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The aim of this paper is to propose guidelines to achieve sustainability and rural development buffalo agro-ecosystems, based on a critical analysis of approaches exist to address sustainable rural development, conceptual aspects to generate sustainability and bubaline context of livestock in Latin America and Venezuela. The best address the buffalo agro-ecosystems approach is the interaction between society and nature. From the analysis of the conceptual aspects it can be inferred that the cognitive ability of farmers from the ecological point of view, can mean a trigger point to create change. The context of Latin America and National reflect a favorable outlook for buffalo farming. The suggested guidelines are around establish mechanisms for regulating the flow of materials and energy level of the buffalo agro-ecosystems, to strengthen the cognitive abilities of farmers and the need to level of government to change the vision of infrastructure for rural development. With these guidelines the buffalo agro-ecosystems may have a high potential to become sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account the consideration attributed to the verification by Alf Ross and by the three-dimensional trialist integrativism, we address particularly to the importance of legal strategy in doctrine and legal thinking in general. This paper develops the perspectives of strategy in itself and in the dimensions of social reality, norms and values with which trialism constructs its the legal object. In this context verification is, above all, an instrument to unmask the interests, forces, authors, recipients, norms and senses of value, present in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My goal in this short paper is to argue that so-called intermediary concepts play an essential role in organizing and generating legal knowledge. My point of departure is a reconstruction and a critique of Alf Ross's analysis of such concepts. His goal was to argue that there exist concept in the law which have no semantic reference, yet it is reasonable to use them as they perform some useful function regarding the presentation of legal rules. I believe that Ross is wrong on both counts: his argument to the effect that intermediary concepts have no reference is flawed, and his characterization of the functions such concepts play in the law is too limiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his early work Kritik der Sogenannten Praktischen Erkenntnis. Zugleich Prolegomena zu Einer Kritik der Rechtswissenschaft the eminent Danish legal philosopher Alf Ross intended to provide the philosophical foundations for the construction of his theory of law. The central element of these foundations is his critique of practical reason (practical cognition). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this critique. It is argued that in his analysis Ross oscillates between two different understandings of practical reason. According to the first one, practical reason is a special capacity to cognize and establish the objectively existing moral norms (values, or ends); according to the second one, it is a special capacity just to cognize the objectively existing moral norms (values, or ends). It is argued that his most interesting and plausible arguments (pointing at logical inconsistencies) against practical reason apply only to the former understanding thereof, not to the latter. Accordingly, his work fails to provide conclusive reasons for rejecting the concept of practical reason as a special capacity for the cognition of the objectively existing moral norms (values, or ends). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to propose the existence of a late-capitalist code able to colonize individuals and communities' sense of belonging. That is made claiming individual as sovereign and owner of his/her psychological states and the aesthetization of other's misery as an insubstantial consumption. Rejecting own and other's vulnerability is paradoxically proposed as a way to socialize individuals and groups. At the same time this principle makes fragile political choices on the common future for citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immersed in the paradigm of the great challenges, having expectations for an advancement of knowledge appears full of uncertainties. This is so because of the gap between knowledge from experts and common citizens and the high uncertainty belonging to the (techno)scientific activity. The information society is not a society of knowledge: despite that (techno) science defines much of our capacities and possibilities our culture is not a (techno)scientific culture but a (tecno) scientificated culture. This paper tries to show what this epistemic and political problem consist. That political issue prevents processes of public deliberation having real transcendence. It is important to note how tools of the emerging open society are generating knowledge communities that can help to shape a knowledge society whereas what kind of processes may become binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to analyze communities of knowldege such as the communities of public domain software and the open knowledge. All knowledge's community show several characteristics in common: granularity, hospitality, mediation and an activist component to achieve a goal. Both analyzed communities share similar ethos. Evolution of theses communities in recent years are going to be analyzed, because of the appearance of new actors such as the capitalist conglomerates as intermediaries of those communities and their consequences. Final claim asserts that this new actors generate a kidnapping of the activist objectives of this communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the factors that determine knowledge and technology transfer (TT) between the university and business in a developing country. The objective is to analyze the impact of these activities on regional development by adopting the open innovation perspective and focusing on the individual. To do this, after a literature review and using qualitative methodology, ten semi-structured interviews with teachers at the Technical University of Oruro (UTO) and managers of small and medium enterprises in the Department of Oruro (Bolivia) were conducted. The main results show that these activities are still very incipient in the region, so their impact on regional development is low. In conclusion, this study establishes that the determinants for TT activities between the UTO and the business sector can be divided into opportunities and barriers. Among the opportunities for the UTO, internal improvements and a more proactive role in society stand out. For the companies, the opportunities are improved productivity and competitiveness. On the other hand, the barriers to TT are bureaucratic, lack of funding, lack of confidence and lack of professionalism. Therefore, it is very important that a clear policy be established to regulate technology transfer activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of environmental values on the relationship between demographic characteristics (sex, education, age and ethnicity) and a company's results (economic performance and environmental performance), from the perspective of the processes involved in organizational demography. A quantitative study with a cross-sectional design was carried out, based on factor analysis and multiple linear regressions, using a sample of 168 pottery business owners from the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala, Mexico. The results show a total mediating effect of environmental values on the relationship between gender and business performance, as well as a partial mediating effect on the relation between schooling and business performance. No mediating effect was found for environmental values on the relationship between age and company performance or on the relationship between ethnicity and business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the acknowledgment of the benefits of altruistic behavior for employees and organizations, an understanding of the factors that encourage this type of behavior is needed. This paper pursues two objectives: a) to analyze the relationships between overall job satisfaction and affective commitment with altruistic behavior and b) to explore whether work engagement increases the explained variance in altruism beyond such attitudes. To fulfill these objectives, cross-sectional research was conducted on a sample of 472 employees from 25 Spanish public higher education centers. The hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression analysis. Results indicate that a higher level of affective commitment, particularly of work engagement, is associated with an increase in altruistic behavior. Especially relevant is the contribution of work engagement to explaining incremental variance in altruistic behavior beyond commitment. To reinforce this type of discretionary behavior, management should implement interventions that encourage both a greater connection of the employees with their job roles and a greater commitment to the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In diverse developing countries, including Peru, it is thought that fomenting trade and commerce will automatically cause foreign corporations and free markets to spontaneously transfer technology. This paper shows this is not true. Technology transfer is a complex issue that requires strategic determination, public policies, intermediary institutions and capacities at the levels of the company and of the individuals involved. This study reviews the literature about technology transfer from the viewpoints of the companies and the government, and analyzes eleven case studies about technology transfer and innovation in Peru. Eight major categories of problems to be confronted in the processes of absorbing and transferring technology were detected: 1) individual capabilities; 2) entrepreneurial capabilities; 3) information, cooperation and coordination failures; 4) external connections; 5) infrastructure; 6) funding; 7) institutions; and 8) the existence of systemic and propagating forces. The government should articulate and make the national technological system coherent and seek to comply with the technology transfer agreements established with multilateral international organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the framework of organizational theory, there are different theoretical approaches that explain the origin of their resources and competitive advantages. Two of these theoretical reflections are addressed in this paper: the theory of resources and capacities and the resource dependence theory. A review of literature was carried out in order to present an integrated theoretical model that combines both approaches and emphasizes their complementarity and a series of propositions. These propositions link the decision-making process to acquiring the required resources and the factors associated with directive vision and the individual's limited rationality. The most relevant conclusion proposes that decision making about resource acquisition for the organization depends on two principal factors: a) rational processes guided by administrative principles and limited by the individual's capacity for learning and analysis, and b) the manager's vision, expressed through his voluntary, subjective and discretionary actions about how the company should be organized and led. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the political-cultural construction and legitimizing of Menemist hegemony, studying the impact of neoliberal values adopted by Menem's discourse at the societal level. The overall goal is to elucidate part of the success that the Menemist hegemony acquired in the 1990s in carrying out a cultural transformation. The first step analyzes the established practices and modalities of identification that contributed to the success of the new hegemony within the framework of a certain discourse that gave these practices meaning. In the second part, the specific relationship between Menemist hegemony and the discourse of Menem is analyzed, examining the forms of imaginary identification instituted at the societal level, based on the discursive strategies of the President during his first period of government. Finally, the dialectic relationship established between presidential discourse and the established practices is analyzed, defined as the central nucleus of the hegemony and its political leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper will explain the main features of Schmidt's materialism, which must be understood from his tendency: non-dogmatic, critical and dialectical. The first feature refers to the omission of an orthodox Marxist view of history. The issue of criticism is evaluated from social praxis, read in an epistemological and political manner. Finally, the importance Schmidt gave to the dialectic as a method will be mentioned, because Schmidt considered it the most revolutionary way to approach the continuous evolution of nature. Thus, it will be evident that, although Schmidt does not intend to dissolve social contradictions, he draws away from mechanistic materialism, ontological dialectic and soviet Marxism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies suggest that, among treatment orientations for treatment of diabetes, diet has been the one with the least adhesion. This study aimed to compare the effects of self-monitoring practice on the behavior adhesion of two types of nutritional rule (Food Planning [FP] and Total Carbohydrate Counting -- [TCC]) in four adults with Type 2 diabetes. In home interview was the data collection procedure. After characterization of the baseline (BL) in eating behavior of the four participants, two of them were subjected to Training Condition A (Self-Monitoring with PA followed by TCC), the other two participants to Training Condition B (Self-Monitoring with TCC followed by PA), and follow-up interviews with all four participants. As adhesion measures, Glycated hemoglobin and the Adherence Index to the Diet (AID) shown in percentages were used. It was observed on the participants' BL that the AIDs of all participants were below 50%, increasing after the self-monitoring training, regardless of their condition, being the average from TCC (75,50%) greater than that of FP (62,49%), declining afterwards in both conditions. It was also observed that the Glycated hemoglobin values in three participants had been reduced. The paper discusses the importance of nutritionists in prescribing individualized treatment and beyond the focus of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to delve into aspects of Arturo Roig's philosophical proposal in order to analyze one of the most novel collective action phenomena in recent times: highway barriers, a fighting tool used by the unemployed workers in Argentina between 1995 and 2005. These highway barriers can be linked to other historical ways of demanding recognition and dignity, repeated throughout the history of the Latin American continent. Within the context of Arturo Roig's social ideas, these practices can be interpreted as an exercise of continuous "beginnings and re-beginnings" for a practical, situated and critical philosophizing that would belong to Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the contributions Roig made to decolonizing thought, considering three matters: 1) "methodological broadening" and the consequent recovery of texts belonging to the Latin American tradition that represent a frontal critique of modern western philosophy, such as the narration about the origin of man in the Popol Vuh and the "inversion" of the philosophy of hegemonic history carried out by Leon Pinelo in the 17th century. 2) Roig's assumption of some critical postulates proceeding from the proposal to revise the suppositions of Latin American philosophy based on the intercultural viewpoint (Fornet Betancourt). 3) Roig's critical posture in the face of postmodern ideas, culminating in the exigency of producing a "reconstruction of categories." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophical contribution of Arturo Andrés Roig was nourished from multiple sources; this article explores the theoretical background of his concept, "linguistic turn." To construct this notion, three intellectual and disciplinary currents are blended together: the linguistic (Bachtin/ Volochinov), the psychoanalytical (Freud) and the philosophical (neo-Kantism). This paper collects and contextualizes the debates that took place around each of these three theoretical fields at the beginning of the twentieth century. It also shows that walking in the footsteps of history shows us tasks that are yet to be completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the work of the recently deceased philosopher, Arturo Roig, from the perspective of Latin American humanism, a trend of critical thought strongly present in Latin America. The core of Roig's theoretical proposal is expressed as the problem of the subject or, as he preferred to call it, of subjectivity. After a brief section that separates the philosopher's works into periods, the article reviews Roig's contributions on this theme in the different fields he explored: his methodological proposals for reading Latin American texts, his concept of the history of ideas as a reconstruction for the American subject's itinerary, the anthropological a priori as a theoretical and heuristic tool of philosophy in Latin America and, finally, his developments in the ethical field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents theoretical considerations arising from an investigative process carried out in Bogotá, 2011, addressed to a population of young Afro-Colombian women on the issue of human rights and affirmative action policies. Its objectives questioned the many faces of sexism in current capitalist societies, stating that, despite the explicit intentions to empowerwomen included in public policies, advances are not being made toward inclusion and the visibility of all women; on the contrary, more subtle and stratified forms of exclusion are being adopted from the consumerist capitalist machinery that penetrates deeply into the modes of existence in Latin American countries. The article is divided into four parts: i. Presentation. ii. White subjectivities and the logic of exclusion, iii. Stratification of the subjective becomings of women. iv. Critical reflections about gender discourses. v. Conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to outline a pedagogical approach based on what Michel Foucault conceives as self-care and Hans-Georg Gadamer designates as Bildung or formation. Self-care, which can be translated as self formation, as knowledge of self, as the practice of self, turns out to be a hermeneutic of the subject through which one seeks to have the subject hear and see himself, question himself as a person, be able to form himself and, thus, be able to handle all possible events, all the troubles and problems that may affect him throughout life. Similarly, self-care is something that those who want to educate others are obliged to think about. As practices of subjectivity, self-care has to do with formation, not for learning something external, a body of knowledge, but rather an education for promoting the exercise of reflection about oneself and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital reproduces itself, expands and breaks down territorial barriers through transnational corporations and their "financialization," just as unemployed and poor people jump geographical and territorial fences in their eagerness to expand; some are in search of capital and/or speculative markets, others in search of subsistence labor markets. This paper begins with a look at the two economic crises that have jeopardized global capitalism (1929 and 2008) and the arrangements made by the State to stop the chain reaction crisis. Next, the impact of neoliberal globalization on nations and individuals is presented. Official programs for global poverty that lead inevitably to capitalism without labor are examined. This work concludes with the deterritorialization of capital as well as the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the concept of hegemony as developed by Ernesto Laclau. The research included works published before his classic "Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radicalization of Democracy" (1985, in collaboration with Chantal Mouffe) through his most important recent work "On Populist Reason" (2004). The hypothesis guiding this article is that, since its origins in the political theory of Laclau, hegemony functions as a category that poses the relationship between universality and particularity. However, "hegemony" also operates as three concepts because this category takes on specific content when used to analyze different fields: the political and the logic of constituting social issues; the operation of a/the logic of politics; and the constitution of collective identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the possibility of transition from revolution, a moment of extreme social violence, toward organized resistance on a permanent basis in dissident group environments against the "totality" that confines them to a status of passive dependence. Against the fetishization of the revolution in the speeches of Stalin or Mussolini, this paper counters with some arguments by Nietzsche, Arendt, Jean-Luc Nancy and Derrida in order to propose an imaginary resistance movement, such as disarmament and displacement of the repressive totality that speaks with revolutionary words. The argument takes on a Latin American bias by incorporating the thesis of Jose Vasconcelos in the discussion. In the end, based on the Hegelian recovery of Sittlichkeit by Charles Taylor, a "we" is proposed as an actor in an interstitial political resistance that is neither cyclical, proactive and imaginary nor passive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focus on the methodological debate that takes place in the area of social sciences, particularly between the opposing views of hermeneutics and the natural sciences. The possibility of creating an appropriate foundation for the nature and purpose of the social sciences passes through a confrontation between some hermeneutic disciplines and the so-called natural sciences, specifically in regard to method. This conflict revolves around the "unavoidable experience of belonging" supported by the hermeneutic current and the necessary "alienated distance" peculiar to scientific objectivity. In short, this debate is better known as hermeneutics vs. science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the definition of neoliberal globalization as globalized western localism,expression of a new type of cultural imperialism, the main aim of this paper is to make ananalytical exposition of the intercultural and interpolitical translation theory by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Santos's theory of intercultural translation is presented as a current proposal that seeks to address the ethnocentric risks neoliberal globalization involves for cultural diversity from a postcolonial and emancipatory position, allowing the configuration of an alternative model of intercultural relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the colonial and capitalist construction of hegemony in nation-states, emphasizing their development in Latin America and strict co-dependence between economy and politics in government structures. This situation generates a transnational reproduction of hegemony that impedes the development of more local or national emancipation processes in states of the Andean region. A possible alternative is represented by social movements in Bolivia, that, in their intent to create a counter- hegemonic horizon, attempt a unification of indigenous peoples and an ideal of the plurinational state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past fifteen years, several internationally renowned sociologists, Pierre Bourdieu ahead, have engaged continuously and deeply in the public debate and anti-neoliberal actions and have been more and more recognized as allied by the social movements themselves. The aim of this paper is to relate aspects of the so-called "open Marxism" with some general characteristics of "public sociologies". We will analyze some convergent and divergent aspects of the relationship of Pierre Bourdieu with Marxism. Then we will argue that the "organic" public sociology proposal by Michael Burawoy represents a consistent and innovative way to build up a link between rigorous sociological knowledge and democratic political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship among politics, power, communication and culture are here examined, along with the new technologies role in that relationship. It is emphasized the function of universities in the production of useful knowledge for the citizens in their political and social relationships, specially in the construction of their political discourse in democracy. The paper of the media political protagonism is here criticized, while opportunities offered by the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution and the new laws and regulations are underlined, considering them as tools for citizens empowerment in their rescuing of the speech in the political scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper submits for discussion the heuristic usefulness of incorporating the political perspective of youth cultures in order to analyze contemporary connections between youth, politics and culture. If traditional approaches emphasized the cultural character of politics and the symbolic elements, meanings and perceptions that youth construct regarding politics, what is proposed here is to think about youth culture politically and make visible new spaces for constituting conflict today, broadening the field of studies toward youthful practices that contest the hegemonic meanings of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to study the relationships between youth and politics in the current context of social processes in order to understand the meaning of political practices among university youth, focusing the investigation on students at the Los Libertadores University Foundation. Political configurations are identified in order to decipher the complex connections between youth, the specific exercise of power and youthful expressions such as resistance practices and authentic creative relations on the political horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the social science field, numerous studies approach the problem of praxis; however, it is less common to find studies that connect this category with a study of the workers' movement. This paper seeks to construct an analysis framework from which to reflect on how and when this subject considers his praxis and that of others. Conclusions are that in order to empirically approach processes of becoming aware and the forms of workers' knowledge, the category of praxis must be recovered from a heterodox view of Marxism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper attempts to inform about a series of problems related to the philosophy of technology. Under this goal I will show its main lines and the relevance of a philosophical approach about technique. It also provides reasons for technologists to come to philosophy. I propose different models of relationship between science and technology in order to clarify a confusing area usually in the epistemology of science and technology. And then presenting a very relevant question: the thesis on the autonomy of technology. I conclude with a thesis on the complexity of the plots that relate the theoretical and the practical. Finally I propose a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach for a future philosophy of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper supports the following theses: 1. It is necessary to affirm that all humanity has always expressed certain "core universal problems" that are present in all cultures. 2. The rational responses to these "core problems" first acquire the form of mythical narratives. 3. The formulation of categorical philosophical discourses is a subsequent development in human rationality that does not negate all mythical narratives. These philosophical discourses have arisen in all the great urban Neolithic cultures (even if only on a very beginning level). 4. Modem European philosophy confused its economic and political domination of culture and the crises derived from other regional philosophies with a Eurocentric pretention to universality, which must be questioned. 5. In any case, there are formal, universal aspects on which all regional philosophies can coincide and which respond to the "core problems" on an abstract level. 6. All of this impels us to enter a new age of inter-philosophical dialogue, respectful of differences and open to learning from the useful discoveries of other traditions. 7. A new philosophical project must be developed that, going beyond Eurocentric philosophical modernity, tries to shape a global, trans-modern pluriverse, thawing upon the development of its own resources of peripheral, subaltern, post-colonial philosophies that have been "discarded" by modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban territory, understood in this paper as a synonym for culture and power relationships, as well as the process of gentrification where currently, due to globalization and intense environmental degradation, citizens are considered customers- are submitted to economic rationality. Therefore, it is important for the citizenry that the historical-cultural heritage be inserted in the list of environmental education concerns, as a strategy for understanding the territorial dynamic and improving urban public policies that contribute to integrated, social territorial management of Brazilian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work studies the emergence of Environmental Education in Brazil based on an analysis of dissertations and theses produced in this area by different graduate programs, identifying the authors of the works, the educational institutions, the graduate programs, the areas of knowledge and the themes dealt with in the studies. Using the summaries, the dissertations and theses, it has been possible to classify them according to geographic region, teaching level, the public involved in this research, according to environmental education categories. Data demonstrate the relevance of research in environmental education and its relation to great events in the field such as Rio-92 and dissemination of the National Curricular Parameters-PCNs that have Environment and Health as transversal themes. The paper points out the need to carry out other studies to obtain more data and deeper information about the characteristics of research performed in field of Environmental Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the conceptions of nature existing in Brazilian educational ideas in the 1920s and 1930s. As part of this documentary study, diverse sources in the educational area were analyzed, such as: periodicals, textbooks on reading, geography, physics and natural sciences, published and used in our schools during those decades. Based on the readings and data analysis, the following concepts about nature were identified: anthropocentric, utilitarian, anthropomorphic, such as "common mother and/or all that was not made by man," or "all that exists, all that God created," or "book" and finally, the aesthetic or romantic conception. These conceptions appear explicitly in the textbooks, although they are also present in the other documents analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly complex and differentiated societies overreaching the theoretical framework supporting their raison d'être beget new perspectives. The objective of this study, namely, analyzing the theoretical proposal of Niklas Luhmann, is thus justified. The content of the paper draws directly on his book Social Systems: Guidelines for a General Theory, and is complemented with opinions about the author in different scientific and academic circles. Diverse concepts allow for an assessment of his theory and transition in terms of continuity and rupture with the classical tenet, to conclude with his main contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Believing that the construction of existence is poetic and religious so that life fulfils itself and that the Portuguese way of thinking, more conceptional than conceptual, finds in the Thinker of the World to Be one of its clearest and deepest expressions, the reflexion suggested in this paper arises from the intimate relationship between poetry and love, highlighting the brotherly unity of the aesthetical, antropological, ethical and political dimensions when one thinks and lives a project of hope--for man and his common home--spun by the Kingdom of Spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, reasons of postponing motherhood by professional young women are explored and related with changes of course in their biographies, especially with those sociologically associated with individualization, by means a qualitative research on this demographic group in Caracas (Venezuela) and Santiago (Chile). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper creativity is considered as a metaphysical question, with a mathematical ground on the notion of continuity. Of Peirce's hand, and going beyond his claims, the author examines first the metaphysical grounds of creativity and then the aspects related with logic and semiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an inquiry about creativity through the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. The author deals, first of all, with the general characteristics of the creative phenomena. Later, the notion of abduction is explained, which constitutes for Peirce the engine of creativity. The study of abduction leads to the idea of reasonableness, understood as the purpose to which growth and creativity are orientated, and to a new way of understanding human reason as essentially creative. Finally, the author analyzes how the previous notions could be applied to a new model of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some of the ideas from Gianni Vattimo's book "Ecce Comu." What many people have viewed as a radicalization toward the left in the ethical-political reflection of this Italian thinker is not only a discourse that seeks to develop in a crisis situation like the present, the consequences of the close ties among philosophy, politics and religion, which in the 50s, represented Vattimo's primary concern. Finally, reasons are reconstructed by means of which a post-metaphysical philosophy could justify the idea according to which rediscovery of a communism liberated from the dogma of objectivity and development might be the best alternative for opposing capitalism in the current conditions of late modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michel Foucault left us with an implicit reflection about the meaning of the work of the "master of life," just as antique philosophy (Greco-Roman) practiced and made a problem of it. In Foucault's studies about ancient philosophy, which will soon be available as a whole in a written edition, this figure of the "master of life" could be emphasized if it were contrasted with the figure of the "master of truth" as Marcel Detienne studied it, especially referring to the archaic age. The introduction to this work presents the general framework within which Foucault performed his research on ancient philosophy. The first part summarizes what is considered Michel Foucault's fundamental contribution, emphasizing what "ethics of the word" mean and how a "master of life" possesses this. For this purpose, the study is supported especially by the rigorous analysis Foucault made of the notion of parrhesia. Based on this, the second part of the study postulates that the meaning of the ethical role fulfilled by the problematization made by ancient philosophy related to the figure of the "master of life," is fulfilled not only in its limited historical dimension, that is to say, in the age of antique philosophy. That meaning also allows us to ask ourselves critically about our own condition as university educators in the world we live in at the beginnings of the twenty first century. For this reason, this paper's intention is to demonstrate that authentic academic life demands the ethic of the word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to analyze the role that Agnes Heller gives to utopia in the framework of the theory of history. To accomplish this, the relation she establishes between future-utopia, change-utopia and progress-utopia will be analyzed. After the analysis and explanation of these conceptual pairs, the paper will attempt to determine the characteristics and functions of utopia in relation to history, conceiving it as a category of analysis that allows for identifying and defining expectations for change and renovation for a time period or social group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the promotion of a market economy, the Venezuelan state promoted a process of political territorial de-centralization that has suffered changes with the approval of a new constitution. The purpose of this paper is to study citizen participation in sub-national governmental levels in the de-centralization model. The results indicate that: 1) decentralization was applied during the nineteen-nineties with little citizen participation and with parallel pressures from civic societal organizations looking to obtain participation, 2) a new constitutional framework at the end of the 1990s established the bases for citizen participation on sub-national levels, 3) a law promoted by the government was approved for Local Planning Councils and a law for Community Councils, which gives power to the formulation of sub-national public policy in organized societies, in order to advance in the application of participation established in a new constitutional framework, 4) a process of formation for the application of new legal conditions promoted by sectors of the National Assembly, the National Government, and base organizations in society, 5) obstacles to its application were presented by local governments, and other sectors antagonistic to the national government. The conclusion was that during the early 1990s a territorial de-centralization of power occurred which negated citizen participation, while towards the end of the same decade a process of participatory decentralization of organized society occurred which encountered restrictions on the part of the promoters of the previous decentralization model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at investigating the Gramscian construction of the concepts of State and civil society within the Quaderni del carcere. By means of a genetic-diachronic reading, which emphasizes the fragmentary character of this work, the sources to which resorts its author and the time period of its production, it is sought the revaluation of the unitary and organic character of Gramsci's thought. Therefore, it is possible to found an understanding of the civil society and the political society (the State strictu sensu/) in which these distinct terms do not have an antagonistic relationship, as stated by a hegemonic reading of this work and rather a relationship of unity-distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constitutes a proposition for autonomous integration that propitiates regional negotiation in the face of the ALCA. To do this, it proposes to recuperate one's own ingenuity, which supposes surpassing the obstacle constructed by transitology, beyond abandonment of the structural historical focus and the inconsistent affirmation of social conflict as nineteenth-century, on spreading opposition between a supposed irrational revolutionary-ism from the seventies against the (liberal) democratism of the eighties. Thus, the way is opened to an appreciation of the utopian tension operating in history and the revolution ceases to be taboo or am anachronism, a question to be re-thought if there are any. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to present the function that civil society fulfills in Hegel and Habermas. In this paper, civil society is characterized summarily, tending to the view of determining its functions. In Hegel, civil society is related to the production of wealth and fulfills an organizing and educational function. In Habermas, it is not related to the economics, since it is constituted by the public sphere whose function is to produce democratically legitimized contents that ought to determine the purposes of the State in terms of a system committed to realizing its purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1940 and 1950 decades, the foreign oil companies in Venezuela published institutional magazines like key tools to manage the public and labour relations with employees and the community. Within the issues considered, these publications focused an special interest at the women issues. This paper pretend to study how was the discursive construction of woman and her role in companies and communities. The corpus considered some editions of two most important publications –Tópicos Shell, El Farol– y were analyzed with the lexical and actantial analytical schemes developed by Molero de Cabeza (1985, 1998) and Franco (1998). The analysis permitted us to observe how the foreign oil companies –in the context of the venezuelan modernization– contributed to sexual socialization through the reinforce of values associated to specific sexual mythology that emphasize wife-lover and mother images in the context of fem-ism of the considered decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]