The Euro System as a Laboratory for Neoliberalism: The Case of Spain

Since the 1970s, neoliberalism has evolved from ideology to political agenda, from political program to public policy, and from public policy to a system that replaces democratic control over economic policy with a system of elite economic management. This process of change has been possible due to the endorsement of a meta-political theory that destroys democracy and legitimizes technocratic despotism, financial deregulation, the debasement of labor into a new proletariat, and the purging of constitutional politics. In this article, we analyze this profound transformation of social and legal relations in the “euro system” and, specifically, in the regressive policies that have emerged from the “crisis” in Spain, a peripheral country of the European Union. The problems in contemporary Europe are a direct consequence of the neoliberal version of European economic unity. Their solution will depend on the capacity of the member states to create a social Europe that strengthens institutional democracy and develops universal systems of social protection. This, in turn, will depend on the ability of citizens to remodel state institutions in accordance with new social goals that place life at the center

Perspectives on human and social capital theories and the role of education: an approach from Mediterranean thought.

Current discussions about education suggest that a transformative pedagogy that goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge and skills is needed. However, there is no agreement as to the inputs needed for a correct development of the educational model. In this sense, we can identify the presence of two different approaches to human and social capital which embody distinct educational worldviews. On the one hand, the ‘Marketable Human Capital’ or ‘Personal Culture’ approach, and on the other hand, the ‘Non-Marketable Human Capital’ or ‘Civic Culture’ approach. The first, which is linked to mainstream economic theory, sees education as any stock of knowledge that contributes to an improvement in the productivity of the worker and individual well-being. The second, which is rooted in the Mediterranean tradition of political thought, highlights the role of civic virtues, reciprocity, and public action within the educational process and its influence on public happiness. In this article, we analyse these connections in order to introduce the eighteenth-century Mediterranean tradition of economic thought into discussions about human and social capital theories and the role of education in them. Focusing on education through these prisms, national and international agendas must be reoriented towards the integral development of people to include broader global debates.Financial support from the Research Program of the Faculty of Economic and Business Administration at the University of Granada (UGR/2018

Economic poverty and happiness in rural Ecuador: The importance of Buen Vivir (Living Well)

This research paper addresses the endemic dimensions of having or not having a good life using a concept of poverty based on self-reported subjective well- being. We build a subjective well-being poverty (SWBP) line and compare it with two income poverty (IP) lines. The endemic dimension comes from rural Ecuador and the indigenous happiness idea of Buen Vivir (Living Well), which has been the focus of growing attention in the scientific and the political arena. Discrepancies between SWBP and IP are deeply explored building models that explain SWBP with IP, as well as control variables and Buen Vivir related variables. We show that income poor households are more likely to be poor in terms of their reported subjective well-being. However, households that grow their own food and are in an indigenous community are less likely to report to be subjective well-being poor. The results suggest that low SWBP values in contrast with high IP may be explained by idiosyncratic components of the Buen Vivir philosophy. The components of the Buen Vivir ethos related to SWBP give rise to the idea of building multidi- mensional concepts of poverty based on what ethnic people consider to be good or bad for their specific way of life. In a general context, our study raises the importance of considering poverty and its dimensions taking into account the endemic factors of specific groups of people and cultures. That is, to take into account what is important for their lives.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness (Project ECO2012-32189) and the Government of Andalucía (Project P11-SEJ-7039 and Project P12-SEJ- 1436)

Economía del desarrollo

Web Economistas sin Fronteras: http://ecosfron.org/Por lo general, cuando se pregunta a estudiantes de los últimos cursos de Economía sobre qué entienden por Desarrollo y estudios del Desarrollo, aluden rápidamente a conceptos tales como crecimiento económico, renta nacional, producto interior bruto, excedente o productividad. Rara es la ocasión en que conocen de la existencia de la Economía del Desarrollo, una sub-disciplina de la Ciencia Social que están estudiando destinada específicamente a analizar cuáles son los factores políticos, económicos, sociales, tecnológicos, culturales e institucionales que determinan la riqueza y la pobreza de las naciones. El poco conocimiento de la subdisciplina a lo largo de los estudios de Economía no es de extrañar y responde principalmente a dos causas. La primera hace referencia a la enseñanza de la ciencia económica. Si bien desde el comienzo de sus estudios el alumnado se familiariza rápidamente con modelos más o menos sofisticados para calcular producciones de equilibrio y/u optimizar funciones de producción, mínimas son las referencias a las instituciones sociales, políticos o culturales sobre las que se cimientan dichos análisis. La ciencia económica actual busca, básicamente, comprender la relación entre cantidades y precios, sin problematizar en los elementos que configuran la base del intercambio económico (instituciones, clases, intereses, cuidados, naturaleza, relaciones de poder, etc.). Hoy la disciplina es eminentemente pecuniaria o, siguiendo a Aristóteles, crematística, puesto que está enfocada principalmente en cómo multiplicar el dinero. De esta forma, la arena de la producción, la tecnología, sus despliegues y los factores que la empujan o limitan, quedan ocultos bajo la búsqueda de equilibrios estáticos. La segunda está más relacionada con el origen y la evolución de la Economía del Desarrollo. Aunque pareciese que en las últimas décadas existe un consenso para definir el Desarrollo como un proceso de transformaciones estructurales de carácter multidimensional, en el lenguaje político y académico actual continúa identificándose reiteradamente con crecimiento económico e ingreso per cápita. Sin embargo, la Economía del Desarrollo es un área de estudio inherentemente multidisciplinaria cuyas discusiones abordan temáticas que van desde la cooperación internacional, el papel de los organismos multilaterales y la sociedad civil, hasta el medio ambiente, el heteropatriarcado, el colonialismo, la epistemología del conocimiento o las necesidades, libertades y capacidades humanas. Por desgracia estos y otros debates relacionados con la sub-disciplina aún no han sido incorporados a los planes de estudios de Economía. En este capítulo pretendemos ayudar humildemente a suplir este déficit ofreciendo un texto asequible e introductorio que facilite su inserción paulatina en las mallas curriculares

An empirical assessment of the indigenous Sumak Kawsay (living well): the importance of nature and relationships

The Andean indigenous way of life Sumak Kawsay (living well in Kichwa) is related to reciprocity, solidarity, collective participation, social justice, and harmony with nature and with the community. This paper uses a representative national sample in Ecuador to assess how certain features of Sumak Kawsay relate to subjective well-being. In this vein, we propose several variables associated with this particular way of life: collective participation activities (mingas), enjoying a portion of land (chakra), living in a rural area and indigenous identity. The results indicate that most Sumak Kawsay features are positively related to life and environmental satisfaction. An important exception is indigenous identity, which is negatively related to life satisfaction and not significant for environmental satisfaction. We suggest that Sumak Kawsay is important for subjective well-being in Ecuador, but indigenous people’s subjective well-being would benefit if their needs are better taken into account in the political arena.This research has been partially supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, the State Research Agency (SRA) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (project reference ECO2017-86822-R)

What is Sumak Kawsay? A Qualitative Study in the Ecuadorian Amazon

A qualitative study of the main characteristics of sumak kawsay (buen vivir, living well/good life) in the Ecuadorian Amazon shows that it has four constitutive elements of which a multitude of interpretations coexist: an indigenous and nature-focused worldview, community, an economy based on solidarity, and ancestral knowledge. Understandings of sumak kawsay are rooted in the practices and beliefs of the communities interviewed rather than in theoretical constructions of idyllic community forms, and in this connection differences can be observed between the academic “indigenist” view of it and local discourses. Una aproximación cualitativa a las características principales del sumak kawsay (buen vivir, living well/good life) en la Amazonía ecuatoriana muestran la existencia de cuatro elementos constitutivos del sumak kawsay en los que colindan multitud de interpretaciones: cosmovisión indígena y naturaleza, comunidad, economía solidaria, y conocimiento ancestral. Las comprensiones del sumak kawsay enraízan con prácticas y creencias de las personas y no con construcciones teóricas de formas comunitarias idílicas, y al respecto, apreciamos diferencias entre la visión académica “indigenista” del sumak kawsay y los discursos locales.This study was partially funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Regional Development Fund (project ECO2017-86822-R); the Regional Government of Andalusia and the European Regional Development Fund (projects P18-RT-576 and B-SEJ-018-UGR18), the University of Granada (Plan Propio. Unidad Científica de Excelencia: Desigualdad, Derechos Humanos y Sostenibilidad -DEHUSO-), and Universidad Internacional SEK Research Project, Ecuador (No. P021718

Specification and Development of a HMI for ADAS, Based in Usability and Accessibility Principles

Traditionally, the design of road vehicle HMI is based in esthetic principles, maintaining it as an attractive factor for possible clients when buying a car. Only recently, ergonomic benefits have been applied to the design of HMIs, mainly following institutional impulses like the European Union one, but whose contribution is not clearly stated nowadays in commercial products. In this paper the authors present a study of the design of an HMI, based in usability and accessibility premises, centering the design in the user, as method to improve safety, making natural the communication with the driver as well as being able to transmitting information to the driver, from basic to the generated by ADAS installed in the car. Following these specifications a set of prototypes have been designed in order to develop a testbed that could be evaluated for a large set of drivers.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TRA2007-67786 and TRA2009-07505) and the CAM project SEGVAUTO-II.Publicad

Distributed microprocessor controllers using optic fiber network

This work continues a previous project devoted to the supervision and control of electric motors in large industrial plants. This project consists in a set of microcontroller boards that communicate with a Global Control Card (GCC) The transmission of messages in the system is done using a optic fiber network. The GCC can be linked to a supervisory computer by a serial communication channel. A program processes the system schematics and authomatically generates the configuration files. This project has been realised in collaboration with INABBNSA (ABENGOA) and funded by the ATICA programme

Una experiencia práctica para la explicación de conceptos económicos mediante el uso de un simulador lúdico de construcción

El uso de un simulador de construcciones como una herramienta de innovación docente, puede abrir una nueva ventana en el difícil proceso de hacer comprender a estudiantes de Ingeniería, la importancia que para su formación tiene estudiar Economía, una materia que en principio ven ajena a sus motivaciones. El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en una propuesta de aprendizaje de determinados conceptos económicos para la asignatura de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa del Grado de Ingeniería de la Edificación, mediante el uso de un simulador de construcción de estructuras, el cual evaluará las soluciones propuestas por el alumno en la resolución de problemas económicos que, con frecuencia, surgen en las competencias propias del Grado, definidas en el Libro Blanco de la titulación.The use of a construction simulator as an innovative method of teaching can help students of the degree in Building Engineering to understand the importance of study Economics in their education, even though Economics is a subject initially perceived by them out of their motivations. The aim of this study is to propose a different way of learning some economic concepts for the subject Applied Business Economics, of the degree in Building Engineering, by using a construction simulator. The construction simulator will revise the solutions given for the students to solve economic problems which usually are part of the competences of the Grade, competences included in the White Book of this degree