How open are journalists on Twitter? Trends towards the end-user journalism

The many activities of journalists on Twitter should be analyzed. Are they doing a different kind of journalism? With a content analysis of 1125 tweets, this study reveals trends of some Spanish journalists using Twitter. A traditional role like gatekeeping can be highly amplified in terms of transparency and accountability with actions as retweeting or linking. The landscape offered by this platform is framed with the "ambient journalism", which will help to understand the proposal of this study: the end-user journalism. The findings will show the level of opening with the audience in aspects about replies, requests and linking

Barter, Credit, and Welfare: A theoretical inquiry into the barter phenomenon in Russia

This paper develops a model to investigate the welfare implications of barter in Russia and other transition economies during the 1990s. We argue that barter is a welfare-improving phenomenon that acts as a defense mechanism against monetary instability. When firms react to tighter credit markets by switching to barter, the risk they face diminishes, allowing for a higher level of production.Barter, welfare, Russia, money, credit, payment system, interest rate

Experimental demonstration that offspring fathered by old males have shorter telomeres and reduced lifespans

Offspring of older parents frequently show reduced longevity, but the mechanisms driving this so-called 'Lansing effect' are unknown. While inheritance of short telomeres from older parents could underlie this effect, studies to date in different species have found mixed results, reporting positive, negative or no association between parental age and offspring telomere length (TL). However, most of the existing evidence is from non-experimental studies in which it is difficult to exclude alternative explanations such as differential survival of parents with different telomere lengths. Here we provide evidence in the zebra finch that offspring from older parents have reduced lifespans. As a first step in disentangling possible causes, we used an experimental approach to examine whether or not we could detect pre-natal paternal effects on offspring TL. We found that zebra finch embryos fathered by old males have shorter telomeres than those produced by the same mothers but with younger fathers. Since variation in embryonic TL persists into post-natal life, and early life TL is predictive of longevity in this species, this experimental study demonstrates that a paternally driven pre-natal TL reduction could at least in part underlie the reduced lifespan of offspring from older parents

Introduction : why we need an analytical sociological theory

Sociology has long lived in a stigmatized and pre-paradigmatic state that is highly counterproductive for its status as a scientific discipline. Analytical Sociological Theory (AST) constitutes an attempt to change that situation by clarifying sociological concepts and practices, as well as optimizing and systematizing good explanatory work in social sciences. This essay presents some basic epistemic and methodological principles of AST and discusses their implications for traditional or «pre-analytical» ways of understanding social science. Its main aim is to serve as an introduction to the articles on AST that are compiled in this issue of Papers.La sociología ha vivido durante largo tiempo en un estado estigmatizado y pre-paradigmático que resulta altamente contraproducente para su status como disciplina científica. La Teoría Sociológica Analítica (TSA) constituye un intento de cambiar esa situación, introduciendo un cierto orden en los conceptos y prácticas sociológicas, y optimizando y sistematizando el buen trabajo de explicación en las ciencias sociales. Este texto presenta algunos supuestos epistémicos y metodológicos básicos de la TSA y discute sus implicaciones para las maneras tradicionales o «pre-analíticas» de entender la ciencia social. Su principal objetivo es servir como introducción a los artículos sobre la TSA reunidos en este número monográfico de Papers

El concepto de trabajo y la teoría social crítica

Los actuales debates en torno al concepto de trabajo no siempre han planteado con claridad algunos de los rasgos centrales que dicho concepto adopta en la tradición de teoría social crítica que se inicia con Marx. Esta tradición ha puesto a menudo el acento en las relaciones entre el trabajo y la emancipación humana. En esta dirección, el artículo propone tres ejes conceptuales adicionales al ya tradicional de «valorización vs. desprecio» del trabajo: concepto amplio frente a concepto reducido, productivismo frente a antiproductivismo, y centralidad normativa frente a no centralidad del trabajo. Desde estas coordenadas de análisis, se critican algunos tópicos sobre el concepto de trabajo de Marx, y se enumeran diversos caminos por los que las tradiciones marxistas posteriores han desarrollado el mismo. En concreto, se lleva a cabo un análisis y crítica del concepto de trabajo en Habermas.Present discussions on the concept of work have not always established clearly some of the central tenets that this concept has acquired in the tradition of critical social theory which begins with Marx. This tradition has often emphasized the relationship between work and human emancipation. In this direction, the article adds three conceptual dichotomies to the more traditional one of «valuation vs. disdain» of work: wide vs. reduced concept of work, productivism vs. antiproductivism, and normative centrality vs. non-centrality of work. From this standpoint, the article criticizes some commonplaces about Marx's concept of work, and list some ways in which later Marxist traditions have develop this concept. Specifically, Habermas' concept of work is analyzed and criticized in the last part of the article

¿Son los hechos sociales una clase de hechos mentales? Una crítica materialista a la ontología social de John R. Searle

El presente artículo lleva a cabo un análisis crítico de algunos aspectos de la obra de John R. Searle, La construcción de la realidad social (1995). Partiendo del acuerdo con Searle sobre la necesidad de abandonar el llamado "construccionismo social", se valora hasta qué punto la argumentación del autor resulta exitosa en este empeño. A este respecto, se defienden las siguientes tesis: a) La ontología social de Searle está parcialmente lastrada por un inadecuado mentalismo, esto es, por la reducción de todos los hechos sociales a hechos mentales o representaciones superpuestas o hechos "brutos". b) El mentalismo de Searle no le aleja lo suficiente de los construccionistas sociales, sino que su desarrollo coherente acaba teniendo consecuencias construccionistas e idealistas a pesar suyo. c) Para superar estas limitaciones se debería demostrar que hay hechos sociales que no son ni hechos brutos ni hechos mentales ni simples combinaciones de ambos; se sostendrá que un concepto analíticamente reconstruido de praxis puede ser un buen punto de partida para desarrollar esta estregia, que puede ser un paso en la construcción de una ontología social materialista.This article carries out a critical analysis of some aspects of John R. Searle's work The Construction of Social Reality (1995). Starling out from agreement with Searle on the need to abandon the so-called «social constructionism», an appraisal is made of the extent to which the author's argument is successful in this endeavour. In this regard, the following theses are defended: 1) Searle's social ontology is partially weighed down by inappropriate mentalism, in other words, by the reduction of all social facts to mental facts or representations superimposed on «rough» facts. 2) Searle's mentalism does not take him sufficiently far away from social constructionists, but in spite of himself his coherent development ends up having constructionist and idealistic consequences. 3) In order to overcome these limitations, it should be demonstrated that there are social facts that are not rough facts, or mental facts, or simple combinations of both; it shall be maintained that an analytically reconstructed concept of praxis can be a good point of departure for developing this strategy, which may be a step in the construction of a materialistic social ontolog

A ‘basic income’ system could be feasible in Spain, but only by reframing the current debate

Several academics and politicians have argued in favour of a so called ‘basic income’ system, which would provide an unconditional payment to every citizen within a given country to cover basic living costs. José A. Noguera writes on the potential for such a system to solve some of the current issues in Spain. He argues that while the goal of a basic income system is legitimate, it would be extremely difficult to implement this model in practice. Instead he advocates a package of four key reforms which would have the potential to provide most of the benefits of a basic income system for Spanish citizens without alienating those who would be obliged to pay higher taxes