Socio-Cultural Transformation and the Promotion of Learning

The main premise of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory is that to promote learning, and thus development, educators must intervene in, and change, the students’ socio-cultural context. Vygotsky’s theory, however, has been misinterpreted and the opposite approach has been accepted: the teaching is adapted, according to the context. The result is widespread failure in schools. This article reclaims the true transformative meaning of Vygotskian theory and shows how successful schools in several countries implement various actions to transform their social and cultural environment. Data is presented from six case studies of successful schools conducted in five European countries. The analysis shows that these actions improve instrumental learning and, consequently, cognitive development. All these efforts focus on teaching methods that aim to increase the amount that students learn

Regional flows of domestic tourism in Spain = Flujos regionales del turismo doméstico en España

The paper analyses the regional flows of domestic tourism that took place in Spain in year 2000, contributing to the state of knowledge on tourism required by authorities and private firms when faced with decision making, for example, for regional infrastructure planning. Although tourism is one of the main income-generating economic activities in Spain, domestic tourism has received little attention in the literature compared to inbound tourism. The paper uses among others, gravitational model tools and concentration indices, to analyse regional concentration of both domestic demand and supply; tourism flows among regions, and the causes that may explain the observed flows and attractiveness between regions. Among the most remarkable results are the high regional concentration of demand and supply, and the role of population and regional income as explanatory variables. Also remarkable are the attractiveness of own region and neighbour ones, and that domestic tourism may be acting as a regional income redistributing activity

Genealogía de la diversidad : la diversidad cultural como poder constituyente

El motivo de este artículo es analizar la trayectoria mutante de la diversidad cultural, con el objetivo de entender su importancia en las políticas públicas contemporáneas. Para ello se repasan los distintos períodos históricos por los que cruza este concepto. En la noción de diversidad cultural converge la lucha por los derechos civiles y políticos de los inmigrantes africanos y asiáticos así como, la crítica a las visiones del desarrollo político y las teorías coloniales y postcoloniales que sitúan el debate sobre las relaciones culturales entre el norte y el resto del mundo a mediados del siglo XX. En un segundo momento los territorios de lo diverso amplían sus actores, enfoques y tramas y los estudios culturales de corriente crítica reconocen estas rupturas obligando a la toma de decisiones políticas en materia de cultura. En 1997 y como síntesis a estos procesos, la Comisión Mundial de Cultura y Desarrollo publica el Informe Mundial sobre la Diversidad Cultural, documento fundamental cuyo impacto se ve reducido por una tendencia al multiculturalismo laxo propio de la orientación ultraliberal. En 2010, el Informe Mundial de la UNESCO 'Invertir en la diversidad cultural y el diálogo intercultural' sitúa definitivamente la diversidad como poder constitutivo de las políticas no solo de desarrollo sino también de participación democrática y uno de los asuntos más esenciales de las agendas contemporáneas