Modelling the Impact of RCEP Agreement on the Economic and Trade Environment of Beijing

As a national economic, political, and cultural center that ranks first in terms of openness to the outside world, the signing of the RCEP agreement has undoubtedly brought a series of opportunities and challenges to Beijing. Based on the analysis of the two main features embodied in the RCEP agreement, this paper precisely analyzes the areas where the RCEP agreement has a key impact on Beijing’s economy and trade and points out the opportunities and challenges brought by the RCEP agreement to Beijing’s economic and trade development.

Humanitarian actions of a cultural center during the Covid-19 pandemic: an analogy with supply chain business processes

PurposeThis study intends to map the supply chain and characterize the business processes of a cultural center in an aggregated and coordinated operation to serve families in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. This case study analyzes distinct aspects of humanitarian management capable of contributing to the management of commercial supply chains.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a case study approach, this research contextualizes the view on humanitarian supply chains related to the importance of participating organizations' engagement and the relationship and similarity with business organizations.FindingsThe study presents the model adopted to undertake the aid operations, maps the cultural center's humanitarian supply chain, clarifies the relationships and operations developed and compares the business processes with those of commercial chains. Possibilities and initiatives are discussed that can contribute to business organizations' greater engagement in humanitarian actions.Research limitations/implicationsRestricted to one case involving the cultural center and the other agents researched, the information and considerations are limited, and any generalization should be treated with caution.Practical implicationsThe study is a practical example that clarifies how business organizations can engage in the supply chain of humanitarian institutions. It also illustrates ways to help these institutions improve their fund-raising initiatives.Social implicationsThis study is justified by the representativeness of humanitarian actions in critical periods such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also presents potential ways to contribute to operations of this nature and to encourage business organizations to improve participation in humanitarian movements.Originality/valueMany studies on the subject have highlighted the importance of comparing humanitarian and business supply chains through real case research.

The Provenance of Selected Sets of Wardrobe in the Costumes Collections of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and GMA Network, Inc.

Costumes play a significant role in theatrical and television practice as age, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, and the setting and climate are shown through them. This paper will enumerate some of the productions in which the costumes are included in the collections of two organizations: the Cultural Center of the Philippines, a government arts agency for the performing arts, and GMA Network, Inc., a media conglomerate that is chiefly in the business of producing and airing television programs. Information on the production plot and setting, key players such as directors, actors, production designers, and costume designers, and general descriptions of costumes are presented in this narrative survey. This work serves as a preliminary attempt to trace the provenance of costume sets in the collection of CCP and GMA Network. It may also awaken the need to document costumes as part of institutional collections.

“Going down the Tower of Babel” through telecollaboration in the context of Internationalization at Home

Belli et al. (2018) explain that the myth of the Tower of Babel, described in the Holy Bible, alludes to the intercultural relations in today’s world, because the Tower was located in a major economic and cultural center of the ancient world. Telecollaboration, defined as the use of online technologies in the area of language teaching and learning between students who are geographically distant (O’DOWD, 2013a), plays an important role in promoting intercultural interactions in the Internationalization at Home (O’DOWD, 2019) context. The latter stands for a more inclusive internationalization, achieved by domestic activities, and not only by international academic mobility (CROWTHER et al., 2000). For Luna (2018b), the process of Internationalization of the Curriculum occurs in the light of the intercultural approach (KRAMSCH, 2014), whereas Gil (2016) argues that such approach should be conceptualized based on the interaction between language and culture. This study aims at discussing how the interaction between language and culture related to the intercultural approach can lead students “to go down the Tower of Babel” through telecollaborative activities in the context of Internationalization at Home. With respect to the results, two telecollaborative domestic actions, under the author’s coordination, appear to indicate that there have been opportunities towards the process of “going down the tower”, since many concerns related to the current world, e.g. cultural differences, stereotypes and the environment, where students can to take both an insider and an outsider’s perspective (KRAMSCH, 2011), are at the heart of the discussions.

Territorios de la Mirada. Inclusión, Educación y Artes con la Comunidad Refugiada en Grecia

Este artículo presenta los resultados de la práctica e investigación pedagógicas llevadas a cabo dentro del proyecto de cooperación internacional “Artes, cultura y educación para el desarrollo. Educación y cultura para el empoderamiento personal y social de la comunidad migrante refugiada en Polykastro, Grecia”. Un proyecto realizado en Grecia, 2019, organizado por la Universidad de Sevilla y Open Cultural Center, una ONG que atiende educativamente a la comunidad migrante refugiada de la zona, incluyendo el campo de refugiados de Nea Kavala. De manera metodológica, las prácticas educativas artísticas llevadas a cabo –bajo el título Territorios de la mirada– participan de la herramienta analítica del Enfoque de Marco Lógico, con el objetivo prioritario de procurar una atención a la comunidad migrante para generar identidad, apertura cultural e inclusión social. Igualmente se proponen los objetivos específicos de corroborar y ofrecer posibilidades para elaborar un plan de trabajo educativo inclusivo en el desarrollo posterior del proyecto completo. Se han implementado estrategias de investigación basadas en las artes, logrando una mejor imbricación comunitaria y fortaleciendo la dimensión artístico-cultural, lo cual ha beneficiado a los procesos educativos de la persona migrante refugiada y su comunidad, favoreciendo su inclusión y desarrollo.