The idea of Anderson that the Nation is an imagined community has been a very popular and his acceptance was fairly quick. And like all popular ideas and fast acceptance, this means that there is a core of high interest in that idea and in turn that one will find among its advocates a number […]
The representation of the social reality at the polls, or about the real opinion of the people
It all started in Chilesoc. Jose Manuel Ferreiro sending an email to the list noting that over The Counter had published a column Sabrobsky to the purpose of the surveys-the column in this link-, and that ‘on the other hand, I think that all those who, directly or indirectly, we have worked with surveys (such […]
An idea about the Capitalism of the Information
Before I forget, and it is not that very good or certainly very original (I have to look to who already happened), but it may be useful to develop it later. The contradiction between the rationality of knowledge-that requires advertising and free access to information – and the instrumental rationality -which requires property to be […]
The Elite and the Construction of Social Order in Chile
Among the countless myths that we tell ourselves about ourselves, one quite common is the idea that Chile has been a country of strong institutions, in particular in relation to other countries of Latin America. But if one examines the evidence not found with a stability very high. During the time of the decades, the […]
Burawoy on social movements and the anti-commodification.
Yesterday 23rd of July I went to a conference in the Faculty of Social Sciences, U. of Chile, in which Michael Burawoy spoke about ‘Facing an Unequal World’. Very interesting. So we now proceed to summarize what I found relevant to the conference and to make a few comments. The fundamental idea is that in […]
The End of Certainty
A feature that attracts attention when one reads almost any text of traditional philosophy -say, until before the TWENTIETH century – is the centrality of the pursuit of a certain knowledge, or indeed the conflación of the idea of knowledge with certain knowledge and reliable. What has no solid base, non-negotiable, it’s not worth much […]
fear atavistic of the elite in Chile
Some months ago I commented in any entry of the social order in Chile is really fragile (link here): the elite does not know how to operate in a society mobilized and that their reaction to this is usually violence. Reading yesterday’s ‘Santiago de Chile. History of an urban society’ Armando Ramon (Catalonia 2007) I […]
On the dating of texts
The normal practice when you make direct quotes, is the reference page of the edition one is using. And has been for a good time. In reality, this is not a system very suitable. First in relation to the texts that have multiple editions (what corresponds to page 200 of my edition in another edition?). […]
Imperialism in the Social Sciences, or of the peculiar situation of the Political Science
The economy imposed to the other disciplines of the social sciences, the economic imperialism: the idea that the rational actor that is the foundation of their theories is the best explanation of the behavior. Sociology, in turn, had done the same with its own version of imperialism: sociology as the science basis of the study […]
Haydn and his quartets
I’ve had pretty much abandoned this poor blog this past month-but between work, thesis, preparation of presentation for the Congress of the WINGS, and in general the life (and the fact that my poor notebook has been stolen from my property, oh, that’s going to be you notebook far away from home) haven’t left me […]