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One challenge to contemporary sodological theory is redefining its conceptual baggage, in a historical context in which institutions of the salaried society-with inclusive and universalistic aspirations-are backtracking as organizers of social relationships. This paper intends to account for the repercussions that this challenge generates in a seties of contemporary works that address one particular subject: health, illness and health-care, approached not from this sub-disciplinary area itself, but from the general field of social theory. Following a comparative strategy, the first part of the paper is focused on Talcott Parsons work, one of the authors of general sociological theory, who contributes to configuring a perspective on the medical reality of societies In early modernity. The second part of the article explores two contemporary approaches to health problems related to social theory: theoties of governability, whose authors are commonly called "AngloFoucaultians" and reflexivity theories. In general terms, the conclusion is that the current authors who were analyzed focus on individual and collective risk management, as well as the configuration of ethics for self-care, which distance themselves from the centrality of the social role notion and its supposed theoretical bases such as socio-cultural Integration In the Parsonian explicative model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and using participatory social research methodologies, this paper seeks to expose and understand conflicts between water users from two river basins in Chile, that, despite their location in completely different areas (one a desert, the other an extreme south-austral zone), have similarities in socio-environmental conflict, since in both cases the existence of mega-projects (one, a mine, the other, a hydroelectric plant) has generated diverse visions of development between the directly affected local communities and the transnational corporations. The paper reflects on these similarities and the socio-environmental struggles they are experiencing, concluding that IWRM is the way to raise awareness and seek solutions to environmental conflicts in the current era of "neoliberal ecocide". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As new knowledge and interpretations emerge, concepts change. When a concept is used, a universal meaning is not always kept in mind. The impression given by the literature on participation is that the same word is used to describe a multitude of conditions or phenomena rather than a single one. This paper will look at diverse definitions and uses of the concept participation in order to explore its meanings and consider if it is possible to discern their common characteristics and recognize their differences in use and meaning. For that purpose, a review of the concept as it appears in general and specialized dictionaries and academic texts from various disciplines, including political philosophy, democratic theory, political sociology, capabilities approach, social and communitarian psychology, was made. To broaden the perspective and focus on the use of the concept, 30 professionals, political leaders and activists who use it regularly were interviewed by email. Analysis made it possible to recognize various common attributes in the definitions of participation. Participation has an intrinsic value; is always related to action; is essential to democracy; and combines rational, critical capacities regarding ideas, values, practices and forms of social organization. Results suggest the need to expand the conceptual exploration to include evidence-based studies and interventions in which the concept of participation is used to identify and classify its empirical referents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes beheadings among groups of drug traffickers in Mexico resulting from the professional practice of violence, directed fundamentally by people trained in the Kaibil military school in Guatemala. Beheadings disrupt the traditional ideas of violence, legality and death. Death is now constructed based on specific parameters: rational calculation, intoxicating anger and the glory of image. The paper suggests the impact this has on defining the so-called "war against drugs" led by the current federal administration, which seems to excite social tensions and the institutionalization of violence as a form of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sooner or later, sociologists and political philosophers, with few exceptions, end up referring to the theme of the differences between what is considered truly political, and what is ethical or moral. This difference however is far from relevant. But it is particularly important in the global times of today, when It is assumed that politics has been replaced by pure economic reasoning. This would mean that in the global times of modernity there are no conflicts, because there are no real actors, neither social nor political. In the face of this catastrophic and resigned manner of thinking. I have protested before In another publication (Mires, 2000). I wish to refer now to the theme of the inter-relations between morality, ethics and politics that has not passed beyond a second level. It has, on the contrary, more validity now if we wish to recover political reasoning, especially in Latin American countries where the process of constructing democracy, both formal and real, is far from being over, with or without globalization. The political sociology of the post-modern age which is still in the making, must recover the ethical-political legacy from the Athenian era up to the present, with an attempt to understand the sense and reason of these public places that were created so that our conflicts and interests could be reconciled without recurring to violence, something that has recently seemed possible In certain Latin American countries. So-called citizen virtues are, effectively, the result of long historical processes marked by multiple pre-political adventures. Before virtues appeared on the citizen menu, a lot of blood flowed under the bridges. This paper is an essay that centers first on the relationships between ethics, politics and morality. In the second place, we refer to the theme of passions, from the point of view of political virtue. Lastly, we refer to a more permanent political theme: truth and non-truth In the life of the citizen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Punto Fijo model in Venezuela was the expression of the relationship between nationalism, modernization and democracy. Its legitimacy was based on the strategy of "planting oil" (investing oil revenues) in order to modernize society. However the failure of the model placed the country in a difficult situation in which modernization became more and more unattainable. Three sectors of society (social movements including labor movements, the management sector, including professionals and oil executives, and the military) built political projects during the final stages of the Punto Fijo model and into the collapse of this model and the party system associated with it up until 1998, when Chavism began to dominate the political apparatus of the state. However, the development of this process and recent happenings have proven that the political scenario is more difficult to manage than was thought, and the loss of presidential popularity and the upsurge of movements to eliminate Chavez indicate that the political situation is still unstable. The question is: What explains the permanence of Chavez in power even after his loss of popularity? One answer discussed in this paper is the president's ability to interpret popular resentment to- wards the previous ruling parties, and his ability to impose independent external policy which capitalizes anti-U.S. sentiment in large segments of the population, and which Is based on a cultural tension well rooted in the history of the country. The most important conclusion is that the 40 years of Punto Fijo-model have created in Venezuela a not-so-automatic and not-so-blind acceptance of leadership, wherever it comes from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]