Short reflections on the history of African communication

This article aims to propose a chronological subdivision in the history of African communication. African communication today is one of the most important axes for implementing development strategies, sustaining education, health, and schooling programmes, and so on. However, many of these programmes fail due to a lack of or ineffective communication between international organisations, local elite and lay people. The reasons for this situation must be found in Africa’s history of communication, which has undergone radical transformations in its different phases. Using the functionalist analysis drawn up by Jakobson, this article proposes a new chronological subdivision of Africa’s history of communication, reflecting on the current contradictions in contemporary communication in Africa.

The Afroporteña press and Afro-Argentine’s thought in the late nineteenth century

The journalistic boom that occurred in Argentina from the second half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of an active afroporteña press that defend the interests of the black community. This paper, in addition to reviewing the history of the Afro-Argentines newspapers, emphasizes the role played by the elite of African descent in the promotion of modernity among his brothers, while exploring the possible bases for an identity in the ideas spread.

Temporalization of History and Methodological Perspectivism

This essay aims to explore the issue of methodologic perspectivism in Kosselleck’s thought considering as cornerstone the concept of temporalization. The first section links the concepts of temporalization and secularization introducing beforehand philosophies of the history from Sattelzeit time. Then the text focuses on reconstructing the notion of temporalization based on an emerging tension between the language and the reality it describes. This article concludes bringing up the notion of ficcionality as a key element in Koselleck’s theory of history making up for the methodological deficits after this tension. The unifying thread of this essay is that the theoretical project of a conceptual history it is not only an analysis method but mainly a theory of modernity.

Bolsa Familia Program and school enrolment: An analysis of the 2010 Brazilian demographic census

The Bolsa Família Program goal is to promote social development and poverty reduction, through the direct transfer of conditional cash, in association with other social programs. This study aims to analyze whether Bolsa Família had an association with children’s school attendance, which is one of the educational conditions of the program. Our main hypothesis is that children living in households receiving Bolsa Família had greater chances of attending school. Data from the Ministry of Social Development and Combating Famine indicated that children living in households with Bolsa Família had greater school enrolment levels. By using data from the 2010 Demographic Census, collected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), some descriptive analyzes and binary logistic regression models were performed for different thresholds of household per capita income. These estimates were made by comparing children who lived in households receiving Bolsa Família to those children not receiving the program. We took into consideration characteristics about the household, mothers, and children. The results were clustered by the municipality of residence of the child. In all income thresholds, children benefi ting from Bolsa Família were more likely to be enrolled in school, compared to children not receiving the benefi t.

Alien gosd in the new epics: Noah remythologised through the ancient astronaut hypothesis in Abel's Montagut's "La gesta d'Utnoa"

Modern scientific world-view has undermined traditional myths, the functional survival of which seems to depend today in the West on a positivist justification. This would place them in the field of real History, through their study and revitalization by pseudoscientific disciplines such as the Atlantis and the ancient astronaut hypotheses. These have inspired new epic poems in (regular) verse that combine classic and/or biblical myths with a (pseudo)scientific modern world-view. For example, the critical rewriting of Noah’s myth by using the ancient astronaut hypothesis as a fictional device to produce a contemporary kind of plausibility allowed Abel Montagut to renew epic poetry, updating it also by adopting science fiction chronotopes in order to structure his fictional construction and to generate a high ethical sense for our time. Thus, his Poemo de Utnoa (1993) / La gesta d’Utnoa (1996), which has become a major classic of the literature in Esperanto thanks to its original version in this language, is a landmark of both science fiction and neo-biblical epics. This poem is written from a secular and purely literary perspective.

Dogs in the paradise: The influence of the cynical philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage

This paper studies the influence of cynic philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage. In the first part it studies the importance of cynicism in the XVI century and how the cynic influence of Erasmus, More and Montaigne was fundamental to the way that Europe approached the American indigenous. In the second part it studies the cynic motives that could have influenced in the construction of the myth of the good savage.

La amistad cívica en Aristóteles: concordia y fraternidad

El artículo muestra la importancia de la amistad en el contexto de la filosofía política aristotélica. Esta importancia se verifica en su peso específico en comparación con la justicia, puesto que Aristóteles mismo sostiene que la amistad cívica es incluso un objetivo superior al de la búsqueda de la justicia. En concreto, el artículo se centra en la función de la concordia, como tipo especial de amistad cívica, en términos de conservación de la unidad y estabilidad de la polis. Para captar su significación, se plantea el papel de la concordia como complemento a la condición política del ser humano. La concordia es necesaria a la luz de la tendencia a la lucha entre las partes de la ciudad, entre el demos y los oligarcas. Puesto que esta lucha pone en peligro la continuidad de la polis, la concordia entre ciudadanos se convierte en un antecedente privilegiado del principio de fraternidad republicana, el cual todavía no ha gozado de una atención suficiente en el campo de la historia de la filosofía política.

Averroes y las cosas justas por naturaleza

En su comentario a la Ética a Nicómaco, Averroes se ocupó del pasaje donde Aristóteles distingue entre las cosas que son justas por naturaleza y aquéllas que lo son en virtud de la ley (V, 7 1134b18-1135a5). Su comentario es particularmente breve, pero plantea algunas dificultades importantes, como su alusión a un derecho naturale legale, que, según Leo Strauss, vendría a ser simplemente un derecho positivo de aceptación general. En este artículo se busca caracterizar lo justo natural y lo justo positivo en el comentario de Averroes y mostrar el alcance de la variación de los criterios propios de la justicia positiva.

El pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre el pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando –entre otras cosas– su evolución desde lo que sería el neokantismo de mocedad de Ortega hasta su madurez. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo se ha recurrido a los escritos de Ortega, así como a autores especializados en su pensamiento. La historia del pensamiento político contemporáneo tiene una deuda contraída con Ortega que desde sus primeros escritos manifestó un claro interés por la política concebida ésta como pedagogía social y cuyo fin debía ser, en primer lugar, solventar los problemas de la vida pública nacional. El pensamiento político de Ortega se define asimismo por la defensa de los valores liberales (liberalismo) compatibles con los principios socialistas (socialismo), que en una primera época de juventud idealista neokantiana adquieren un significado eminentemente cultural aunque también moral, que no se perderá completamente en su madurez o época de plenitud vital, aunque bien es verdad que aquellos dos conceptos (liberalismo y socialismo), así como también su idea de democracia, irán respondiendo a la evolución de su pensamiento.

The Rhetorical Construction of Corporate Logos

This research is set in the context of today’s societies, in which the corporate visual symbology of a business, corporation or institution constitutes an essential way to transmit its corporate image. Traditional discursive procedures can be discovered in the development of these signs. The rhetorical strategies developed by the great classical authors appear in the logo-symbols expressing the corporate values of today’s companies. Thus, rhetoric is emerging once again in the sense it had many centuries ago: A repertory of rules that, paradoxically, standardizes the deviations of language and whose control is synonymous with power. The main objective of this study is to substantiate the rhetorical construction of logos using as a model of analysis the classical process of creating discourse. This involves understanding logos as persuasive discourses addressed to a modern audience. Our findings show that the rhetorical paradigm can be considered as a creative model for the con­struction of an original logo consistent with a company’s image.

Mad Men, The Sopranos and The American Way of Life. The history of the capital in two times

Don Draper (Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, AMC: 2007-2015) actively colaborates in the birth and consolidationof a model of consumer society without realizing the enormous lie he is telling himself. Tony Soprano(The Sopranos, David Chase, HBO: 1999-2007) desperately grasps the wreckage of that ideal imageof effort and self-improvement which is not only disappearing but was actually never coherent or real.This article does a comparative textual, sociological, and discursive analysis these two characters as arepresentation of the evolution of the discourse of capitalism in the second half of the 20th century, that is,the artificiality of the hegemonic discourse of “pursuit of happiness” as the main myth in post-war NorthAmerican neoliberalism.

Brazilian Social Segurity and Social Work: reflections on the Continuous Cash Benefit Programme

Guaranteed under the Federal Constitution of 1988, Brazilian social security covers rights relating to health, social welfare and social care. The Continuous Cash Benefit Programme (BPC) was approved as part of social care policy and is regulated under the Social Care Act (Ley Orgánica de Asistencia Social) of 1993. This benefit guarantees a minimum monthly income for persons with disabilities and for older adults. Certain requirements must be satisfied in order to obtain the assistance: medical and social assessment of disabled persons, a minimum age of 65 years for older adults, and, in both cases, the value of per capita income for the nuclear family in question, which must be lower than a quarter of the minimum wage. Regulation of the BPC has incorporated advances and setbacks in terms of legislation and implementation. In this framework, this article presents a theoretical reflection, an analysis of the legislation on the matter, and some reflections on the challenges that it poses for social workers.

Between representation and figuration. Nouvelle Vague’s cinema: a history revision

50 years after the birth of the Nouvelle Vague, the inheritance that the contemporary cinema receives from it is inevitable. Figures and visual motifs; stories, themes, faces or common places; aesthetic and language devices. The echoes appear in various ways, each affiliation involves a different relationship and therefore a dissimilar approximation to its analysis. And yet, both the academy and the film critics maintain their will to think the Nouvelle Vague as a whole, a universe, a stream or an aesthetic trend. However, does a Nouvelle Vague’s aesthetic exist? And if so: why and how to address their historical revision? Taking Deleuze’s thesis on the time-image and Serge Daney’s assertion according to which 50 years after the birth of the Nouvelle Vague, the inheritance that the contemporary cinema receives from it is inevitable. Figures and visual motifs; stories, themes, faces or common places; aesthetic and language devices. The echoes appear in various ways, each affiliation involves a different relationship and therefore a dissimilar approximation to its analysis. And yet, both the academy and the film critics maintain their will to think the Nouvelle Vague as a whole, a universe, a stream or an aesthetic trend. However, does a Nouvelle Vague’s aesthetic exist? And if so: why and how to address their historical revision? Taking Deleuze’s thesis on the time-image and Serge Daney’s assertion according to which

Women’s football. Notes for a social history of women’s sport in Spain, 1900-1936

In the context of demands by the European feminist movement at the beginning of the 20th century, in Spain women’s sport flagged up aspirations to what were considered to be male practices. The first experiences of women in football stand out because of their use of the media to appear as a symbol of social transformation to modernity in the 20th century. It was not in vain that women’s football highlighted the demands of the feminist movements, although it did come up against male disapproval from an opposing group. The research sets out from a bibliographical and media review of specialist press and sports news of the time. Other current studies have also been considered in order to place it in a social and historical focus on sport. This has enabled us to highlight that football in Spain was established as an unequivocal space for (re) producing male hegemony where women were relegated to the representation of a symbolic ritual in a scenario of accessory and condescension.

Derrida: Deconstrucción, 'différence' y diseminación. Una historia de parásitos, huellas y espectros

La deconstrucción irrumpe en el pensamiento de la escritura, como una escritura de la escritura, que por lo pronto obliga a otra lectura: no ya imantada a la comprensión hermenéutica del sentido que quiere-decir un discurso, a su fondo de ilegibilidad y de deseo de idioma–, a las fuerzas no intencionales inscritas en los sistemas significantes de un discurso que hacen de éste propiamente un “texto”, es decir, algo que por su propia naturaleza o por su propia ley se resiste a ser comprendido como expresión de un sentido, o más bien “expone” éste como efecto –y con su legalidad y necesidad específica– de una ilusión para la conciencia.