Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Finite element method. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

The Diaspora and economic development in Africa

Abstract: While the dominant collective belief asserts that brain drain is detrimental to the development of small economies, new studies hold the reverse view. This paper aims at studying the role of the Diaspora in the economic development of low-income countries with particular focus on African countries. It analyzes both the overall effect and the specific effect of emigration according to the level of education of emigrants. While the empirical results for all developing countries fail to establish an unambiguous relationship between the Diaspora and economic development, those concerning African countries establish a clear and unambiguous relationship. The African Diaspora, especially the high-skilled Diaspora, contributes positively, significantly and robustly to the improvement of income in Africa. These findings challenge the dominant collective belief. Improvements in human capital, total factor productivity and democracy are effective transmission channels of this impact. In addition, while high-skilled emigrants have an overall greater impact on economic development and democracy, those with a low level of education contribute more to remittances to Africa.

Social Contact Enhances Bodily Self-Awareness

Abstract: Human self-awareness is arguably the most important and revealing question of modern sciences. Converging theoretical perspectives link self-awareness and social abilities in human beings. In particular, mutual engagement during social interactions—or social contact—would boost self-awareness. Yet, empirical evidence for this effect is scarce. We recently showed that the perception of eye contact induces enhanced bodily self-awareness. Here, we aimed at extending these findings by testing the influence of social contact in auditory and tactile modalities, in order to demonstrate that social contact enhances bodily self-awareness irrespective of sensory modality. In a first experiment, participants were exposed to hearing their own first name (as compared to another unfamiliar name and noise). In a second experiment, human touch (as compared to brush touch and no-touch) was used as the social contact cue. In both experiments, participants demonstrated more accurate rating of their bodily reactions in response to emotional pictures following the social contact condition—a proxy of bodily self-awareness. Further analyses indicated that the effect of social contact was comparable across tactile, auditory and visual modalities. These results provide the first direct empirical evidence in support of the essential social nature of human self-awareness.

Problem and Structure: Bachelard, Deleuze and Transdisciplinarity:

Abstract: The concept of ‘problem’ has been recently promoted by the official academic institutions and put at the centre of a new field of research, self-styled ‘transdisciplinary studies’, in order to prov...

Philosophy of Chemistry

Abstract: The plural "philosophie des sciences" which has prevailed in the French language may be due to Auguste Comte's longstanding influence, since he strongly advocated a regional epistemology. The result is that chemistry has not been totally neglected. As I have argued elsewhere, chemistry helped shape the French tradition, especially in what can be labeled its "historical turn" and its focus on theories of matter.

On the phrasal vs. clausal syntactic status of French infinitives: causative constructions and subject inversion

Abstract: We examine the phrasal vs. clausal syntactic status of French infinitives. Whereas a number of current theories assume a VP-hypothesis (contra principles and parameters theories, including the Minimalist Program), data relative to causative constructions in French are often treated as clausal constructions (the so-called ‘proposition infinitive’). The aim of this paper is to demonstrate (i) that it is possible to account for causative constructions in French according to the VP-hypothesis (e.g. in the HPSG framework); (ii) that it is in fact impossible to maintain a clausal hypothesis for causative constructions with respect to subject inversion in French. We therefore argue in favour of the VP-hypothesis for all (French) infinitives.