One of Žižek’s main features is ambivalence and in this book he also remains rather pessimistic. The pandemic will not change society for the better, Žižek claims. The only thing that seems clear is that the virus will destroy the foundations of our lives bringing about a considerable amount of damage and suffering. As he also points out right from the outset, moreover, the epidemic will not make us any wiser. Through this blend of ambivalence and pessimism, Žižek develops a (...) view, it seems to me, that can be compared to, and contrasted with the production by Basque Films The Platform --- a Netflix blockbuster dystopia mixing suspense, science fiction and horror, in which director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia also conveys a dark and skeptikal message: as a species, human beings are as selfish as we are greedy. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to give a mathematical account of an argument of David Lewis in Parts of Classes in defense of universalism in mereology. Specifically, we study how to extend models of core mereology (following Achille Varzi’s terminology) to models in which every collection of parts can be composed into another part. We focus on the two main definitions for mereological compositions and show that any model can be extended to satisfy universalism. We explore which are the (...) “most economical” ways of extending models under various conditions. Remarkably, we show that if the principle of strong supplementation is assumed, there is a unique mereological completion, up to isomorphism. (shrink)

El presente artículo está basado en una investigación realizada por el grupo de investigación “Cambio, complejidad e Innovación” perteneciente a ASCIDE (Asociación Sociedad del Conocimiento, Desarrollo e Innovación), en un intento por dilucidar los discursos y las prácticas que giran en torno al concepto de innovación dentro de las entidades de la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco. El objetivo principal de este estudio era conocer los entresijos que envuelven al concepto de innovación y a las formas en las que dicho (...) concepto se emplea más allá de las connotaciones empresariales y científicas que dicho concepto ya posee, extendiendo, por tanto, los ámbitos de análisis del mismo a lugares vinculados con la cultura, lo social, lo institucional y lo educativo. (shrink)

Th is discussion review appeals to a minimal militant comradeship across struggles. Theory is also a struggle, and solidarity is always key. It agrees with Slavoj Žižek’s main argument: the critique of Eurocentrism cannot sustain itself without acknowledging the positive influence of the Enlightenment radical tradition. It also underlines that particular emancipatory projects set against universalism fail to properly problematise political subjectivity. This is not to coalesce with certain Western/European metropolitan intellectual and political inclinations, not least in the Left, particularly (...) prone to lay down the correct and rightful terms of anybody else’s struggles. Various examples from different historic and contemporary contexts illustrate and clarify this point. In the process, some hints are also given on possible theoretical and political reconciliations between Decolonial Theory and the Idea of Communism or between Žižek’s “possibilism” and Alain Badiou’s politics of the impossibl e. (shrink)

La identidad personal se construye colectivamente. Somos en la medida en que somos con otros. En este sentido, la afirmación de un "nosotros" diferenciado es consustancial al desarrollo de la identidad. La pertenencia a una comunidad nacional y la inserción en una sociedad de productores-consumidores, ambas directamente relacionadas, han sido las vías para la construcción de la identidad moderna. Pero ambas han entrado hoy en crisis y son, crecientemente, fuente de exclusión más que de integración. El reto que se nos (...) plantea es el de configurar, sobre bases nuevas, un nuevo sentido de comunidad que permita la universalización de unas identidades individuales y colectivas diversas, pero compartiendo el espacio de unos mismos derechos fundamentales. (shrink)

Rare neuromuscular diseases are a group of pathologies characterized by a progressive loss of muscular strength, atrophy, fatigue, and other muscle-related symptoms, which affect quality of life levels. The low prevalence, high geographical dispersion and disability of these individuals involve difficulties in accessing health and social care services. Teleassistance is presented as a useful tool to perform psychosocial interventions in these situations. The main aim of this research is to assess the effects of a teleassistance psychosocial program on the QoL (...) levels of people with RNMDs who have different levels of disability. A sample of 73 participants was divided into an experimental group, which participated in the intervention, and a control wait list group. QoL was evaluated through the SIP and the SF-36, and disability through the WHO-DAS II. The participants with a moderate to severe level of disability were those who most benefited from the intervention. The results also revealed that the psychosocial teleassistance program was suitable to improve physical and psychosocial aspects of people suffering from a rare neuromuscular disease with a moderate level of disability, but just psychosocial aspects in those with a severe level of disability. (shrink)

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Having emerged as an important concept in the organizational field, entrepreneurial orientation has also become a key idea in the context of education. Indeed, entrepreneurial education is now one of the common objectives for education and training systems in the European Union. Despite its importance, however, there is a scarcity of valid and reliable measures for assessing entrepreneurial orientation in students. The present study aimed to address this by developing and examining the psychometric properties of the Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale (EOS). (...) A second objective is to study the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and gender, self-efficacy, and personal initiative. The sample comprised 411 vocational training students (50.36% male, 49.64% female). The final version of the instrument comprised 32 items assessing six dimensions: innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitiveness, achievement orientation, and learning orientation. The EOS showed good psychometric properties and its dimensions demonstrated concurrent relationships with self-efficacy and personal initiative. The EOS may be used to measure entrepreneurial orientation in the educational context and to evaluate interventions designed to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in schools, colleges, and universities. (shrink)

Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management is a wide-ranging and expert analysis of the ethics of the intentional management of solar radiation. This book will be a useful tool for policy-makers, a provocation for ethicists, and an eye-opening analysis for both the scientist and the general reader with interest in climate change.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyse how stereotypes towards older people moderate the relationship between burnout and quality of life of professionals working in nursing homes.MethodA total of 312 professionals were asked to complete questionnaires of burnout Maslach Burnout Inventory quality of Life and aging stereotypes. The moderation effects were tested using linear regression models.ResultsA negative association was observed between burnout and QoL. It was also found a statistically significant moderator effect of the total score of stereotypes and the health stereotypes, (...) besides a marginally statistically significant moderator effect for motivational stereotypes. The moderator effects were different for people with low and high negative stereotypes. QoL was more affected under conditions of high burnout, in which people with more negative stereotypes tended to present higher QoL than people with lower negative stereotypes.ConclusionHighly burned-out professionals in nursing homes may avoid their negative feelings projecting them to residents through stereotypes, as a way of coping with burnout and increasing their QoL. However, this mechanism is an “aggressive reaction” and may have negative effects for both the older adult and the professional. The comprehension of these variables is essential for developing adequate intervention programs. (shrink)

This paper analyses “A Message to America,” the 2014 ISIS video that presents the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley. This short film served as a model for the more than 200 graphically violent videos posted online by the terrorist group before the fall of the caliphate in 2019. The main objective of this research is to question the truth-value of violent ISIS videos and to advocate a critical approach to them. To this end, four key issues need to be (...) explored: the quality of the videos; their status as art, documentary, or propaganda; their target audiences; and the purpose of the message being conveyed to each of those audiences. To deconstruct the mechanisms employed by the constructed fallacy of this video and critically expose its literal and metaphorical meaning, we use textual analysis, the methodological tool developed in Greimasian semiotics. The results reveal a carefully planned text with a clearly recognizable narrative structure (crime and punishment). This video is a propaganda documentary that makes use of the tools of fiction to stage a real event: Foley dies, but his death is not shown on camera; it is only staged. Targeting two different audiences, an implicit Muslim viewer, and an explicit Western viewer, the text can be interpreted as a crossing of gazes between East and West. (shrink)

In 2010, pitcher Armando Galarraga was denied a perfect game when umpire Jim Joyce called Jason Donald safe at first with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. In the numerous media discussions that followed, Joyce’s ‘blown’ call was commonly referred to as ‘mistaken’, ‘wrong’, or otherwise erroneous. However, this use of language makes some not uncontroversial ontological assumptions. It claims that the fact that a runner is safe or out has nothing to do with the ruling of (...) the umpire himself, but rather with some state of the universe that does not depend on the umpire for its existence. In this paper, I recast the problem as a version of Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma and argue that the view implied by the above assertions is actually misguided. Instead, I hope to show that an alternative view – what I call ‘restricted umpire voluntarism’ – is actually more in line with the spirit of the game of baseball and is not as counterintuitive as it may appear.. (shrink)