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

The purpose of this essay is to show that the standard approach of economic modelling (which consists of assuming closed systems and optimizing agents) is ineffective for the issue of uncertainty. Since under uncertainty economic agents do not know the final outcome of a course of action, their decisions should not be represented by the process of constrained optimization. The construction of axiomatic systems that lead to the derivation of a single result is also put into question; its replacement by a simulation-based approach is proposed.

This paper shows how system analysis applied to local spaces facilitate the generation of proposals for integral development in the field of sustainability. Regions are composed of physical and social components generating products that benefit or harm themselves. These resources can be exploited or remained idle for lack of actors to develop them. They react to internal and external actions, both human and natural. Among these actions are the policies for local development. For these policies to be efficient, they need comprehensive studies that contain information that shows the structural, relational and functional deficiencies of the territory and, with this information, adopt the necessary political actions to correct them. This study supports system analysis as an information tool for policy-making.

Teniendo en cuenta que la orientación al mercado puede variar entre distintos niveles de una misma organización y que la mayor parte de los estudios realizados, si no todos, en materia de orientación al servicio del público se han centrado en el ámbito institucional o nivel jerárquico de decisión estratégica, este trabajo se ha concentrado en el análisis de la orientación al servicio del público, en concreto sobre sus consecuencias, en una unidad básica de actuación pública dentro de un Gobierno, es decir, en un nivel jerárquico de la esfera táctica y operativa de la actuación pública. El análisis de las consecuencias de la orientación al servicio del público se ha realizado sobre la unidad básica de actuación pública de fomento de la Economía Social del País Vasco, mediante un total de 9 entrevistas semi-estructuradas dirigidas a los informantes-clave definidos.

El artículo ofrece una síntesis de pensamiento económico de América Latina después de la segunda guerra mundial, desarrollando en particular la especificidad de la perspectiva regional. La idea es describir sus comienzos y sus autores claves, los cuales generalmente son desconocidos en los círculos académicos anglosajones. La lectura que guía la presentación cuestiona las interpretaciones eurocéntricas. Desde 1980 el discurso económico en América Latina ha perdido sus características sui generis. Su vocabulario hoy se ha perdido para las nuevas generaciones, dada la pre-eminencia de las ideas de la ortodoxia neoliberal y sus políticas, las cuales ciertamente no han mejorado los estándares de la vida en la región.

This paper aims to contribute to the sociological study of “abstractions” as a key to comprehend the relations between the conceptual and the empirical. Our argument is that “abstraction” is a third term that challenges the customary divorce between these domains in sociology inasmuch as interrogates their complex mediation in social life. To do so, we explore the possibilities of a sociology of abstraction as an exercise of thinking and observation aimed at: (i) comprehending the immersion of social theory’s practices of abstraction as immanent to the dynamics of abstraction of society; and (ii) deciphering the concrete movement of concepts that give form to society and durability to social relations. Thus, we intend to show that the project of a sociology of abstractions consists in an unavoidable reflexive retreat that displays concepts in order to reach what is beyond concepts.

As any social activity, research in social sciences is institutionalized by the action of individuals, establishing certain mechanisms that regulate -through defined organizational patterns- its social and institutional activities. In this way, the social research developed in higher education institutions is experienced by their actors as an established and objective reality that precedes the actual individual; a reality attached to a clear definition of roles, situations and behaviors. From a sociological perspective, and confronting the interference of the current information and communications technologies, in this paper are explored the obstacles and opportunities facing the institutionalized condition of social research, and their actors in societies with different types of development. For that purpose, we look into the connection of four dimensions of the problem: the expansion and dispersion of human and social sciences; the institution as a regulatory structure for the organization of the research activity; the academic researcher as the main actor, and finally, the role of "academic peer" as an arbiter of a competition more institutional than cognitive.

Estimados lectores, tengo el gusto de presentarles el volumen 17, número 32, de la revista Civilizar Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, en la cual se cuenta con la participación de 36 autores, de los cuales 13 pertenecen a instituciones del extranjero.

Since the 1990s, globally, there have been a large number of mergers and acquisitions (hereafter M & As) in the financial world whose objective is to leverage the international growth of the sector. As Latin American banks have not been the exception, we have examined whether M & As are internationalization mechanisms used by Latin American banks; For this, we chose as the case studies the main bank in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, observing the behavior of the indicator and dimensioning the degree of internationalization, during the period 1990-2014. We apply several measurement methodologies in order not to leave out important aspects of internationalization. The results of the study present evidence of the use of M & As by Latin American banks as internationalization strategies to reach new markets.

This article presents the results of a research that analyzes the representation of young students in the mediatization of the phenomenon of violence in schools in the city of La Plata, Argentina, from 1993-2011. Given the characteristics of the study object, the methodological approach was qualitative and the information analysis stage was carried out within the framework of the socio-educational analysis of the discourse. Among the results obtained, we observe that in the forms of designating the "violent student" two dimensions are presented to characterize the young: the pathological and the cognitiveacademic. Given the originality of the study, it provides a background for future research that addresses the association of young people with violence in the school space. 

For several years the concept of a third party has been conceived, as far as the procedural doctrine in Colombia is concerned, from a confused perspective, specifically in the case of the so-called guarantee, leaving aside the fact that although at the beginning of the process could not appear clearly as one of the parties that will intervene in a main way, it will be a supervening party, which should be interpreted in coherence with what one might say is forced arbitration in Colombia; to the extent that the study of constitutionality of the aforementioned rule presents some contradictions that will be reviewed in the development of this article.