Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Usually, the investigations on political clientelism tend to adopt and external point of view of the phenomenon which do not take into account the cultural and psychosocial processes that support these practices. Thus, I performed a case study in a peasant community located in the province of Formosa, Argentina, aiming to approach both, the subjective dimension of clientelism and the seeking of social assistance as a survival strategy. I conclude that the existence of relations of reciprocity between wealthy actors such as politicians and landlords, and small farmers, is characteristic of the peasant culture. Nonetheless, despite the fact it is clear that these practices are related to clientelism, they are not the same. Finally, I argue that while political clientelism sometimes can be explained focusing on relations of power, in other cases the feeling of gratitude between peasants and landlords is the most important aspect.

This paper presents a characterization of the process of working self-management that occurred in Argentina from 1990 to 2006, focusing specially on “Companies Recovered by Workers”. The analysis employs a number of analytical dimensions that examine this process with reference to previous self-management experiences. We argue that these experiences can be studied as working re-collectivization processes, whose beginning and development is situated in scenarios in which deep processes of social, economic and political un-collectivization are occurring. These aforementioned dimensions related to the process of re-collectivization assume the exposition of arguments around the following interpretative elements: the reconstruction of a collective working space and experience, which recovered part of the wage-earning history of workers; the reconfiguration of sociability links inside the productive space; and the relation with social and union organizations which represent the interests of the workers of the recovered companies.

The global society confronts a double crisis: one concerning our relation with the natural environment and the other referred to our own human condition. With this idea as starting point, we proposed the need to think about the issues of development, not only in the economic sense, but in a more complete human sense. In this task, we consider that different institutions and social actors must be involved in order to build together a better future. Educational institutions, and specially universities, will have a fundamental role, because they constitute the natural place for inquiry, analysis, and construction of new proposals. In this article, we undertake a review of the background behind these crises, discuss new lines of thought directed to deal with these crises and we conclude emphasizing the importance of creating spaces for ethical consideration.

Online communities have been seen as a new social sphere that contributes to the emergence of democratic processes faster and better than those in the physical world. However, the scope and characteristics of these virtual social interactions needs a more profuse and deeper analysis. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the actions of individuals in these communities differ from those in the traditional community. Do these virtual spaces accomplish the aspirations and promises we have invest in them? One point will address the complexities of establishing online communities, then moving on to determine how do norms are set in these virtual spaces. Finally the work will focus on the case study of a virtual community in Argentina called Taringa!

The following paper addresses the concept of Transmodernity under two different points of view. On one hand, the view of Rosa María Rodríguez Magda, which portrays the concept of Transmodernity as a dialectical triad between Modernity, Postmodernity and Transmodernity, being the last both continuation and overcoming of Postmodernism. On the other hand, the view of Enrique Dussel, who establishes Transmodernity as a utopian project that is transverse to modernity/postmodernity. This project is before modernity and transcends it as well, being a category of externality that seeks to raise the voice of non-European-American cultures, in order to establish symmetrical intercultural dialogues that carry features of their own culture immeasurable to the modern European project. This is how we’ll confront both concepts of Transmodernity in order to highlight its differences and contrapositions.

From viewing Internet as a cultural creation that reflects the principles and values of its inventors, the author examines how Internet and freedom became synonymous for many people around the world, an how after this states and churches reacted by trying to restore administrative control over expression and communication. He then raises the question of whether Internet is controllable, contrasting control and surveillance technologies with freedom technologies. Thus involving actors and principles: hackers and crackers, freedom and security ¸ the encryption of the message. The author exemplifies with the Spanish experience of Internet regulation.

This article argues that Chile, despite having signed international agreements in United Nations conferences that recognize  youth as having rights in the area of sexuality, does not broadcast these rights or develop specific public policies so they can exercise them. This is due to the existence of factual powers as the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that imposes a conservative speach. The article addresses a ‘rights’ approach, whereby the design and implementation of sex education programs should respond to the needs of young people.

The new social protection policies that seek to address the multidimensionality of social development claim to have comprehensiveness as an end and intersectorality as a means to tend to it. Thus, the promise of comprehensive approaches is being placed on the relationship between sectors mainly governmental- thus it is decisive how such relationship is built. Using as an example the «System for Comprehensive Childhood Protection, Chile Grows with You» and using secondary and primary sources triangulated with 20 interviews, the study examines the issue of intersectorality. It concludes that in this case the interagency collaboration design corresponds to an intersectorality of low intensity, which is not consistent with the declared aim of comprehensiveness. However, it suggests that the central problem may be settled in the proper ambiguity of the notion of comprehensiveness that was at the origin of the social policy. Therefore, the main lesson to be derived from this case is that the effectiveness of the new social policies is dependent, among other factors, both of the comprehensive approach adopted as well as the interagency collaboration strategies for the purpose.

This article draws upon participatory theories on democracy to understand the different roles played by social movements in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador in the refounding processes occurring in these countries. It is expected that participatory theories on democracy can provide more appropriate references to address the conceptions of democracy that permeate these redesigned new governments and state institutions. And from that, to better understand the role reserved for social movements in these countries if protagonists, secondary actors or in the process of exclusion.

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