Workers with disabilities in sheltered employment centres: a training needs analysis

The work presented is part of a study that the research group CIFO (Research Team in Training for the Labour Market, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona) has carried out, relating to the training needs analysis and basic competences and skills in the environment of sheltered employment centres (SECs) in Catalonia (this study was undertaken in collaboration with the Coordination of Workshops for People with Mental Disabilities in Catalonia). The analysis and assessment of needs is useful from the perspective of training, as a starting point for planning adapted to the reality of disabled workers in SECs. To do this, various elements such as skills, knowledge and attitudes of individual and social nature have been considered from a systemic approach. By placing ourselves in clearly defined contexts (SECs), we bear in mind the characteristics of workers, the features of the job context, the types of activities performed, the skills related to work activities carried out, the definition of competence profiles required on the basis of the essential skills and the real training needs, through the characteristics of workers and those skills related to the labour activities that are performed as well as the needs for training perceived by workers. Identifying training needs in relation to basic skills and job requirements allows us to meet the challenge, as a trend that supports a competence basis for any worker, of raising general actions that may govern and underlie the training proposals, yet without undermining the specific competences. The importance acquired by what workers themselves have considered about their positioning is understood from the standpoint of its validity, so as to assume conclusions through triangulation processes.     

American influencies in Brazilian physical education: clues in the specialised periodical press (1932–1950)

This study investigates the American presence and influences in the physical education press to understand the way in which that presence influenced and contributed to the production of a sports culture in the first half of the twentieth century. As historical sources, the study uses periodicals in the field that were published in the period 1932–1950. As a theoretical frame of reference, it uses the repertoire of the New Cultural History in terms of strategy, tactics and devices. It is written in a narrative way, following Ginzburg's style, presenting data and contextualizing them with the historic scene. Clues enabled us to infer that the American presence, which was catalysed by the Brazilian Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), sought to shape a sports culture from physical education and society. This effort reflected the yearning of Brazilian intellectuals for modernisation and an attempt at cultural colonisation by the government of the USA.     

Carnation Atoms? A History of Nuclear Energy in Portugal

Drawing upon the concepts of civic epistemologies and sociotechnical imaginaries, this article delves into the history of nuclear energy in Portugal, analyzing the ways in which the nuclear endeavor was differently enacted by various sociopolitical collectives – the Fascist State, post-revolutionary governments and the public. Following the 1974 revolution - known as the Carnation Revolution - this paper analyzes how the nuclear project was fiercely contested by a vibrant anti-nuclear movement assembled against the construction of the Ferrel Nuclear Plant, the first sociotechnical controversy in Portugal, paving the way for the emergence of a combative civic epistemology. Supported by semi-structured interviews with scientists, activists and local residents of Ferrel and the analysis of historical material, this article presents the failed Portuguese nuclear endeavor as an emblematic case study to explore the co-production of science and society, in particular the role of revolutionary processes in the unfolding of sociotechnical controversies.