidade, no âmbito jurídico, o que leva em conta não apenas a alteração dos meios de prova da atividade remunerada, mas também eventual reformulação estrutural do sistema de previdência social que, hoje, é voltado à proteção do trabalhador, com base no risco de contingência social da atividade desenvolvida. Tal circunstância leva, ainda, à reflexão sobre a necessidade de um novo pacto social no país

A questão da justiça é tema sempre presente nas perquirições da filosofia do direito. Como tema recorrente deve ser submetido a novas investigações à luz de paradigmas teóricos alternativos e inovadores. A teoria dos sistemas de Niklas Luhmann representa um marco teórico capaz de inaugurar novos percursos investigativos no estudo da função do direito e de sua relação com a justiça, ora como função, ora como capacidade de adaptação. A ideia da autopoiese e sua elaboração na teoria dos sistemas de Luhmann torna possível observar essa relação entre direito e justiça dentro do contexto do aumento da complexidade e da contingência na sociedade moderna. A presente tese busca produzir uma investigação jusfilosófica, com inspiração interdisciplinar ao combinar-se com especulações teoréticas da sociologia jurídica de inspiração luhmanniana. Ao utilizar uma metodologia fundada na pesquisa bibliográfica primacialmente nos idiomas originais, a tese persegue a reconstrução da teoria da justiça na perspectiva do funcional-estruturalismo de Niklas Luhmann. Na consecução deste projeto, a tese utiliza a metáfora do horizonte, de matriz fenomenológica, para propor a dualidade entre justiça operativo-funcional e justiça adaptativo-mutante. Dualidade que servirá de baliza para conclusões desta tese que poderá trazer uma contribuição original à cultura jurídica nacional. / The problem of justice is an ever-present issue in the investigations of philosophy of law. As a recurring theme, it should be subjected to further investigation in the light of alternative and innovative theoretical paradigms. The systems theory of Niklas Luhmann is a theoretical framework capable of opening new routes for studies and researches on the role of law and its relation to justice, either as function either as adaptability. The idea of autopoiesis and its elaboration in Luhmann´s systems theory makes it possible to observe the relationship between law and justice within the context of the increased complexity and contingency in modern society. This thesis aims to produce an investigation in the philosophy of law with interdisciplinary inspiration when combined with theoretical speculations of legal sociology of luhmannian inspiration. Using a methodology based on a primary bibliographic research in works in their original language, the thesis pursues the reconstruction of the theory of justice from the perspective of functional-structuralism as thought by Niklas Luhmann. In pursuing this project, the thesis uses the metaphor of the horizon, in its phenomenological matrix, to propose the duality between justice as operation and adaptation (mutant). This duality will serve as a beacon for the conclusions produced in this thesis that can bring an original contribution to legal culture.

By 2020, cancer mortality rates are estimated to increase by 180% in Arab countries, where breast cancer is the most common type of cancer. This thesis explores and evaluates the ‘asabiyya-driven structuration (the cohesive force of the group that gives it strength in facing its struggles for progressive reproduction) of cancer agents, government agents, and the World Health Organization agents for breast cancer prevention and early detection in the Arab region. The layers of the philosophical standing from Ibn Khaldûn’s concept of ‘asabiyya and the theoretical foundation of social systems theory, structuration theory, social network analysis, and social capital theory are peeled in order to explore and evaluate the context, constraints, social networks, autopoiesis, and social capital. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this thesis employs content analysis and in-depth interviews, as well as NVivo as a tool for analysis. Data is collected from 122 publications and knowledgeable informants employed by cancer agencies, ministries of health, and World Health Organization offices in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. The findings are divided into the contextual scope of responsibility and resources, the progressive and hierarchal constraining structure, the optimal and weak social networks, the strong and vulnerable shields of autopoiesis, and the presence and absence of social capital momentum, followed by a discussion on the the struggle for structuration against breast cancer. The findings demonstrate that countries with a national cancer control program witness local strengthening ‘asabiyya and ‘asabiyya-driven structuration, while those without a national cancer control program witness weakening local ‘asabiyya. Ultimately, this thesis proposes strategic recommendations to accelerate the regional ‘asabiyya-driven structuration of breast cancer.

By 2020, cancer mortality rates are estimated to increase by 180% in Arab countries, where breast cancer is the most common type of cancer. This thesis explores and evaluates the ‘asabiyya-driven structuration (the cohesive force of the group that gives it strength in facing its struggles for progressive reproduction) of cancer agents, government agents, and the World Health Organization agents for breast cancer prevention and early detection in the Arab region. The layers of the philosophical standing from Ibn Khaldûn’s concept of ‘asabiyya and the theoretical foundation of social systems theory, structuration theory, social network analysis, and social capital theory are peeled in order to explore and evaluate the context, constraints, social networks, autopoiesis, and social capital. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this thesis employs content analysis and in-depth interviews, as well as NVivo as a tool for analysis. Data is collected from 122 publications and knowledgeable informants employed by cancer agencies, ministries of health, and World Health Organization offices in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. The findings are divided into the contextual scope of responsibility and resources, the progressive and hierarchal constraining structure, the optimal and weak social networks, the strong and vulnerable shields of autopoiesis, and the presence and absence of social capital momentum, followed by a discussion on the the struggle for structuration against breast cancer. The findings demonstrate that countries with a national cancer control program witness local strengthening ‘asabiyya and ‘asabiyya-driven structuration, while those without a national cancer control program witness weakening local ‘asabiyya. Ultimately, this thesis proposes strategic recommendations to accelerate the regional ‘asabiyya-driven structuration of breast cancer.

This thesis proposes a multifaceted production test and post-manufacture yield enhancement framework for RF systems. This framework uses low-cost test and post-manufacture calibration/tuning techniques. Since the test cost and the yield of the RF circuits/sub-system directly contribute to the manufacturing cost of RF systems, the proposed framework minimizes overall RF systems' manufacturing cost by taking two approaches. In the first approach, low-cost testing methodologies are proposed for RF amplifiers and integrated RF substrates with an embedded RF passive filter and interconnect. Techniques are developed to test RF circuits by the analysis of low-frequency signal of the order of few MHz and without using any external RF test-stimulus. Oscillation principles are used to enable testing of RF circuits without any external test-stimulus. In the second approach, to increase the yield of the RF circuits for parametric defects, RF circuits are tuned to compensate for a performance loss during production test using on-board or on-chip resources. This approach includes a diagnosis algorithm to identify faulty circuits within the system, and performs a compensation process that adjusts tunable components to enhance the performance of the RF circuits. In the proposed yield improvement methodologies, the external test stimulus is not required because the stimulus is generated by the RF circuit itself with the help of additional circuitry and faulty circuits are detected using low-cost test methods developed in this research. As a result, the proposed research enables low-cost testing and self-healing of RF systems.

By 2020, cancer mortality rates are estimated to increase by 180% in Arab countries, where breast cancer is the most common type of cancer. This thesis explores and evaluates the ‘asabiyya-driven structuration (the cohesive force of the group that gives it strength in facing its struggles for progressive reproduction) of cancer agents, government agents, and the World Health Organization agents for breast cancer prevention and early detection in the Arab region. The layers of the philosophical standing from Ibn Khaldûn’s concept of ‘asabiyya and the theoretical foundation of social systems theory, structuration theory, social network analysis, and social capital theory are peeled in order to explore and evaluate the context, constraints, social networks, autopoiesis, and social capital. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this thesis employs content analysis and in-depth interviews, as well as NVivo as a tool for analysis. Data is collected from 122 publications and knowledgeable informants employed by cancer agencies, ministries of health, and World Health Organization offices in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. The findings are divided into the contextual scope of responsibility and resources, the progressive and hierarchal constraining structure, the optimal and weak social networks, the strong and vulnerable shields of autopoiesis, and the presence and absence of social capital momentum, followed by a discussion on the the struggle for structuration against breast cancer. The findings demonstrate that countries with a national cancer control program witness local strengthening ‘asabiyya and ‘asabiyya-driven structuration, while those without a national cancer control program witness weakening local ‘asabiyya. Ultimately, this thesis proposes strategic recommendations to accelerate the regional ‘asabiyya-driven structuration of breast cancer.

The discourse that surrounds and constitutes the post-human emerged as a response to earlier claims of an essential or universal human or human nature. These discussions claim that the human is a discursive construct that emerges from various configurations of nature, embodiment, technology, and culture, configurations that have also been variously shaped by the forces of social history. And in the absence of an essential human figure, post-human discourses suggest that there are no restrictions or limitations on how the human can be reconfigured. This axiom has been extended in light of a plethora of technological reconfigurations and augmentations now potentially available to the human, and claims emerge from within this literature that these new technologies constitute a range of possibilities for future human biological evolution. This thesis questions the assumption contained within these discourses that technological incursions or reconfigurations of the biological human necessarily constitute human biological or human social evolution by discussing the role the evolution theories plays in our understanding of the human, the social, and technology. In this thesis I show that, in a reciprocal process, evolution theory draws metaphors from social institutions and ideologies, while social institutions and ideologies simultaneously draw on metaphors from evolution theory. Through this discussion, I propose a form of evolution literacy; a tool, I argue, is warranted in developing a sophisticated response to changes in both human shape and form. I argue that, as a whole, our understanding of evolution constitutes a metanarrative, a metaphor through which we understand the place of the human within the world; it follows that historical shifts in social paradigms will result in new definitions of evolution. I show that contemporary evolution theory reflects parts of the world as codified informatic systems of associated computational network logic through which the behaviour of participants is predefined according to an evolved or programmed structure. Working from within the discourse of contemporary evolution theory I develop a space through which a version of the post-human figure emerges. I promote this version of the post-human as an Artificial Intelligence computational programme or autonomous agent that, rather than seeking to replace, reduce or deny the human subject, is configured as an exosomatic supplement to and an extension of the biological human.

Network Direct Selling Organisations (NDSOs) exist in more than 50 countries and have more than 74 million members. The most recent statistical information reveals that the vast majority of members do not earn significant income. Criticism of these organisations revolves around the ethicality of consumption, the commercialisation of personal relationships, and the exploitation of unrealistic expectations. This study aims to explore how communication creates networks that sustain an industry of this kind despite the improbability of its existence. The study commences with a description of NDSOs from historical, operational, tactical, and strategic perspectives. Given the broader context created by the global presence of this industry, cybernetics has been selected as a meta-theoretical perspective for the study of communication. The more recent development of second-order cybernetics and social autopoiesis are introduced to communication theory as a field. Niklas Luhmann‟s new social theory of communication is assessed and applied in relation to existing communication theory. New conceptual models are developed to explore communication as the unity of the synthesis of information, utterance, understanding, and expectations as selections that occur both consciously and unconsciously, intentionally and unintentionally. These models indicate the multiplexity of individual and social operationally closed, yet informationally open systems, and they are used here to provide a systemic and coherent alternative to orthodox communication approaches to the study of organisations. The study adopts a constructivist epistemological stance and propounds throughout the necessity of further interdisciplinary collaboration. The study concludes that individuals are composite unities of self-creating systems, and they co-create social systems by self-creating and co-creating meaning. Meaning is described as the continuous virtualisation and actualisation of potentialities that in turn coordinate individual and social systems‟ actions. A communication process flow model is created to provide a theoretical explanation for the existence of NDSOs as self-creating systems. The study aims to show that communication has arguably become the most pervasive discipline as a result of the globally interactive era. It is shown that second-order cybernetics and social autopoiesis raise several further questions to be explored within communication theory as a field. / Communication, first-order cybernetics, second-order cybernetics, Complexity and complex systems, autopoiesis, self-reference, recursivity, operational closure, system boundaries, Network Direct Selling Organisations / Communication / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

A digitalização do território e a sua transformação em fluxos informativos (DI FELICE et al, 2012) resultaram em um outro modo de ser sobre a Terra, de ser-no-mundo contemporâneo, mais particularmente no que o sociólogo Massimo Di Felice (2009) define com o conceito de \"habitar atópico\", desenvolvido a partir da pensamento de Heidegger. Para ele, mais do que residir, o habitar refere-se a um relacionar-se, a um comunicar, caracterizado pelas interações em rede dos diversos coletivos humanos e não-humanos, tecnológicos, territoriais. Assim, mais do que a reprodução digital do território, trata-se de um novo ambiente, um \"metaterritório\", metageográfico e informativo, portanto, dinâmico e manipulável, cujas dimensões são sempre reticulares e indelimitáveis (DI FELICE et al, 2012). É nesse panorama que se pretende esboçar os caminhos para a proposição do conceito de \"ecopoiese\", entendida como uma ecologia que, ao contrário do que o sentido etimológico possa induzir, é do âmbito do atópico e do indizível. Seu oikos não se localiza e seu logos não se explica. Essa ecologia é pós-humanista e assim sendo, o somente humano não a define e nenhuma perspectiva única a reivindica. Nessa ecologia, as interações entre humano, natureza e tecnologia comunicativa assumem um caráter complexo e produzem sempre agenciamentos hibridizantes, divergindo de quanto preconizado pelas interações somente técnicas atribuídas à Internet das Coisas / The digitalization of the territory and its transformation into information flows (DI FELICE et al, 2012) resulted in a further way of being on earth, of being-in the contemporary world, more particularly in what the sociologist Massimo Di Felice (2009) defines with the concept of \"atopic inhabit\", developed from the thought of Heidegger. For him, rather than reside, dwelling refers to a relate to, to a communicate with, characterized by networked interactions of the human and non-human, technological, territorial collectives. Thus, more than the digital reproduction of the territory, it is a new environment, a \"metaterritory, a \"metageographical\" and informative one, and therefore dynamic and manipulable, whose dimensions are always reticular and unlimited (DI FELICE et al, 2012). It is in this scenario that is intended to outline the ways to propose the concept of \"ecopoiese\", here understood as an ecology that, instead of what the etymological sense may suggest, is the scope of the atopic and unspeakable. Your oikos is not localized and its logos is not explained. This ecology is post-humanist and, therefore, what is only human cannot define it and no single perspective can claim it as theirs. In this ecology, the interactions between human, nature and communication technology play a complex character and always produce hybridized assemblages which are different from merely technical interactions attributed to the Internet of Things