Democratic plurality is the recognition of diversity and difference; above all, of the pragmatic use that citizens make of social discourse when they want to be part of the democratic dialogue. This is the thesis Habermas puts forth when he considers that the communicative pragmatic is the referent ..

In this paper the relationship between the theory of communicative action and the processes of inter-subjective liberation are studied through democratic dialogue and the significance of linguistic practice in capitalist societies. The new pragmatic-hermaneutic paradigm presents the possibility of i..

En este artículo se trata de interpretar el pensar interdiscursivo y el acuerdo compartido desde el paradigma intercultural, considerando la experiencia de la autoconciencia del sujeto como relación entre individuos que interactúan entre sí, sobre la base del reconocimiento recíproco que crea el con..

La democracia es un sistema de poderes que debería estar al servicio del pueblo. El actor social de estos poderes es el sujeto político en su condición de persona, individuo, ciudadano. Ningún otro actor puede atribuirse el uso de los poderes políticos en beneficio personal o colectivo; menos todavía, en detrimento de los otros. Se crea un principio de exclusión que pone en contradicción o nulidad pública el ejercicio del poder de la democracia como sistema de poderes populares. Es indispensable (...) denunciar la coacción política de la que se sirve la democracia representativa, abstracta o nula, en su intento de minimizar y reducir la acción social del pueblo como destinatario de los poderes políticos. La respuesta a este sistema antidemocrático, coactivo de los poderes populares, es el desacato, la desobediencia cívica, la disputa ideológica, las estrategias para la subversión pública y la recuperación de los derechos de participación en la transformación de la democracia política. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to determine the contribution made by knowledge of letters, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric rapid automatized naming at the ages of six and seven to the ability of Spanish children to read words at 7 years of age. A total of 116 Spanish-speaking school children took part in the study, from schools located in an average socio-cultural setting, without special educational needs. The reading ability of these pupils was evaluated at the (...) age of seven, and cognitive variables were assessed at 6 and 7 years of age. Descriptive-exploratory analyses, bivariate analyses, and multivariate regressions were performed. The results show that cognitive variables measured at these ages contribute differently to the ability to read words at 7 years of age. Rapid naming does not seem to influence word reading; knowledge of letters no longer influences word reading as children grow older; and phonological awareness and phonological memory maintain their contribution to the explanation of word reading. These results indicate that reading in Spanish depends on different cognitive variables and that this relationship varies according to age. The findings have key educational implications in terms of teaching reading skills and the prevention of specific learning difficulties in Spanish Primary Education. (shrink)

Since the introduction of a new criterion for determining death (i.e., the brain death criterion) in 1968, the research community has been embroiled in debates about whether this criterion should b...

Scientific publications depict science as an orderly endeavour and the epitome of rationality. In contrast, scientific practice is messy and not strictly rational. Here, I analyse this inconsistency, which is recurrent, and try to clarify its meaning for the functioning of science. The discussion is based on a review of relevant literature and detailed analysis of the role of each of the three intervening elements, the scientist, his/her practice and the scientific publication, with an emphasis on the circular mode of (...) the latter’s creation. This way, I will discuss the nature, causes and relevance of the inconsistency. That corresponds to answering three questions, respectively: ‘what are the characteristics of the inconsistency?’, ‘what are its origins?’ and ‘how could it be interpreted within a model for the structure and functioning of science?’ From this discussion it is concluded that, contrary to the negative character generally attributed to it, the inconsistency between practice and reporting is part of the production mechanism of science. (shrink)

In this article, we examine scholarly analyses of justice and develop a framework that can help assess the claims from the parties in the Russian state-led doping scandal, including, but not limited to, Russian athletes, non-Russian athletes, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and sport governing bodies. The two key components of this justice framework are pluralism and relationality/contextuality. We argue that a justice framework built upon these elements better captures the nature of justice. We conclude that no party in the Russian (...) state-led doping case has exclusive access to justice. Rather, all the parties have legitimate calls for justice against one another. Thus, the administration of justice will fail to serve justice, in its different meanings, for all parties. (shrink)

Voluntary sustainability standards that establish global rules for firms’ environmental and/or social conduct and allow for verification of firm compliance via third-party certification hold the promise to govern firms’ sustainability conduct in a globalizing world economy. However, the recent proliferation of competing and overlapping global sustainability standards that have been developed by various stakeholders with different agendas, creates uncertainties for firms that likely reduce their propensity to adopt any standard. Without widespread adoption these standards cannot effectively govern firm conduct and (...) in contrast create barriers for firms’ access to export markets. We suggest that the uncertainties associated with competing standards and the effect of these uncertainties on standard certification decisions are especially large for firms in emerging economies because these firms lack access to information about current and future standards and the resources to obtain certifications to multiple standards. We theoretically propose and empirically identify three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty: diversity of customer requirements, dynamism of customer requirements, and the unpredictability of the future evolution of standard and propose that each of these sources reduces firms’ propensity to obtain certification to any standard. Our empirical results based on certifications to food safety standards by a sample of 97 Mexican food exporting firms confirm that three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty exist and that all of them negatively impact certification. We discuss ethical implications and offer recommendations for both suppliers as well as standard setting organizations. (shrink)

Este análisis teórico busca analizar, por una parte, en la inmersión de la obra del pensador galés Raymond Williams y, por otro lado, el acercamiento a lo que podemos denominar como Estudios Culturales Británicos, una propuesta metodológica y política plausible en virtud de pensar nuestro presente con una mirada y una sensibilidad diferente a lo que ampliamente se ha caracterizado como «presentismo» o futuros cancelados. Para ello, retomar la obra de un pensador parcialmente olvidado en las últimas décadas, no solo (...) nos permitirá atisbar posibilidades de pensar futuros diversos, sino que nos obligará a tomar en consideración una caja de herramientas, sugerente, que terminó defendiendo con matices, contradicciones e incorporaciones hasta el final de su vida en 1988. (shrink)

The Earth is facing pressing societal grand challenges that require urgent managerial action. Responsible management learning has emerged as a discipline to prepare managers to act as responsible leaders that can effectively address such pressing challenges. This article aims to extend current knowledge on RML in the domain of corporate sustainability through the application of threshold concepts, novel ideas which provide a doorway to new knowledge and transform a learner’s mindset. Specifically, after conducting a systematic review of the management literature, (...) we identify 33 CS threshold concepts that are useful for mainstream managers and practitioners in their RML process. We group them into six CS threshold concept themes that can help managers understand the complexities and interconnectedness that characterize CS. Finally, we map CS threshold concepts with key competences for effective RML. Therefore, our contribution relies on translating existing CS theoretical frameworks into transformative, specific, understandable and applicable pieces of knowledge that might help mainstream managers to embed CS principles in their daily management practices. (shrink)

We use this editorial essay as a call for a more effective use of new technologies, such as mobile apps and Web 2.0 tools, to educate students and other relevant stakeholders on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability topics. We identify three overarching reasons that justify the need for new ways of teaching that further incorporate technology to foster the innovative thinking needed to tackle imminent societal grand challenges such as climate change and increasing inequality. First, we are facing (...) a new generation of millennials and Generation Z students who are digital natives and more likely to search for educational content on their electronic devices. Second, new technologies offer opportunities to reach students globally, helping to democratize education. Third, we posit that the intrinsic characteristics of societal grand challenges, which are complex, uncertain, and evaluative, can benefit from technology as an effective translator of multilayered concepts into more digestible action items. Our essay ends with a brief summary of the four essays included in the thematic symposium: “There is an App for that! The Use of New Technologies and Apps in Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Education.”. (shrink)

This article analyzes the adoption of voluntary environmental management programs by firms operating in Mexico. Mexican firms can obtain national certification (Clean Industry) and/or international certification (ISO 14001). Based on institutional entrepreneurship theory, we posit that the role played by first movers as institutional entrepreneurs is crucial if these programs are to become established with sufficient strength and appeal. This understanding is especially important in an environment where more than one program can be adopted. We tested several hypotheses on the (...) behaviors of 1328 facilities operating in Mexico, half of which (664) had certified environmental management programs. Of the 664 certified facilities, 217 were classified as early adopters. Three variables predicted the likelihood of a facility being an early adopter: (1) connected to international market, (2) in the maquila sector, and (3) linked to an industry association that offers free resources. (shrink)

This research aims to fill a major gap in the relevant literature on small businesses in developing countries, specifically concerning the development of models to better explain economic and environmental performance as a result of environmental compliance, thus moving toward an explanation of the sustainable behavior of these businesses. Data from 186 pottery craft businesses located in three Mexican states (Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala) reveal that environmental compliance significantly influences economic and environmental performance, with the mediating role of environmental innovation, (...) confirming the Porter hypothesis in the context of small businesses in an emerging economy. Environmental compliance is an important factor in improving the economic and environmental performance of small businesses in emerging economies. (shrink)

In this paper we prove that the free pseudocomplemented residuated lattices are decomposable if and only if they are Stone, i.e., if and only if they satisfy the identity ¬ x ∨ ¬¬ x = 1. Some applications are given.

Why would we argue about taste, norms or morality when we know that these topics are relative to taste preferences, systems of norms or values to which we are committed? Yet, disagreements over these topics are common in our evaluative discourses. I will claim that the motives to discuss rely on our attitudes towards the standard held by the speakers in each domain of discourse, relating different attitudes to different motives –mainly, conviction and correction. These notions of attitudes and motives (...) will allow me to claim that different domains of evaluative discourse have a different distribution of disagreements driven by them. (shrink)

Se analiza el peso específico que tiene el escenario en el que sucede el Fedro, poniendo el acento en tres pasajes que se organizan en torno a las dos grandes bloques temáticos del diálogo. En ellos se repite un gesto que se produce a lo largo de las conversaciones más propiamente filosóficas, mostrándose en esos pasajes liminares el desarrollo y los resultados de la marcha del diálogo. Con ello, se incide en la importancia de una lectura de los textos platónicos (...) que tenga en cuenta factores que rebasan el plano lógico-argumentativo, como el escenario y otros elementos dramático-escénicos. (shrink)

Este artículo reseña: Harold BERTOT TRIANA, Estudios sobre jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de derechos humanos. Cavilaciones al hilo de temas actuales del sistema interamericano de derechos humanos.

This study offers a proposal about which competencies should be fostered in organizations to promote a culture in favor of sustainability in line with Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato Si. As a result, seven main competencies are proposed, with their interpretation in the light of the encyclical letter, and some suggestions on how to implement them in organizations are presented. The competencies are systemic vision, critical thinking, capacity for dialog, inclusion, proper use of goods, creativity, and spirituality. In addition, the (...) study offers a discussion of the relevance of these competencies in today's business context. This study offers a novelty with respect to other theoretical proposals on competencies for sustainability since it includes competencies that require an authentic concern for other people and for a vision of the human being open to transcendence, thus breaking with instrumentalism and technocratic paradigm that underlies other proposals. In this way, it also offers a new key to interpreting the integral ecology proposed by Pope Francis, which goes beyond other approaches to sustainability in that it includes not only the person–nature relationship but also the person–person and person–transcendence or person–God relationships. The conclusions of this theoretical research can be especially useful for those who intend to promote a culture of sustainability inspired by the Catholic Social Teaching, also making use of the knowledge and good practices of competency-based management. (shrink)

De manera inmediata y tradicional pensamos que hablar sobre política exige forzosamente ligarla a la idea de conflicto. Si bien es cierto que el carácter político marca ciertos modos de habitar el mundo, también es relevante aclarar que, a partir del concepto que tengamos de política, podremos darnos cuenta de si la idea de conflicto es inherente a esta o si la política puede ser pensada desde otro horizonte. Hans-Georg Gadamer nos ofrece una serie de reflexiones hermenéuticas en torno al (...) lenguaje y al diálogo; a partir de allí, intentamos atisbar un concepto de política no solo inherente al conflicto, sino también a su parte medular como lo es el diálogo prudente. Pensar en una política dentro del marco de un horizonte dialógico nos permite arrojar luz a problemas particulares que nos aquejan hoy, los cuales nos interpelan a pensar y repensarlos para comprender por qué hemos llegado a ser lo que somos. (shrink)

This article analyzes the digitization process and the difficulties encountered along the way, as a project that involved audiovisual technicians, academic researchers, and a famous Spanish dancer’s legacy: the audiovisual documents Guillermina Martínez Cabrejas, Mariemma, left to a museum located in her hometown. The specific criteria used to decide on the differences that arose in the process, provides great results and, also, a critical view on the limitations of the international preservation guidelines of digital objects.

La investigación tiene como objetivo mostrar las características de las mujeres jóvenes indígenas chiapanecas que llevan a cabo un desplazamiento migratorio laboral a diversas zonas del estado y al interior de la república mexicana para emplearse como trabajaras domésticas, a través de entrevistas a profundidad porque permiten contextualizar los distintos escenarios y reconstruir sus historias de vida. Migrar constituye una acción voluntaria con implicaciones en el proyecto de vida.

The article presents the theoretical construction of the relationship between mathematics learning and philosophy for/with children. The selection of a documentary corpus allowed delimiting the object of study. Then, thematic and analytical cards were elaborated to interpret the main statements, in which divergences and convergences between philosophy for/with children and the learning of mathematics were evidenced. The text is organized in six sections: Mathematical thinking as experience; Philosophy for/with children: a space for thinking; Reasoning, argumentation and logical thinking: a matter (...) of philosophy for/with children and mathematics; the role of the question in mathematical thinking; the community of inquiry: a matter of mathematics; and, finally, from concept to mathematical thinking. The article gives an account of the reflection on the need to link the learning of mathematics with the exercise of philosophizing in order to democratize mathematics. This leads to the formation of critical, creative and ethical thinking, fundamental in the learning processes of mathematics, which becomes a pedagogical experience and a didactic bet from critical mathematics education. In conclusion, the interaction between these two disciplines transforms pedagogical practices and school contexts. The classroom becomes a space for inquiry, wonder, creation, reasoning, modeling, argumentation, training and individual and collective transformation. The learning of mathematics encompasses the need to emancipate the subjects in order to solve social injustices from the contexts, to promulgate equality and democracy through the learning of mathematics. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar los primeros pasos de una reconstrucción estructuralista de la teoría alostérica MWC. Esta teoría fue presentada en dos artículos publicados en Journal of Molecular Biology, en el primero de ellos “Allosteric proteins and cellular control systems”, de 1963, una versión simplificada, y en el segundo, “On the nature of allosteric transitions: a plausible model”, publicado en la misma revista en 1965, una versión más acabada. En estos trabajos, el ganador del premio Nobel en (...) Fisiología, Jacques Monod, introduce por primera vez un nuevo concepto que revolucionará la bioquímica y biología de la época: el alosterismo. (shrink)

"El repertorio bibliográfico no presenta resumen".

Este trabajo analiza las plazas del centro histórico de Sevilla, la diversidad e intensidad de uso que actualmente soportan. Para ello, se han recopilado datos espaciales de las plazas, obtenidos a partir de “OpenStreetMap”, su origen, desarrollo histórico, etc. Se utilizan los Sistemas de Información Geográfica para combinar la información anterior con los datos de la aplicación “InstaSights” relacionados con el ocio nocturno, espacios de hostelería, zonas comerciales y zonas turísticas. Se constata que las plazas públicas de los barrios del (...) centro y sur del distrito Casco Antiguo de Sevilla son las que soportan una mayor diversidad e intensidad de uso. (shrink)

Reconstructing the genetic traits of the Last Common Ancestor and the Tree of Life are two examples of the reaches of contemporary molecular phylogenetics. Nevertheless, the whole enterprise has led to paradoxical results. The presence of Lateral Gene Transfer poses epistemic and empirical challenges to meet these goals; the discussion around this subject has been enriched by arguments from philosophers and historians of science. At the same time, a few but influential research groups have aimed to reconstruct the LCA with (...) rich-in-detail hypotheses and high-resolution gene catalogs and metabolic traits. We argue that LGT poses insurmountable challenges for detailed and rich in details reconstructions and propose, instead, a middle-ground position with the reconstruction of a slim LCA based on traits under strong pressures of Negative Natural Selection, and for the need of consilience with evidence from organismal biology and geochemistry. We defend a cautionary perspective that goes beyond the statistical analysis of gene similarities and assumes the broader consequences of evolving empirical data and epistemic pluralism in the reconstruction of early life. (shrink)

Desde el estallido de la crisis económica la vulnerabilidad socioeconómica se ha ido agravando, tanto en cantidad de familias cuyas fuentes de ingresos han disminuido como en la gravedad de la situación, llegando a cronificar la pobreza en determinados sectores sociales. Las ejecuciones hipotecarias han provocado serias dificultades para cubrir necesidades básicas como la alimentación, la higiene o los suministros de la vivienda. En España, debido a las reformas neoliberales de los últimos años, la cobertura pública se ha reducido drásticamente. (...) Esto se ha traducido en un aumento de la sobrecarga de las redes familiares y comunitarias de apoyo. En este artículo exploramos el tipo del capital social que la participación en la Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca otorga a las familias vinculadas. A partir del análisis de los datos empíricos -recogidos a través de observación no participante y de entrevistas semi-dirigidas a 30 familias que han sufrido ejecución hipotecaria en el área metropolitana de Barcelona- discutimos hasta qué punto los lazos débiles entablados en la PAH pueden o no cumplir funciones de ventaja y de apoyo a las familias. Por otra parte, nos preguntamos en qué procesos las familias pueden ejercer su acción en la PAH, y si esta forma de empoderamiento les aporta o no capital social y movilidad social. (shrink)