Spanish Sociology and Anti-Semitism Between passed prejudice and key to civilization

There is a significant lack of sociological research in Spain about anti-Semitism. At the same time there are alarming anti-Semitic tendencies and anti-Jewish stereotypes which are above the European average. This article aims to explain this lack of sociological research about anti-Semitism in Spain. Therefore two types of explications are offered: on the one hand side some structural problems will be shown which sociology in general had since its beginnings and which complicate the understanding of anti-Semitism. Furthermore explications regarding the specific social and historic situation in Spain and of Spanish sociology in particular will be exposed. It will be shown that for its rationalistic character and with the exception of very few authors – who are considered marginalized for practical research – sociology in general has had enormous problems in understanding anti-Semitism. The specific historic situation, Francoism, the dispute about the historic memory and the delayed institutionalisation of sociology could also explain the lack of sociological interest in the topic especially in Spain. The article shows that the study of anti-Semitism is not only relevant for struggling against this burden of society in many of its variants. Furthermore, thinking about anti-Semitism can help sociology to recognise its own epistemological problems. It can serve to criticise and improve instruments of sociological research by showing the limitations of the sociological approach and to uncover the importance of interdisciplinary research for understanding specific social phenomena. In that sense, anti-Semitism, far from being a marginal subject, can be considered a key topic in the process of civilisation and it can help us to decipher the contemporary Spanish society.

Pension structural reforms, re-reforms and their effects on social welfare: The case of Chile

This article fi rst summarizes the structural reforms of pensions (total or partial privatization) in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, identifying their advantages and disadvantages, and does the same with the international process of re-reforms of pensions with a greater role of the state. Second, chooses Chile as a case study, as a world pioneer in both types of reforms; describes their characteristics and effects on social welfare of the structural reform of 1981 and the re-reform of 2008. Such effects are evaluated based on ten basic principles of social security from the International Labour Offi ce (ILO): 1) social dialogue to approve the reforms, 2) universal coverage of the population, 3) equal treatment of insured persons, 4) social solidarity, 5) gender equity, 6) suffi ciency of benefi ts, 7) effi ciency and reasonable administrative cost, 8) social participation in the management of the system, 9) role of the state and supervision, and 10) fi nancial sustainability. Third, it summarizes the advantages and disadvantages-challenges of the re-reform and informs on the current debate for further reforms.

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.

El concepto de “posesión común originaria” en la doctrina kantiana de la propiedad

Los primeros parágrafos de la sección “El derecho privado” (§§ 1-17) de la Doctrina del derecho de Kant incluyen el conjunto de los elementos sistemáticos que conciernen a la justificación de los derechos relativos a la propiedad. El propósito central de este trabajo es analizar la función sistemática del concepto de “posesión común originaria” en la doctrina kantiana de la propiedad, con especial interés en el sentido novedoso que adquiere ese concepto —que pertenecía a la tradición del derecho natural— en su reformulación como un “concepto práctico de la razón, que contiene a priori, el principio según el cual tan solo los hombres pueden hacer uso del lugar sobre la tierra siguiendo leyes jurídicas” (RL, 262).