PhD Patrick Sandoz
email: patrick.sandoz@univ-fcomte.fr

Does AIDS involve some collusion by the neuro-immune system because of positive learning of the disarmament strategy ?

Keywords: HIV-AIDS, adaptation, semiotics of stress, disarmament concept, cognitive system, Lamarkian mechanism, embodied cognition, levels of abstraction, metaphoric thought, conceptual blending

Korzybski's general semantics recommends considering living beings as organisms-as-a-whole in their environment. Our cognitive abilities, specific to the human species, have thus to be taken into account. In this framework we establish a semantic similarity between particular stressful events of the 20 th century and AIDS in which the immune-deficiency-caused is semiotically seen as a biological state of disarmament of the organism.

It then appears that :

-at the extent of the worldwide propagation of the pandemic, the disarmament concept was valued as a hopefully survival strategy because of the media coverage of the Cold War and of the associated threat of nuclear annihilation, -at the extent of the African regions of origin of the different HIV strains, the best survival behavior of slaves fit the disarmament concept.

These observations suggest that AIDS could benefit from some collusion by the neuro-immune system because of positive learning of the semiotic concept of disarmament, thus making the terrain favorable to the germ in response to intense stress. The disease would then result from a conditioning process based on semiotics and involve some confusion at the level of the unconscious cognitive system between disarmament toward outside the body and disarmament toward inside the body. This hypothesis is discussed within a multidisciplinary perspective considering the specificities of our modern lifestyles, the cybernetic ability of signs to control metabolism and behavior, and the recent advances of epigenetics and cognition sciences. This hypothesis may explain the multiple cross-species transmissions of the immunodeficiency virus into humans during the 20 th century. Further research is suggested for evaluating this hypothesis.

Introduction

The existence of a new pandemic called AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) can be linked to the American CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) declaration of June 5 th , 1981. The latter followed a sharp increase in the reported cases of Pneumocystis carinii and of Kaposi's sarcoma, diseases that especially affect immunodeficient people. The HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) was then rapidly identified as responsible for AIDS [START_REF] Barré-Sinoussi | Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)[END_REF][START_REF] Gallo | Isolation of human T-cell leukemia virus in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)[END_REF]. However the beginnings of this disease date back to times much earlier than its observation and the discovery of the virus. Numerous scientific works, based on conserved samples [START_REF] Zhu | An African HIV-1 sequence from 1959 and implications for the origin of the epidemic[END_REF][START_REF] Worobey | Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960[END_REF] or on the analysis of the genetic diversity of the viral strains [START_REF] Worobey | Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960[END_REF][START_REF] Korber | Timing the ancestor of the HIV-1 pandemic strains[END_REF][START_REF] Lemey | Tracing the origin and history of the HIV-2 epidemic[END_REF][START_REF] Gilbert | The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and beyond[END_REF][START_REF] Wertheim | Dating the age of the SIV lineages that gave rise to HIV-1 and HIV-2[END_REF][START_REF] Castro-Nallar | The evolution of HIV : Inferences using phylogenetics[END_REF], allowed the reconstitution of the pandemic genesis.

Current knowledge states that multiple HIVs (HIV-1 and HIV-2, with different groups and sub-groups) result from many transfers and adaptations in humans of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) [START_REF] Lemey | Tracing the origin and history of the HIV-2 epidemic[END_REF][START_REF] Wertheim | Dating the age of the SIV lineages that gave rise to HIV-1 and HIV-2[END_REF][START_REF] Hahn | AIDS as a zoonosis : scientific and public health implications[END_REF][START_REF] Keele | Chimpanzee reservoirs of pandemic and nonpandemic HIV-1[END_REF][START_REF] De Sousa | High GUD Incidence in the Early 20th Century Created a Particularly Permissive Time Window for the Origin and Initial Spread of Epidemic HIV Strains[END_REF][START_REF] Locatelli | Cross-species transmission of simian retroviruses : how and why they could lead to the emergence of new diseases in the human population[END_REF]. The appearance of the first HIV-1 able to propagate in humans is dated around 1930(±20 years) [START_REF] Korber | Timing the ancestor of the HIV-1 pandemic strains[END_REF][START_REF] Castro-Nallar | The evolution of HIV : Inferences using phylogenetics[END_REF] whereas the oldest human sample infected by HIV dates from 1959 [START_REF] Zhu | An African HIV-1 sequence from 1959 and implications for the origin of the epidemic[END_REF]. It is also established that SIVs have existed for thousands of years and that the hunting and butchering of monkeys resulted in many cross-species transmission opportunities of SIVs to humans across the past centuries [START_REF] Gao | Origin of HIV-1 in the chimpanzee Pan troglodytes troglodytes[END_REF][START_REF] Marx | AIDS as a zoonosis ? Confusion over the origin of the virus and the origin of the epidemics[END_REF][START_REF] Worobey | Island biogeography reveals the deep history of SIV[END_REF]. This context leads to the paradox that humans were in contact with SIVs for many centuries without any viable transmission whereas during only the 20 th century, around ten SIV strains were successfully transmitted into humans [START_REF] Wertheim | Dating the age of the SIV lineages that gave rise to HIV-1 and HIV-2[END_REF][START_REF] Hahn | AIDS as a zoonosis : scientific and public health implications[END_REF][START_REF] De Sousa | High GUD Incidence in the Early 20th Century Created a Particularly Permissive Time Window for the Origin and Initial Spread of Epidemic HIV Strains[END_REF][START_REF] Locatelli | Cross-species transmission of simian retroviruses : how and why they could lead to the emergence of new diseases in the human population[END_REF][START_REF] Chen | Genetic characterization of new West African simian immunodeficiency virus SIVsm : geographic clustering of household-derived SIV strains with human immunodeficiency virus type 2 subtypes and genetically diverse viruses from a single feral sooty mangabey troop[END_REF]. These sudden crossings of the species barrier within a short period of time are still not clearely understood but socioenvironmental arguments have been suggested : non-sterile vaccination campaigns, sexuality and hunting [START_REF] De Sousa | High GUD Incidence in the Early 20th Century Created a Particularly Permissive Time Window for the Origin and Initial Spread of Epidemic HIV Strains[END_REF][START_REF] Chitnis | Origin of hiv type 1 in colonial french equatorial africa ?[END_REF].

In this paper, we consider the socio-environmental context of the propagation and of the emergence of AIDS within a multidisciplinary approach and in relation to the main disease effect : immunodefficiency. The aim of the immune system is to protect the "self" against any "non-self" aggressions which threaten to disturb homeostasis.

From a semantic perspective, the "self" can be identified as the biological territory of the individual. In the case of immunodeficiency, the organism is disarmed, unable to protect itself against "non-self" aggressions. Using a different language register, immune deficiency corresponds to a state of biological disarmament of the organism.

It then striking to observe that this semiotic concept of disarmament is shortly related to the major steps of the disease development :

-The worldwide propagation of the pandemic occurred soon after that the disarmament concept was valued as a hopefully survival strategy because of the media coverage of the Cold War and of the associated threat of nuclear annihilation.

-The HIV-1 emerged in western Africa soon after an intense episode of slavery [START_REF] De Sousa | High GUD Incidence in the Early 20th Century Created a Particularly Permissive Time Window for the Origin and Initial Spread of Epidemic HIV Strains[END_REF][START_REF] Chitnis | Origin of hiv type 1 in colonial french equatorial africa ?[END_REF] in which the renunciation to defend oneself was experienced as the best survival strategy under the submission conditions imposed by the masters. The HIV-2 emergence is also related to a war context [START_REF] Lemey | Tracing the origin and history of the HIV-2 epidemic[END_REF][START_REF] Poulsen | Risk factors for HIV-2 seropositivity among older people in Guinea-Bissau. A search for the early history of HIV-2 infection[END_REF].

A striking semiotic similarity is thus highlighted between the main effect of AIDS and the nature of the stress imposed by the specific socio-environmental conditions of the emergence and propagation of the disease. The question is then to determine whether this similarity is caused by chance or if it involves some collusion by the neuro-immune system in a way that is specific to the cognitive abilities of the human brain. The facts reported in this paper do not provide any evidence of the existence of such a semiotic mechanism but justify the scientific consideration of this hypothesis. We discuss this question with respect to current biological knowledge. We suggest further research for addressing definitely this possibility that may concern AIDS as well as various other human dysfunctions.

Multidisciplinary approach and context

Considering the organism-as-a-whole in its environment Thirty-five years ago, Engel [START_REF] Engel | The need for a new medical model : a challenge for biomedicine[END_REF] expressed the need for a new medical model with an extended disease definition (wider than measurable biological quantities and their distance from the norms) and called for a biopsychosocial approach more relevant to the human experience. This claim finds a theoretical explanation in general semantics as established by Korzybski [START_REF] Korzybski | Science and sanity : An introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics[END_REF] and published as early as 1933. According to Korzybski, each discipline corresponds to a particular level of abstraction. The latter defines the discipline's domain of relevance when the underlying assumptions are met. Words are not the things they refer to and no scientific description will ever be the event it explains. The principles established in the different scientific domains are of great interest for generalization. Any generalization assumes however some simplification and is only applicable to theoretical events that do not exist in empirical reality. For Korzybski the value of a science lies in its ability to provide a similar structure to that of empirical facts. Having integrated the main implications of Einstein's work and of quantum mechanics, Korzybski considers every human experience as a single event taking place in a four-dimensional space-time continuum and whose attributes cannot be definitively listed. Every organism reacts as an organism-as-a-whole tied to its environment. Every human experience constitutes a single event specific to a single space-time instant.

The confusion among the levels of abstraction and the oversight of their intrinsic inability to describe completely any empirical event are responsible for the sometimes contradictory conclusions of different scientific disciplines. For instance at the genetic level, every individual is different and DNA sequences are used as ultimate references in case of doubt about a family link or in a criminal investigation. At the level of the individual, every human being is also different through his appearance, his tastes, his vulnerability or his resistance to pathogens and to life challenges, etc. Biometry is indeed more and more popular as a mean of securing individual identification. On the contrary, at the level of infectious disease, human beings are similar -or even identical -in the physiological process by which the pathogen substance makes them ill. The contradiction between these unique and identical attributes is only superficial. It is relative to the different levels of abstraction considered.

Korzybski explains that any life event, "necessarily unspeakable", is a single combination of all these levels of abstraction. Thus from the general semantic perspective, the words ascribed to Pasteur at the end of his life -"Terrain is everything, the germ is nothing" -are a typical example of a semantic confusion leading to an impasse. The germ and the terrain correspond to different levels of abstraction, interacting with each other within the organism-as-a-whole, to induce -or not -a disease, as is commonly observed in medical practice.

The ability of signs to control physiology and behavior

From the perspective of species evolution, natural selection favors the biological characteristics that provide an advantage with respect to environment and life conditions. A semiotic relationship is thus established between selected characteristics and the advantages that they provide, this semiotic relationship being specific to the conditions that determine the selection factors. Semantics is thus intrinsically relevant to living systems because of the process of natural selection.

Since the work of Pavlov [START_REF] Pavlov | Conditioned reflexes[END_REF], we know that after the conditioning of a superior animal like a dog, behavioral (motricity) as well as metabolic (salivary gland secretion) reactions can be switched on and off by means of a wide diversity of signs. Signs have thus the cybernetic ability to control animal activity ; this ability being either an innate or a learned process. Let's consider an example : the fox odor is known to trigger an innate reaction of stress and flight in mice ; laboratory mice included [START_REF] Apfelbach | The effects of predator odors in mammalian prey species : a review of field and laboratory studies[END_REF]. During evolution, the predator odor became integrated in the species as a sign of emergency and of risk of death. The advantage of this adaptation is obvious. By reacting to the first sign of predator proximity -its odor -the mouse's flight is anticipated and its chance of survival is increased. This example shows the main role played by semiotics in life systems. The mouse reacts to a sign -the fox odor -that carries a biological significance of risk of death. The sign is identified as the risk itself and triggers the same reactions in the animal and this provides an adaptive advantage. But in the unnatural environment experienced by a laboratory mouse, the fox odor is artificial and no longer signifies the presence of a predator. The identification of the sign with the danger is thus invalid and the innate mouse reaction becomes irrelevant. The biological resources involved in the mouse's reaction to the signal do not provide any advantage.

If the signal lasts for a long time, the continued stress state may induce pathological consequences in the animal.

The case of humans in modern times

In the case of humans, the issue of semiotics and cybernetics is especially important for at least two reasons.

Firstly, the specificities of our nervous system make us different to any other species because of our enormous capacity for the conscious and unconscious use of signs. A human being is able to abstract over a huge number of levels unlike animals that are limited by their nervous systems to only a few [START_REF] Korzybski | Science and sanity : An introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics[END_REF]. Secondly, in western countries and in a time period of only a few generations, manufactured products and information technologies have deeply transformed our lifestyles. From a biological perspective, these high-tech communication and information networks form an out-of-body extension of our sensory system. Through modern communication devices we can now perceive events occurring on the other side of the world. For instance, after the earthquake of March 11 th 2011, Japan was devastated by a tsunami that caused the death of almost 20,000 people. Outside Japan, hundreds of millions of people participated in this remote tragedy. Sadness, compassion, solidarity, etc., but also fear, feelings of vulnerability and helplessness, etc... everyone experienced their own emotional reactions.

In such cases, communication networks trigger actual neuro-semantic reactions since through the emotions experienced, the nervous system of each observer is affected by the images of a remote catastrophe. Because of this technological extension of our sensory abilities, the number of tragic events with which our nervous system is confronted is significantly enlarged while usually our actual life conditions are not affected by them at all. This new context of experience may modify our views of the outside world as well as our behaviors [START_REF] Levine | Learned helplessness and the evening news[END_REF][START_REF] Gerbner | Telling All the Stories : Children and Television[END_REF].

As far as we know, the consequences of this kind of exposure to a continuous flow of information remain mostly unknown. However, the existence of neurological mechanisms such as mirror neurons [START_REF] Rizzolatti | The mirror-neuron system[END_REF][START_REF] Iacoboni | Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system[END_REF][START_REF] Mukamel | Single-neuron responses in humans during execution and observation of actions[END_REF] that are activated by one's own action or by the same action executed by someone else suggests that the nervous impact of remote tragic events may be significant. In comparison with the huge number of generations necessary to integrate environmental changes in the gene pool, the technological transformation of our lifestyles has been almost instantaneous. In a similar way to the laboratory mouse exposed to the fox odor, we perceive daily a lot of information that is disconnected from our actual life conditions. Our remote ancestors who passed on their biological "know-how" had never been exposed to so many triggers. Furthermore, all triggers they experienced did have an actual local impact and significance, contrary to the information that we absorb today from the other side of the world. What about the propagation and the effects of this information throughout the nervous system and the human body ? Since what is provided by high-tech communication networks corresponds exactly to the main function of the nervous system -to perceive -it would be striking if it did not make some use of the information that is now available.

The theory of general semantics introduced by Korzybski provides a theoretical basis for this study through the definition of the neuro-linguistic and neuro-semantic issues specific to the human language. This challenge results particularly from the "multiordinality" of words whose meaning depends on the context and from the numerous levels of abstraction that can be a source of confusion. Korzybski considers that the structure of the human nervous system creates a bottom-up hierarchy of levels of abstraction. This hierarchy starts from the "unspeakable" sensory perceptions of the most archaic level of the contact with the external world and goes up to mental representations and imaginary speculations. The natural and adaptive function of the nervous system assumes that these levels of abstraction follow this bottom-up order ; from the most archaic to the most elaborate ; i.e. from sensory perceptions to mental abstractions [START_REF] Korzybski | Science and sanity : An introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics[END_REF][START_REF] Korzybski | The role of language in the perceptual processes[END_REF]. According to Korzybski, the reverse process (top-down) is a source of maladjustment in the individual with many serious potential consequences.

Since modern communication networks correspond precisely to this reverse process, it is important to explore their potential impact on human beings.

Recent advances

The modern synthesis of the laws of heredity, adaptation and evolution [START_REF] Huxley | The Modern Synthesis[END_REF], which assumes that chance generates genetic diversity and that natural selection favors the most adaptive solutions, is no longer effective at explaining some scientific observations [START_REF] Holliday | The inheritance of epigenetic defects[END_REF][START_REF] Fraga | Epigenetic differences arise during the lifetime of monozygotic twins[END_REF][START_REF] Rando | Timescales of genetic and epigenetic inheritance[END_REF][START_REF] Richards | Inherited epigenetic variation -revisiting soft inheritance[END_REF][START_REF] Shea | Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Jablonka | Soft inheritance : challenging the modern synthesis[END_REF]. During the last decade, epigenetics has established much evidence of this ineffectiveness of the modern synthesis for questions concerning transgenerational transmission [START_REF] Harper | Epigenetic inheritance and the intergenerational transfer of experience[END_REF][START_REF] Jablonka | Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance : prevalence, mechanisms, and implications for the study of heredity and evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Youngson | Transgenerational epigenetic effects[END_REF][START_REF] Whitelaw | Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in health and disease[END_REF][START_REF] Daxinger | Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance : More questions than answers[END_REF][START_REF] Franklin | Epigenetic transmission of the impact of early stress across generations[END_REF], the influence of the environment [START_REF] Jirtle | Environmental epigenomics and disease susceptibility[END_REF][START_REF] Robinson | Sociogenomics : social life in molecular terms[END_REF][START_REF] Aguilera | Epigenetics and environment : a complex relationship[END_REF][START_REF] Champagne | Genes in context : Gene-environment interplay and the origins of individual differences in behavior[END_REF][START_REF] Szyf | The social environment and the epigenome[END_REF], the impact of chemical substances [START_REF] Anway | Epigenetic transgenerational actions of endocrine disruptors and male fertility[END_REF][START_REF] Zama | Epigenetic effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on female reproduction : An ovarian perspective[END_REF] with consequences for behavior [START_REF] Crews | Transgenerational epigenetic imprints on mate preference[END_REF][START_REF] Masterpasqua | Psychology and epigenetics[END_REF][START_REF] Champagne | Epigenetic mechanisms and the transgenerational effects of maternal care[END_REF] or for the risk of disease [START_REF] Jablonka | Epigenetic epidemiology[END_REF][START_REF] Feinberg | Phenotypic plasticity and the epigenetics of human disease[END_REF][START_REF] Dolinoy | Epigenetic gene regulation : linking early developmental environment to adult disease[END_REF][START_REF] Tang | Epigenetic reprogramming and imprinting in origins of disease[END_REF][START_REF] Whitelaw | How lifetimes shape epigenotype within and across generations[END_REF][START_REF] Godfrey | Epigenetic mechanisms and the mismatch concept of the developmental origins of health and disease[END_REF].

With all the recent conclusions of epigenetics, a complex and subtle perspective now exists for all enquiry dealing with heredity, adaptation and evolution as well as with the impact of conditions at different stages of life, the effects of stress and the roots of diseases [START_REF] Feinberg | Epigenetics at the epicenter of modern medicine[END_REF][START_REF] Esteller | Epigenetics in cancer[END_REF], etc. The reactivation of these issues that were considered in too restrictive a way during the 20 th century is confirmed by other approaches [START_REF] Gillman | Developmental origins of health and disease[END_REF][START_REF] Hanson | Developmental origins of health and disease : new insights[END_REF] and disciplines, for example psycho-neuro-endocrino-immunology [START_REF] Ader | Psychoneuroimmunology : interactions between the nervous system and the immune system[END_REF][START_REF] Zachariae | Psychoneuroimmunology : A bio-psycho-social approach to health and disease[END_REF][START_REF] Mifsud | Epigenetic mechanisms in stress and adaptation[END_REF], neurosciences [START_REF] Joëls | The neuro-symphony of stress[END_REF][START_REF] Shonkoff | Neuroscience, molecular biology, and the childhood roots of health disparities[END_REF][START_REF] Hüther | The central adaptation syndrome : psychosocial stress as a trigger for adaptive modifications of brain structure and brain function[END_REF][START_REF] Mcewen | Central role of the brain in stress and adaptation : links to socioeconomic status, health, and disease[END_REF], psychology [START_REF] Salovey | Emotional states and physical health[END_REF][START_REF] Belsky | The intergenerational transmission of parenting : Introduction to the special section[END_REF] or psychogenealogy [START_REF] Schützenberger | The ancestor syndrome : transgenerational psychotherapy and the hidden links in the family tree[END_REF][START_REF] Noriega | Life Scripts : A Transactional Analysis of Unconscious Relational Patterns[END_REF].

Semiotics is involved in different ways in current research and in scientific enquiries. For instance, in placebo and nocebo effects, signs (gestures, beliefs, expectations,...) induce, through still-unknown mechanisms, a modulation of therapeutic effects that cannot be explained pharmacologically [START_REF] Enck | New insights into the placebo and nocebo responses[END_REF][START_REF] Benedetti | Conscious expectation and unconscious conditioning in analgesic, motor, and hormonal placebo/nocebo responses[END_REF][START_REF] Hahn | The nocebo phenomenon : concept, evidence, and implications for public health[END_REF]. The emergence of positive psychology [START_REF] Seligman | Positive psychology : An introduction[END_REF][START_REF] Taylor | Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health[END_REF] studies another implication of semiotics, involving especially the most elaborated functions of the human brain, on the course of human existence.

In accordance with Korzybski's thought, modern cognitive sciences give fundamental importance to the "embodied mind" [START_REF] Lakoff | Philosophy in the flesh : The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought[END_REF][START_REF] Fauconnier | The way we think : Conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities[END_REF][START_REF] Thelen | Time-scale dynamics and the development of an embodied cognition[END_REF]. Numerous interconnections between thought, action and sensory perceptions have been demonstrated, thus breaking the mind-body duality [START_REF] Chiel | The brain has a body : Adaptive behavior emerges from interactions of nervous system, body and environment[END_REF][START_REF] Barsalou | Grounded cognition[END_REF][START_REF] Grafton | Embodied cognition and the simulation of action to understand others[END_REF][START_REF] Borghi | Embodied cognition and beyond : Acting and sensing the body[END_REF]. Even language processing is deeply grounded in the body, sharing neural processes with other sensorimotor skills in a context bond phenomenon [START_REF] Pulvermüller | Brain mechanisms linking language and action[END_REF][START_REF] Van Elk | Embodied language comprehension requires an enactivist paradigm of cognition[END_REF].

The semiotic concept of disarmament and similarities observed

The Cold War and the expansion of AIDS in western countries

The Cold War started soon after the second world war and was marked by an arms race, especially nuclear weapons, that put the world under threat of complete annihilation. This period resulted in various tension peaks as the Cuban missiles crisis of 1962. Then began a relaxed period with discussions between the two superpowers.

Several armament limitation treaties were signed with the aim of relieving the political tensions and of reducing the risk of nuclear warfare. The different stages of the Cold War and of the nuclear warfare threat were given a lot of media coverage, including various apocalyptic scenarios that fortunately did not arise.

Let us now consider this period and its context from a biological perspective. The nuclear threat of the Cold War constituted a completely new situation for the human race. The risk was of complete annihilation with the inability to either fight or flee. Flight was illusory since no place on the planet was protected from a nuclear conflict or from its consequences. Fight was also impossible since any attack would have almost guaranteed mutual destruction. For ordinary people not implicated in geostrategical decisions, this situation corresponds to a state of complete helplessness. Everyone had a sword of Damocles above his head able to annihilate him at any time. For a huge percentage of ordinary citizens, disarmament was the obvious solution to this horrifying threat. At that time, the concept of disarmament was thus wide-spread, integrated and valuated as THE survival solution.

We notice that for ordinary citizens this learning of the disarmament strategy, that was based on abstract data disconnected from their daily conditions, corresponds to the top-down process described by Korzybski as a source of maladjustment. Did the issue of disarmament and its media coverage induce a conditioning of human beings : conditioning in the Pavlovian sense of conditioned reflexes with the identification of disarmament as a survival strategy in case of extreme tension and risk of annihilation ? Due to either confusion about the levels of abstraction or metaphoric thought in the unconscious mind, is this learning implicated at another level of abstraction, that of the immune system, to favor a biological disarmament ?

Semiotic context of the emergence of HIV strains at a regional level If the semantic similarity between biological disarmament due to AIDS and the nuclear disarmament issue of the Cold War corresponds time-wise with the expansion of the AIDS pandemic in western countries [START_REF] Gilbert | The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and beyond[END_REF], it does not directly correspond with the emergence of AIDS in Africa prior to the second world war. Analysis of the African zones which have been identified as the birthplaces of the different strains of HIV highlights however observations consistent with this semantic similarity. Chitnis [START_REF] Chitnis | Origin of hiv type 1 in colonial french equatorial africa ?[END_REF] describes the sociocultural context of the appearance of HIV-1 in the French colonies of Equatorial Africa. Notably he reports that by 1906 more than 50,000 porters, especially slaves, were used every year for head-loading rubber from the country's interior to the coast. He also notes the construction of a railroad from 1899 to 1913, mostly with slave labor. He reports moreover that by the end of the 19 th century, the French army in Sudan (mostly in what is today northeastern Guinea and western Mali) made extensive use of slaves for both labor and sex. Life conditions of slaves are well known to have been particularly difficult at this time. Complete submission was imposed on them and any rebellion or attempt to flee was severely punished, often by death. In these conditions, slaves were under the inability to either fight or flee. Their survival depended on their submission to authority and on their renunciation of any attempt to defend themselves. "Suffer passively in order to survive" could define the attitude most favorable to survival in these slavery conditions. Thus and even if the term of disarmament was not coined at that time, disarmament behavior was experienced by the slave populations of this period in this area as the best survival strategy. The semantic similarity described previously can thus be extended to the geographic and temporal appearance of HIV-1.

Since the first HIV-1 able to propagate in humans is dated around 1930(±20 years) [START_REF] Korber | Timing the ancestor of the HIV-1 pandemic strains[END_REF][START_REF] Castro-Nallar | The evolution of HIV : Inferences using phylogenetics[END_REF], either the first host of HIV-1 did experience himself this period as an adult or as a child or his parents did experience it. The emergence of HIV-1 is thus consecutive to this period with a time interval of more or less one generation.

Concerning HIV-2, Poulsen [START_REF] Poulsen | Risk factors for HIV-2 seropositivity among older people in Guinea-Bissau. A search for the early history of HIV-2 infection[END_REF] and Lemey [START_REF] Lemey | Tracing the origin and history of the HIV-2 epidemic[END_REF] observe that the beginnings of the epidemic in Guinea-Bissau coincided with the Independence War (1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974) and suggest that the socio-cultural changes linked to the war had a major impact on the HIV-2 epidemic. It is obvious that in war conditions, the renunciation of violence (the disarmament concept) is deeply desired by a significant part of the civil population.

We thus observe that for the birthplaces of HIV-1 and HIV-2, the semantic concept of disarmament is actually concomitant to the development of the pandemic in a period of intense stress (slavery, war). This observation is supplementary to specific conditions, favorable to the propagation of HIV and already reported by these authors (non-sterile vaccination campaigns, sexuality, hunting,...).

Interpretation and prospects

Hypothesis of a collusion by the neuro-immune system in AIDS

The observations reported until now highlight a striking similarity centered on the semiotic concept of disarmament. On one hand, disarmament was the best survival strategy experienced or learned as a response to an intense socio-environmental stress (slavery, Cold War). On the other hand, disarmament describes perfectly the main physiological effect of AIDS on the human organism. A fundamental difference between these two kinds of disarmament has however to be noticed : Disarmament directed outwards : In the case of geostrategical disarmament or for the submission behavior of slaves towards their masters, disarmament is directed outwards. It consists of the repression of defense impulses and of passively enduring extremely difficult life conditions. In this case, this attitude is positive and favorable to survival.

Disarmament directed inwards : In the case of biological disarmament, the effects are produced physiologically inside the organism. Immune deficiency leaves the body disarmed and unable to resist non-self aggressions. This renunciation of aggressiveness leads to disease and death. It is negative and unfavorable to survival.

These two kinds of disarmament, respectively behavioral and physiological, lead to clearly opposed effects and it is difficult to think of a confusion between them ; especially among scientists who historically apprehend behavior and physiology as almost distinct issues. For the unconscious mind however, behavior and physiology are two facets of unique actions, as when physiological regulations are adequately tuned for supplying sharp behavioral needs as for instance in case of fight or flight. Furthermore, the unconscious mind processes are known to involve metaphoric thought and conceptual blending and to be subject to confusion of levels of abstraction.

Embodied cognition has also been demonstrating that language and its understanding is shortly related to the neural networks allowing action. A confusion of these two classes of disarmament by the unconscious mind is thus plausible, especially in case of intense stress. Thus, as psychosocial stress is known to trigger physiological pathologies [START_REF] Caso | The effects of physical and psychological stress on the gastrointestinal tract : lessons from animal models[END_REF], and as conditioning is able to control behavior and physiology [START_REF] Pavlov | Conditioned reflexes[END_REF], it is natural to wonder if this semiotic similarity hides an actual cause-and-effect relationship ? The question is thus to determine whether this similarity is caused by chance or if it results from some collusion by the organism ? Such a collusion would demonstrate the existence of a semiotic mechanism of unconscious adjustment to stress that is specific to humans whose brain development provides enormous capabilities of both conscious and unconscious cognitive processes in close connection with sensory perceptions. The facts reported in this paper do not provide any evidence of the existence of such a semiotic mechanism. However, the reported similarity is striking enough to justify the scientific consideration of such a hypothesis that could be expressed thus :

The infection by HIV and the disease development benefit from some degree of collusion by the neuro-immune system of the host. This collusion responds to a learned disarmament strategy and is set by the unconscious mind of the individual in reaction to an intense stress. This stress is perceived by the unconscious cognitive system as an extreme tension with the inability to either fight or flee. The application of this strategy at the level of the immune system results from an improper abstraction by the unconscious cognitive system. This unconscious mechanism makes the "terrain" favorable to the "germ".

From this perspective, the 30 million deaths caused by AIDS exhibit natural selection in action which demonstrates the failure of this maladaptive strategy.

The effects of stress have been studied for a long time and numerous consequences have already been identified in individuals that suffer it as well as in their descendants. The only novelty of this collusion hypothesis is to introduce a semantic rationality in the cause-and-effect mechanism. This hypothesis means that intense stress may trigger unconscious adjustments determined by the semantic nature of the stress as perceived by the individuals. The delays between the socio-environmental events considered above and the emergence of the HIV strains in Africa and the propagation of AIDS in western countries are not known precisely but necessarily shorter than fifty years. This time range is compatible with the hypothesis of an effect of stress, for instance because of exposure during the development stage or by transgenerational transmission of epigenetic programs as discussed previously. Since such a mechanism would involve some collusion by the organism, it may be considered as a Lamarkian adaptation attempt to deal with the environmental pressure experienced.

One may notice that the similarity reported above and centered on the disarmament strategy agrees with the thought of founding fathers of biology as Dobzhansky, Lorenz and Laborit : "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution". [START_REF] Dobzhansky | Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution[END_REF] "The gain in knowledge, achieved by trial and error by the genome -which retains what is the fittest for it -results in the formation of an image of the material world within the living system ; an image "built up", as D.M. Mackay puts it, from the "descriptive information content of the situation". The image thus formed is, in a way, a negative of reality, like a photographic negative, or the plaster cast of a coin" [START_REF] Lorenz | Behind the mirror : A search for a natural history of human knowledge[END_REF]. "All dichotomy between man and his environment, between the psychic and the somatic, seems to hark back to some prehistoric era of biology, to a time when thermodynamics dominated scientific research and a formal notion of information did not yet exist" [START_REF] Laborit | L'inhibition de l'action[END_REF].

Conditions of existence of such a semiotic mechanism

At this point, the collusion hypothesis discussed above remains an abstract scenario. This section aims to elucidate under which conditions such a semiotic mechanism could exist and if these conditions fit the current acceptation of the functioning of the human body.

The role of the nervous system

Such a mechanism would be based on the unconscious perception of our environment and more particularly on the semantic nature of the stress experienced. This requirement that corresponds exactly to the main function of the nervous system -to perceive (inside and outside) -is fulfilled. Such a mechanism would also assume some confusion of the abstraction levels in our unconscious cognitive system for inducing a loss of differentiation between actions directed towards the world outside the body (disarmament, submission) and towards the world inside the body (immune deficiency). Such a confusion corresponds to the description by Korzybski [START_REF] Korzybski | Science and sanity : An introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics[END_REF] on the confusion of the levels of abstraction as well as with modern cognition science that elucidated unconscious processes as integration, metaphoric thought and conceptual mixing [START_REF] Lakoff | Philosophy in the flesh : The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought[END_REF][START_REF] Fauconnier | The way we think : Conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities[END_REF]... The implication of the brain in a collusion mechanism is also consistent with the scientific context described in the recent advances section for issues concerning the impact of stress on the brain, the roots of disease and the heredity of epigenetic programs.

The signaling potential of biological constituents

In the case of the cross-species transmission to humans of simian viruses evolving towards the different HIV strains, we note that the semantic observations provide a plausible answer to the question of why there were so many cross-species transmissions during the only 20 th century. However, to link the evolution of SIVs into HIVs to the semantic context would have radically new biological implications. This would imply that the neuro-immune system of the host is party to its own infection by the virus. This collusion would be justified by a new functionality capable of implementing at the physiological level an immune disarmament behavior. This perspective would thus attribute an active and permissive role to the neuro-immune system in the HIV infection that does not correspond to the current synthesis. This collusion of the neuro-immune system would assume that the entering immunodefficiency virus is initially assessed for its functional potential ; i.e. its ability to behave as an "immune disarmament operator" by the neuro-immune system. This would confer to the bio-molecular structure of the virus an identity carrying the label : "immune disarmament operator", this label being detectable by the host neuro-immune system. This condition consists of attributing to biological constituents a kind of signal -organic structure duality similar to the wave -particle duality known in physics. Again, this hypothesis is radically different from the current scientific consensus. We note however that signals are key elements of the regulation mechanisms that ensure the functioning of living organisms. Numerous reactions are indeed controlled by the concentration of different constituents (ions, hormones, messenger RNA, neuro-transmitters,...) that act as a number of internal state and/or command signals. The cybernetic approach [START_REF] Wiener | Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine[END_REF] of living beings and their dysfunctions remains poorly explored, probably because of the difficulties in collecting the huge amount of relevant data for each individual.

Evaluating the collusion hypothesis

The hypothesis that AIDS is a biological disarmament state benefiting from some unconscious collusion of the neuro-immune system is based on well-defined semantic notions such as identity (self), otherness (non-self), territory (body), aggressiveness (immune defenses) and its repression (immune deficiency). If the unconscious cognitive system is implicated in AIDS, the relationship of individuals with these semantic notions might also be affected. A comparative psychological study of a group of people affected by AIDS with a control group would allow the search for differences in the relationship of these populations to these semantic notions linked to immunity. A similar comparative study could be based on functional magnetic resonant imaging of the brain by choosing discriminating stimuli with respect to these semantic notions. Automated language processing would provide yet another approach for the search of such differences at a language level. The proposed analysis consists simply of looking for a systemic coherence at the level of the organism-as-a-whole in its environment with respect to these semantic notions related to AIDS.

Korzybski [START_REF] Korzybski | Science and sanity : An introduction to non-Aristotelian systems and general semantics[END_REF] emphasizes the importance of being conscious of the many levels of abstraction allowed by our central nervous system in order that in each context, the individual identifies and uses the proper level of abstraction. For individuals affected by AIDS, this would consist of the clear discrimination of the two kinds of disarmament concepts, respectively behavioral or physiological ; i.e. directed outwards or directed inwards. Since the cognitive system is implicated in this hypothesis through improper metaphoric thought and/or conceptual mixing between these two types of disarmament, the conscious learning of this distinction would provide a possibility for readjustment of the cognitive system. Such readjustment would only occur if a semantic continuity takes place spontaneously between the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind. In the case of denial of pregnancy, it was observed that the integration of a piece of information can be sufficient to trigger a spontaneous recovery at the physiological level [START_REF] Sandoz | Reactive-homeostasis as a cybernetic model of the silhouette effect of denial of pregnancy[END_REF].

In our analysis, the disarmament concept was considered within the particular contexts of the Cold War and of the conditions of slaves in Africa. We may observe that this concept can be found in many different guises in modern society. For instance, the instructions given to bank employees in the event of gun attacks recommend them to renounce resistance, to comply with the gangster's commands and thus to increase the chance of safe escape from danger. These instructions are essentially another form of disarmament behavior. This concept also suits the behavior of people who passively suffer the oppression of a relative or of a boss because of the threat to the familial or the professional relationship. Thus, even if the learning of the disarmament behavior was collective through the media coverage of various stages of the Cold War, the personal context of each individual has to be considered to account for the unique space-time nature of empirical facts as described by Korzybski.

Conclusion

On the basis of semantic similarities observed in the socio-environmental context prior to the emergence and propagation of the disease, this paper presents the hypothesis that AIDS may involve some collusion by the neuro-immune system because of positive learning of the disarmament strategy. This semiotic mechanism would be specific of the cognitive abilities of humans. The consideration of this hypothesis within a multidisciplinary context and with respect to current biological knowledge leads to contrasted results. On the one hand, the existence of such a mechanism would require that very early after infection, the HIV virus can be functionally identified by the neuro-immune system as a disarmament operator. This condition would associate informational properties to biological constituents that are far from the current acceptation. On the other hand, this hypothesis appears plausible in regards to the ability of signs to control behavior and physiology, current cognition sciences and recent evidence of the transmission of epigenetic programs. This multidisciplinary context is however too general to allow definitive conclusions in the specific case considered here.

Further research at the systemic level of the individual is proposed for elucidating the existence -or nonexistence -of such a collusion by the neuro-immune system. These investigations are particularly important since if such a mechanism was confirmed in the case of AIDS, it may concern other human dysfunctions through the same kind of mismatched semiotic identification and offer supplementary, cognition-based, therapeutic prospects. Successful adaptation attempts can also been thought of thanks to this mechanism in the case of well-matched semiotic identifications. The physiological needs necessary for the development and the functioning of the human nervous system are highly significant [START_REF] Dunbar | Understanding primate brain evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Dunbar | Evolution in the social brain[END_REF]. The human nervous system was however naturally selected during human evolution. This success means that the adaptive advantages provided by the human nervous system are at least as significant as its physiological cost. These adaptive advantages are still not definitely understood.

If the existence of such a semiotic mechanism was confirmed, it would correspond to an actual contribution of our brain to the unconscious adaptation processes of humans to the environment pressure experienced. This contribution would be compatible with the widely accepted view of the social brain hypothesis [START_REF] Dunbar | Evolution in the social brain[END_REF]. We note indeed that the socio-environmental stressful events considered in this paper correspond actually to social issues.

While waiting for further research to evaluate this hypothesis, the following citations show that the existence of such a Lamarkian mechanism in humans bodes well with respect to the thoughts of such founding fathers of modern biology as Darwin and Selye respectively : "I have hitherto sometimes spoken as if the variations... had been due to chance. This, of course, is a wholly incorrect expression, but it serves to acknowledge plainly our ignorance of the cause of each particular variation... [The observations] lead me to believe that deviations of structure are in some way due to the nature of the conditions of life, to which the parents and their more remote ancestors have been exposed during several generations. I have remarked that the reproductive system is eminently susceptible to changes in the conditions of life ; and to this system being functionally disturbed in the parents, I chiefly attribute the varying or plastic condition of the offspring. The male and female sexual elements seem to be affected before that union takes place which is to form a new being." [START_REF] Darwin | On the origin of species by means of natural selection[END_REF].

"The fact remains, however, that all experimental observations are most readily compatible with the view that during the general adaptation syndrome, certain hormones of the anterior pituitary and adrenal cortex are produced in excessive amounts in order to increase resistance ; this defensive endocrine response is valuable in as much as it facilitates adaptation to stress, but the resulting endogenous hormone overdosage may become the cause of certain cardiovascular, renal and joint diseases. Thus developed the concept that many of the most common maladies of man are "diseases of adaptation", that is to say, the by-products of abnormal adaptive reactions to stress." [START_REF] Selye | The general adaptation syndrome and the diseases of adaptation[END_REF].

Conflict of interest

The author of this paper does not have any conflict of interest concerning this work.


Calina -Ana Butiu
email: bcalina@yahoo.co.uk

APPROACHING THE TERRITORY AS A SPACE OF THE ACTION. PREDICTORS OF THE PARTICIPATION IN THE LIVEZILE-RIMETEA MICRO-REGION (ROMANIA)

Keywords: public participation, territorial development, micro-region, community projects, social actor

There is an increased interest in community participatory development through the involvement of local social actors. Development through participation has shifted the traditional paradigm by placing emphasis on a diversity of local actors, and has generated mixed results, depending on the socio-cultural context of the development area. The sociocultural characteristics of the local respondents may provide clues that can prove helpful in optimising the strategy of social intervention.

Approaching the Territory as a Space of the Action. Predictors of the Participation in the Livezile-Rimetea Micro-region (Romania) During the last decades the problem of territorial development has increasingly been looked upon through a new paradigm, that of participation. Judging by the diversity of forms, one could conclude that there are no legal or institutional barriers to public participations in the political or administrative acts of democratic countries. Although a professional consensus exists on what makes a "good" public participation, the practice ranges according to local preference, availability of funds, and according to the values as seen by governing officials.

Although the principle of public participation is being quasi-unanimously accepted for the purpose of policy making, its practical implementation via local territorial development actors displays particular features that require consideration. Within the framework of local evaluation and development programs, and particularly when it comes to political and administrative decision making, the role templates of the social actors become more fluid and increasingly contextualized.

The public in action becomes social actor and the territory becomes the "scene" with sets that can be reconfigured through collective actions. In recent discussions on development issues the territory is defined as a complex system, which is not reduced to just a natural or geographical space. It is also the space for project and that of action of a community. [START_REF] Girardot | Activities and prospects of CAENTI[END_REF]. The sustainable [territorial] development is the requirement that rattled the policies and practice of governance" remarked J. J. Girardot (2005). To the three generally accepted principles (of complete actor involvement, the global and balanced approach and of the actor partnership), Girardot also added three methodological principles. Out of these, the approach of the territory as a space of the action has been the first to be stated. The action and the participation are ontologically related concepts. The current work attempts to identify the predictors of citizens' participation to those acts of governance which target territorial development. The methodological principle stated by Girardot has been applied in two neighbouring but slightly contrasting communities of Livezile and Rimetea.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION -RECENT DEBATE

Public participation is a process through which public gain influence and take part in public policy. Within Western cultures, the term public participation has strong positive connotations, and is associated with the promotion of democracy. The theoretical literature on public participation is growing rapidly. The need for better conceptual and theoretical understandings of public participation has become clear. Public participation theories have not received great attention, and few have been proposed or tested. Yet theory offers much to practitioners of various interventions. Some examples of fields where public participation often occurs in policy, planning, and development include environmental impact assessment; public health policy; urban, transportation, and energy planning, community economic development; risk management; natural resource management; and democratic reform. But discussion of public participation has lacked a comprehensive framework. As such S.A. [START_REF] Newson | Public Participation in Planning: Correlations between Theory and Objectives[END_REF] considers the term public participation being poorly defined. Programmes are frequently implemented without suggesting or defining the objectives to be achieved. The key to understanding citizen participation depends largely upon the identification of the explicit and implicit objectives intrinsic to the process. In many circumstances, there has been a gap between the policy for public participation and the implementation strategy or process.

More recently, a somewhat different opinion is that of Nancy Glock-Grueneich and Sara Nora Ross who consider that the field of public participation has reached a triple maturity: conceptual, theoretical and institutional Institutional maturation occurs when the development turns a field of practices into a field of academic study, professional instruction, and required usage in all the institutions where that would be an improvement over current functioning. But before institutionalization can occur theoretical maturation must take place. By this, they mean the stages by which a field of sustained study and practice takes on intellectual tasks of increasing complexity leading to its possessing ever more potent theories for anticipating and handling recurring situations. This process of naming key ideas accompanies theoretical maturation. Conceptual maturation means developing a shared language of terms used with enough consistency and precision, and related to each other in a manner coherent enough, that we actually can understand each other across our diverse practices, settings, cultures and languages.

An interesting resurgence of interest over the origin of the term public participation is generated by Ricardo S. [START_REF] Morse | Mary Follett, Prophet of Participation[END_REF], who authors the study "Mary Follett, Prophet of Participation". Mary Follett , a community organiser, scholar, and popular lecturer, became known as one of the seminal thinkers in the fields of public administration and business management. She has been named the "prophet of management". Yet it was democracy and public participation that formed the core of her life's work. The theoretical and practical implications of her writings on public participation have not been adequately explored, said Morse. Follett's work is strong on theory and it is also very much practice-oriented. Her work represents a framework for thinking about democratic governance and points to how that kind of participation can be applied in concrete ways. Follett identifies the neighbourhood as one of the primary vehicles for institutionalizing genuine participation. This is one of the features of her work that distinguishes her from her contemporaries, a feature that requires serious consideration from the public participation community given the rapid growth of so-called neighbourhood programs in communities. The organizing premise of Follett's work lies in her notion of circular response or experience. Human activity is in response to a changing environment. Circular response means that we are making our environment, responding to it, and being "recreated" by it simultaneously, from moment to moment, our whole lives [START_REF] Morse | Mary Follett, Prophet of Participation[END_REF].

Notwithstanding the global societal perspective, a simpler and more practical approach may be that of focusing on the intersection between public participation and development projects. For Somesh Kumar for instance, participation takes a central place in development theory and practices: "Governments, financing agencies, donors, civil society actors including the NGOs and multifunctional agents such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund came to the conclusion that development can not be sustainable and long-lasting if only the people participation is part of the development process." (Kumar, 2007, p. 23).

Kumar's definitions on participation embody a series of common ideas which are underscored by us as follows:

1) participation as a volunteering contribution, 2) participation as involvement in decision making and 3) participation as an active process of influencing the direction and execution of a development project. Kumar also presents in his study a typology of participation taking into account among others its intensity: 1) passive participation (population is informed with no particular interest in its answers); 2) participation in information giving (for example, in the case of a grassroots inquiry of a development project); 3) participation by consultation (people ask and find solutions together with the specialists involved in the development project); 4) participation for material incentives (people participate by providing non-qualified work in exchange of money, food or other material rewards); 5) functional participation (people participate through groups that meet the objectives associated to projects and that get involved in major decisions making); 6) interactive participation (people participate in common analysis, in the development of the action plans and in the formation and consolidation of local institutions); 7) self-mobilization (people participate by spontaneous initiatives, independently from the external institutions which provide them resources and advice, and without loss of control over the way resources are being used).

Taking as a starting point Quakley and his colleagues' ideas, Kumar also pinpoints a series of arguments against participation: 1) participation can lead to starting point and project development delays, with direct implications on public and financial resource attraction; 2) participation requires an increased demand for human and material resources if it is to be sustained); 3) resistance will likely be encountered if participation implies decision making empowerment of the people through transfer away from other factors; delegating control has rarely been easy. Although Kumar starts his analysis on participation with enthusiasm, he becomes more realistic and quite critic in the end: "The truth is that due to these reasons, many projects prefer to involve the people only in the implementing stage. But in most of the projects participation proves to remain more illusory than real. That is why participation remains rather rhetorical than a reality. And this despite the general recognition of the fact that participation in its meaning of interactive participation or participation through self-mobilization must be an essential ingredient of development processes." (Kumar, 2007, p. 26).

In time, a series of problems noticed here have benefited of coherent solutions from the more generous perspective of partnership. Participation appears beside partnership in its quality of territorial intelligence fundamental principle. [START_REF] Girardot | Activities and prospects of CAENTI[END_REF]. Taking into account either the economic intelligence regarded in territorial context, [START_REF] Bibliography Bertacchini | Intelligence territoriale. Le Territoire dans tous ses états[END_REF][START_REF] Herbeaux | Intelligence territoriale. Repères théoriques[END_REF] or the collective intelligence (Levy, 2007) and its manifestations at territorial level, the territorial intelligence is characterized by the same principles, which represent nowadays the basis of sustainable development [START_REF] Pascaru | Intelligence territoriale et développement locale / Territorial Intelligence and Local Governance[END_REF].

In terms of public participation in Romania, a recent study ( 2006) -undertaken under the auspices of The Resource Center for Public Participation and coordinated by Mihaela Lambru -noticed that the citizens' involvement in public policy making is limited to being informed and occasionally consulted but lacking active participation 1 . Furthermore, even the public consultation process is not only limited to the activities and situations sanctioned by law, but also poorly managed overall. This is consistent with the excessively legalistic modus operandum of public administration, and not with the more modern understanding of public management.

THE MICROREGION -A POSSIBLE SPACE OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

Within the European social development policy and practice the creation of development regions rests on the territorial-projected change rationality derived from the principles of participation and of decentralisation.

The function of regional development zones in Romania and microregional carving

The vision and the ensuing development actions are to be the results of a bottom-up process while the resource distribution being propagated top-down, starting from the higher political and administrative levels. The demarcation of territorial development regions within both the member and the aspiring states of The European Union is one of the conditions imposed for accessing structural funds. Being considered both a European requirement and an internal necessity [START_REF] Mitroi | Politici de dezvoltare regională între necesitate şi proiect: ce fel de regionalizare?[END_REF], the creation of the eight development regions in Romania has been defined by M. [START_REF] Pascaru | Introducere în sociolologia regională[END_REF] as a politico-economic rationale driven engineered process named regioning ("regionare") as opposed to the socio-historically spontaneous process of regionalisation. Dumitru Sandu (1999, p.168) makes the additional point that the demarcation of the development regions in Romania has been accomplished having in mind both the ideas of development disparity reduction and that of regional competitiveness maximization.

The Law 151/1998 is the first normative act sanctioning the elements summed up under the aforementioned "regionare" of Romania and has been followed by Law 315/2004 which preserves a substantial part of the original content. These laws establish the institutional framework consisting of the two principal institutions, The Regional Development Council and the eight Regional Development Agencies, and specify the geographical demarcation of the regions. The development regions are clearly defined by law as of economical type, not administrative and not having any legal power. Their main function is that of designing regional development strategies and of facilitating the implementation of European financed projects.

Territorial development disparities are a commonly encountered problem of countries under transition [START_REF] Mitroi | Politici de dezvoltare regională între necesitate şi proiect: ce fel de regionalizare?[END_REF]. For the dual purpose of both regional and local needs, the micro-regional approach could be a viable solution. A good example is Hungary where the constitution of micro-regions has led to a reduction in economic disparities and to a more efficient absorption of funds, according to the most acute priorities. In Romania also, through the initiative of NGOs' and of inspired local leaders, development micro-regions 2 have been (more or less formally) created. Their effectiveness could be assessed through local-scope development projects.

Development through projects, as a form of social change, is an option with significant implications at the territorial level. The broad development objectives, generously formulated (in terms of social desirability) allow freedom for actively involved local actors to identify their own problems, opportunities and solutions and align them with the development direction set by the financier.

Socially and economically, the Apuseni Mountains area (of with the Livezile-Rimetea microregion belongs to) is considered under-privileged for several reasons. Accessibility to urban and rural centres is hampered by the lack of transport infrastructure. A process of demographic ageing is taking place, which is likely to increase depopulation in the future. The standard of living is low and is accompanied by low purchasing power; the prices tend to be higher that the national average. Local producers face difficulty in marketing their product surplus.

Employment rate has increased due to mining and light industry restructuring. The (although high) tourism potential -due to rich resources (natural setting, karstic landmarks, cultural customs, specific architecture) -is being poorly exploited [START_REF] Pascaru | Rural Entrepreneurship and the need for Foreign Investment. Research in the Apuseni Mountains (Alba County, Romania)[END_REF].

Similar research into the public participation issue has been undertaken into another micro-region within the same Apuseni Mountains (the microregion of Albac -Scarisoara -Gârda 3 ). These relatively recent findings have shown that a regional community development approach becomes more functional if framed within the theory of systems. The territorial separation between systems can be achieved based on the intended objectives.

The borders between communities acquire a more administrative and managerial character. The human interrelationships get more institutionalised due to the individual social actors' limitations in their ability to integrate into a wider system. This could partially explain the dissolution of the traditional sense of community. The communitarian system becomes more effective when it accomplishes the politico-managerial function, rather than just the one of support, maintenance and adaptation. The effectiveness obtained by community development (development driven by external inputs) however is different from that obtained by communitarian development (development from within, through and for the community) [START_REF] Sandu | Dezvoltare comunitară. Cercetare, practică, ideologie[END_REF]. Citizens' participation goes beyond the minimal level of electioneering and tax paying, to exchanging information about community's problems and opportunities and to architecting a common development vision and an active engagement strategy (Buţiu, 2006b).

The Livezile -Rimetea microregion as a space of the action

The subject territory, as a development micro-region and as a possible space of collective action consists of two neighbouring communes, Livezile (including the villages of Livezile, Izvoarele, Poiana Aiudului and Valisoara) and Rimetea (including the villages of Rimetea and Coltesti). The two communes are situated in the northern side of Alba county, at an average distance of 40 km of Alba Iulia, the county's administrative centre. Four of the six villages belong to a distinct geographical region, The Trascau Depression4 .

There are some significant differences between the two communes as to the local territorial development. The Livezile commune encompasses more villages but with less inhabitants and dwelling units per village5 (4 villages with 584 dwellings and 1526 inhabitants as opposed to 2 villages with 496 dwellings and 1213 inhabitants). Ethnically the majority is Romanian in Livezile (98.7%) and Hungarian in Rimetea (87.3%).

According to 2003 official statistics, both communes display low employment levels (80 working people in Livezile and 110 in Rimetea respectively). The main source of employment remains agriculture (wheat, rye, corn, fruit and vegetable growing, horticulture and some small-scale cattle growing). People in Rimetea commune however have recently become a lot more involved in agro-turism (40 bed-and-breakfast currently registered) and auxiliary trades (tourist guiding, artisan objects crafting and small commerce). The village of Izvoarele within the commune of Livezile however, although with very similar tourism potential (and notwithstanding a more aged demographic) shows less consistency in generating agro-turism revenues.

The houses in Rimetea are build under a straight unitarian architectural style, remarkable enough to achieve an architectural conservation status and the EUROPA NOSTRA prize for the centre village house restoration in 1999. The road to public participation in community development programs has not been easy in either of the communes, but it is noticeable that people in Rimetea have been more instrumental in attracting private funding (particularly from Hungary, but not only) and more engaged in small business versus those from Livezile who relied more on public funding.

The poor condition of the transport infrastructure is a common problem and the main obstacle to further development. The county road Aiud-Buru is the main artery passing through 5 of the 6 villages and is in a state of deterioration. An improvement in its' condition, coupled with the proximity to Rimetea village to the Transylvania highway will certainly maximise the development opportunities of the micro-region.

Within this context we considered that special attention to the participatory process is warranted. The survey, applied through a questionnaire, had taken place during the month of December 2007. Three hundred and sixty-six respondents have been queried by selecting every 3 rd dwelling from 5 out of the 6 villages. The proportion of male/female respondents was fairly equal, ethnically being split 60% Romanian and 40% Hungarian (weights reflecting the actual population distribution). Age wise 20.8% were young respondents (18-34 years), 41% adults (35-59 years) and 38.3% seniors (60+ years). Based on the educational level 44.3% were high-school graduates at best, 41.1% had additional studies and 4.1% had higher education. The sample details are illustrated in Annex 1.

The survey aimed at (1) the identification of local problems and community's future citizens' representation, (2) trust in public participation and (3) the relationships within the community. The current study examines the results connected to participation.

(a) Participation as contribution to community projects

During the discussion on development through projects, three methods of social actor engagement were considered: the supply of ideas and solutions as one of the territorial intelligence forms of expression, the material contribution through monies and goods and the labour contribution. On the predefined list of social actors we included the community dwellers, local businessmen and the City Hall, and external actors such as the European Union, the state authorities and foreign investors. We are not surprised that hard-workmanship, commitment and money are ranked first and the local financial contribution last. We do notice however some firm denial of some of the arguments on the list and some marginal proportion of those that come up with their own argument (3.3%). That makes us pause for a moment and think of the reasoning behind it. For instance out of those believing in the success of a project, 68.4% do not think it would be due to the hard-workmanship of the people, 78% do not even think that being in their interest would suffice and 81.5% doubt that the financial resources are the key to success. The other arguments are denied in even greater proportions.

The data in

When analysing the reply distribution across villages, we notice that most affirmative confidence in the success of a community project comes from the Livezile village (92.6%), where a large number of infrastructure projects with a wide spectrum of beneficiaries have recently been completed. From the fact that, except that of Livezile, no other positive recent experience determinants are known, we confirm the fact that there is a lack of active participation to the implementation of community projects. Age-wise the adults display a higher degree of confidence in the success of a project (84.7% from the 35-39 years of age category) than the young (15.8% of the 18-34 years of age category). The more optimistic young however are likely to attribute the success of a project to participants' contribution in terms of effort, monies and goods, rather than to the competences of local authorities. Gender-wise the levels of confidence seem close (79.1% of men and 79.9% of women). Women seem less inclined to support any of the pre-defined reasons and refer more frequently to the "other" category, without being more specific. More significant differences appear in relation to the religious beliefs. The Greek-Orthodox display a majority of confidence in the success of a community project. The non-Orthodox scepticism is based more on a distrust in the interest and in the competence of local authorities. The more optimistic non-Orthodox attribute the success of a project more so than the Orthodox (57.1% v. 42.9%) to the private firms' contribution in goods and monies.

(b) Participation as preoccupation for the community problems

Within the micro-region, the proposals, the doubts and misgivings on community problems are discussed mostly with the mayor and vice-mayor (63.9%), followed by the family (38.5%) and then neighbours (37.4%). Only 19.1% state they discuss with local councillors and 9.6% with the priest (Table 2). We notice however significant differences between villages, most probably rooted in different cultures, in the position of the authorities and depending on the distance to the administrative centre. The peripheral position of the village in relation to the commune administrative centre seems to negatively affect the discussions with councillors and the diversity of sources. The preference for neighbour discussions seems highest in Izvoarele (peripheral village, exclusively inhabited by Romanians and having an ageing demographic) and is minimal in Rimetea (centre of the commune, inhabited mostly by Hungarians). Family members are high on the list also in the villages central to the commune, Livezile and Rimetea, most likely due to the diversity of the sources of information and feedback. The preference for the priest as councillor from the villages of Coltesti and Poiana Aiudului can be explained by the well-known activism of those church figures and their community involvement and not necessarily related to the dominant faith (Unitarian in Coltesti and Christian-Orthodox in Poiana Aiudului).

The interest in community problems as manifested through discussions with various actors, peeks with adults and bottoms out with young. Gender-wise males are more likely to discuss the issues with officials, friends and family (differences of 10-20%), as opposed to women who prefer engaging in discussions with the priest and the neighbours (differences of 35% and 10% respectively). Religion-wise the Greek-Orthodox seem more likely to engage a variety of social actors as opposed to the non-Orthodox who prefer the friends (56.1% v. 43.9%).

Another aspect that was discussed was that of the feedback given by the villagers to local authorities as to the quality of public works. The results show that the majority of respondents (55.2%) had dissatisfactions with the quality of some works and only 30.1% have voiced it to the authorities. The majority of complaints have been expressed verbally and casually (27.6%) with only 1.4% having requested a formal audience and even less so (1.1%) going to the extent of putting it in writing. Out of the total number of complaints about a quarter have been solved satisfactorily.

Overall the method of complaint seems to have a minimal influence over the resolution of the problem. As one Coltesti councillor suggestively explains "the small problems are solved in relation to how one can and to how the law allows". Distribution-wise, most of the dissatisfaction with public works manifests in Rimetea and Coltesti, the same villages where trust in mayor and councillors is less. In these villages the general infrastructure problems are compounded by dissatisfaction with the quality of waterworks and with the poorly controlled waste disposal system.

Young are most dissatisfied with public works (68.4%) albeit admittedly being the least likely to formally report it (38.2%). Men are more dissatisfied than women (57.8% v. 52.5%); and non-Orthodox more than the Orthodox (65.2% and 47.3% respectively). Gender and religion-wise the same order applies to the propensity to report the dissatisfaction.

(c) Mobilisation for Action

Under the Communist regime, a good part of the public works has been undertaken through citizens' labour contribution. The apparently volunteer act of "patriotic work", which concealed a hidden politically-driven obligativity, has managed to discredit the idea of voluntary participation; community leaders continued to encounter resistance to the idea of participation long after the regime change. After two decades of democratic exercise we notice that territorial affiliation and the level of education being the two most important factors affecting the response behaviour (Table 3 andAnnex 2). At least that's what our survey shows 7 . We remark that in the predominantly Hungarian villages (Rimetea and Coltesti) the influence of territorial affiliation supersedes that of the level of education, even though the community attachment seems more clearly expressed in the predominantly Romanian villages 8 . Also as stimuli for participation, before political affiliation, what matters more is the neighbourhood and the blood ties. As a matter of fact, within the rural space of Romania, the neighbourhood and blood ties are the main institutions of mutual support (see Butiu 2006a). Otherwise said, if the social networks and the institutional contacts stimulate participation [START_REF] Marschall | Citizen Participation and the Neighborhood Context: A New Look at the Coproduction of Local Public Goods[END_REF]) the leader's prestige and the experience of mutual support are vectors of mobilisation for action as a superior level of participation. Blood ties, neighbourhood and the economic prosperity have equal footings. The young value more the level of education and political affiliation while older people put a higher emphasis on territorial affiliation, blood ties and neighbourhood. Gender-wise women place less importance on all the above factors, except for the political affiliation.

CONCLUSIONS

From the literature review we notice a relatively well structured discourse on public participation, populated by theories, instruments and examples of success. Nevertheless discrepancies exist between discourse -typically political -and territorial realities. Across the flow of participatory processes one encounters obstacles that have more to do with the profile of the social actors rather than with the territorial configuration. New challenges arrive particularly where there are no instituted governing structures or where they are insufficiently consolidated. It is the case of the development regions and micro-regions where the technocratic component dominates the territorial development projects, but the action and the participatory reflection instruments lack definition. The understanding of the socio-cultural particularities of the population inhabiting a certain territorial contour is a necessary step in the process of stimulation to participate.

Our methodological start point was the first principle for accomplishing a sustainable development -approaching the territory as a space of the action (Girardot, 2005). We focused on a territorial image made up of two neighbouring communes, Livezile and Rimetea, placed in a relatively unitary geographical framework, and which present quite contrasting socio-cultural characteristics. Out of the set of dimensions the concept of participation can be mapped upon, in the current study we took particular interest in the following: participation as contribution to community projects, participation as preocupation for the community problems and the mobilisation for the local development actions. On the basis of the questionnaire-based survey carried throughout December 2007, we draw some conclusions which carry some significance for the local participation-based development actions: 1) there is a relatively healthy feedback to local authorities on the quality of the public works projects, but a poor follow-up response in return 2) the locals consider that many of their ideas and workforce potential can be used as successful contributions to the resolutions of community problems and 3) there is a relatively high level of confidence in the successful completion of community projects, mostly based on a mutual perception of hard workmanship.

Starting from the premise of tourism-based development opportunities (offered by the distinctive location of the two communes) we set to identify the main predictors of local actor participation, in an area with various degrees of tourism potential utilization. Among these, the village, as a territorial entity and the religious affiliation seem to be the most significant predictors of the mobilisation for action response, in association with certain characteristics of the mobilising leader.

So it is expected that in the predominantly Hungarian (and religiously Unitarian) villages of Rimetea and Coltesti the response is more positive to the solicitations coming from a higher educated leader who above all is member of the territorial community. In the predominantly Romanian villages (with the exception of Livezile) the prime quality of the leader should be e high level of education, the territorial affiliation falling secondly. For none of the villages the political affiliation matters much. In a nutshell, the leader that who can mobilise towards development actions in the micro-region is one who is well educated and who belongs to the territorial community, regardless of his or her political affiliation.

ANNEX

1

  The superior participation level according to OECD 2 As an example please refer to http://www.greenagenda.org and http://www.mtmm.ro 3 See the project The Utilisation of Catalyse Method in the study and the dynamization of rural communities. Socio-psichopedagogical experimentation in the Albac -Scarisoara -Horea (Apuseni Mountains, Alba), Grant CNCSIS, Cod 678/2004., Project Director Mihai Pascaru.

  Table1dispels the myth that most are expecting EU monies contribution; the European Union is barely ranked 4 th , after the central public administration, local administration and foreign investors. Less material contribution is expected from those inhabitants with problems, but more in terms of work effort and ideas. These findings suggest the existence of favourable premises for those processes of community development that rely less on public financing and more on empowerment, those processes centred on local human resources.

	Tabel 1: Opinions as to the expected social actor contribution to community problem solving (%)
	YES it should contribute with …	The European Union	Foreign Investors	State Authorities City Hall Local businessmen	Inhabitants with problems
	Ideas	58.2	55.7	66.7	84.4	69.4	81.1
	Monies/Goods	77.9	78.4	86.9	80.6	73.5	52.2
	Work effort	40.4	45.1	50.5	71.3	62.8	83.1

It remains to be seen though to what extent are the expressed opinions translated into behaviour, as a step between desirable and realizable. Where the question "Do you think a community project like road fixing, school repair or bridge building could be successfully completed in your village?" was asked, 79.5% answered YES, arguing 6 that: people would work (25.7%), it's in their interest (17.5%), because people are hard-working and committed (16.4%), due to financial resources (15%), because there is interest from local authorities (12%), due to competence of City Hall personnel (11.7%), because other projects have finalized (11.2%), because firms would contribute with monies/goods (9.6%), due to good project management and coordination (5.5%), because people would contribute monies/goods (3.6%).

Table 2 :

 2 When you have a misgiving or a proposal about a community problem, whom are you discussing it with? (%)

	Village of the respondent	Mayor / Vice-Mayor	Local Councillor	Neighbours	Family Member	Priest
	Livezile	82.7	24.7	38.3	51.9	8.6
	Poiana Aiudului	66.1	12.9	33.9	27.4	14.5
	Izvoarele	68.0	16.0	50.0	26.0	4.0
	Rimetea	53.7	24.4	29.3	41.5	1.2
	Colţeşti	52.7	15.4	39.5	38.5	17.6
	MICROREGION	63.9	19.1	37.4	38.5	9.6

48.9 51.1 58.1 40.8 0.6 1.4 44.3 41.1 4.1 0.5 Annex 2:

  The leader's significant characteristics facilitating mobilisation to action for community development

	Annex 1: Descriptive Characteristics of Sample (%)
			Age Group			Gender	Ethniticity				Education Level
	Village	Young (18-34	years)	Adults (35-59	years)	Seniors (60+	years)	Female	Male	Romanian	Hungarian	Rrom	Other /	Undeclared	High-school at	best	Medium	Eduction	Higher Eductaion	Other
	Livezile	23.5	49.4	27.2 44.4 55.6 98.8 1.2 -	-		34.6 63.2 6.2	-
	Poiana Aiudului	27.4	30.6	41.9 61.3 38.7 98.4 1.6 -	-		51.6 43.6 3.2	1.6
	Izvoarele	4.0	36.0	60.0 46.0 54.0 100	-	-	-		68.0 28.0 4.0	-
	Rimetea	19.5	37.8	42.7 50.0 50.0 15.9 79.3 1.2 3.6 42.7 52.4 4.9	-
	Colţeşti	24.2	46.2	29.7 45.1 54.9 7.7 89.0 1.1 2.2 36.3 49.5 2.2	1.1
	MICROREGION 38.3 Predictor 20.8 41.0 Is member of the territorial community Has a high level of education		Is relative or neighbour	Is an Entrepreneur		Represents a particular political party
	SATUL/ COMUNA
	Livezile	2.83					2.78		2.05			1.89				1.52
	Poiana Aiudului	2.29					2.24		1.94			2.19				1.74
	Izvoarele	2.38					2.54		1.91			1.86				1.44
	LIVEZILE COMMUNE	2.50					2.52		1.97			1.98				1.57
	Rimetea	2.79					2.49		2.15			1.89				1.78
	Colţeşti	2.49					2.32		1.91			1.92				1.73
	RIMETEA COMMUNE	2.64					2.40		2.03			1.90				1.75
	Age
	18 -34 years	2.59					2.57		2.03			1.96				1.80
	35 -59 years	2.51					2.45		1.89			1.84				1.64
	60+ years	2.66					2.46		2.14			2.05				1.59
	Gender
	Women	2.46					2.34		1.92			1.93				1.67
	Men	2.70					2.60		2.10			1.96				1.64

As a geographical unit, it is considered as one of the most pitoresque and attractive turistic areas in the Carpathian Mountains and having an important natural development potential.

The statistics refer to the last (2002) government survey.

Multiple response to a pre-defined list of reasons given to the consecutive question « Why do you think it would succeed ? »