Urban reflexivity and touristic gaze: on production and consume of urban spaces

La tesis de la producción del espacio se sitúa en una hermenéutica del cambio social y urbano. Desde esa perspectiva se ha podido seguir el impacto de la industrialización en las formas urbanas. Siguiendo esa lectura analítica, en el contexto de la globalización, la reflexividad urbana y turística se persigue establecer una prolongación teórica sobre el impacto del turismo en la definición del espacio urbano y en una práctica recreativa que perfila a su vez la experiencia de la cultura urbana contemporánea.The theory of the production of space is arranged in a hermeneutic of social and urban change. From this perspective, it has been possible to survey the impact of industrialization on urban forms. Following this analytical scheme, in the context of globalization, urban and tourist reflexivity this paper stablishes a theoretical development about the impact of tourism on currently urban culture and urban space

Para una crítica del Urbanismo Normal. La teoría de la apropiación del espacio en H. Lefebvre

El pensamiento de H. Lefebvre sobre la ciudad y lo urbano está considerado como uno de los más sugerentes de la sociología urbana moderna. La reactualización de la que viene siendo objeto requiere ligar entre sí las múltiples dimensiones de su argumentación, sus recorridos intelectuales, para alcanzar así un núcleo teórico coherente. En este sentido, la teoría de la apropiación del espacio que complementa y amplia las investigaciones sobre la producción del espacio se encuentra ligada estrechamente a su crítica de la cotidianidad de la misma forma que ésta se vincula a su proyecto de reconstrucción del materialismo dialéctico. En este artículo se propone una breve pero global visión de la teoría urbana de H. Lefebvre tan útil ayer como hoy para abordar la complejidad de la ciudad y de la práctica urbana.Henri Lefebvre's thinking about the city and the urbanism has been considered as one of the most significant contribution for the modem urban sociology. His theory on the appropriation of the space, which follows and completes that one of the production of the space, is deeply linked to Lefebvre’s daily-life studies and his reconstruction of the dialectic materialism theory. This article proposes a brief but global view of Lefebvre’s urban theory extremely useful to deal with and understand the complexity of the city and the urban life

Presentation of the monograph: Perspectives and socials research in contemporary urban dynamics

En este texto de presentación ofrecemos unas breves referencias destinadas a enmarcar el conjunto de artículos seleccionados a propósito del tema Dinámicas urbanas contemporáneas. Es una cuestión suficientemente amplia para dar cabida a perspectivas y líneas de trabajo muy diversas, todas ellas de gran valor científico y académico. Situados en el contexto de la tercera revolución urbana, que obliga a pensar en términos muy diferentes la naturaleza de la ciudad y lo urbano, las aportaciones del volumen nos llevan a una comprensión más clara sobre la experiencia urbana contemporánea en diferentes registros, sobre la realidad compleja definida por las ciudades globales, su capacidad creativa del desarrollo social y económico. Pero esta (nueva) civilización de signo inequívocamente urbano presenta igualmente sombras, conflictos, contradicciones y desigualdades que exigen un conocimiento actualizado para formular políticas urbanas adecuadas.This introductory text offers a few brief references in order to frame the articles for the topic Contemporary Urban Dynamics. It is a sufficiently broad issue to accommodate very different perspectives and research lines about urban studies, all of them with large scientific and academic values. In the framework of the third urban revolution, which forces us to think in very different terms the nature of the city and the urban realm, these contributions lead us to a clearer understanding of contemporary urban experience in different environments: the complex realm defined by global cities, their creative capacity of social and economic development and so on. But this new urban civilization presents also conflicts, contradictions and social an inequalities that require updated knowledge in order to formulate suitable urban policies

The sexualization of mass culture from Edgar Morin’s analytical approach

Proponemos en este trabajo un examen crítico de la teoría de la cultura de masas del pensador francés Edgar Morin con el fin de progresar en la comprensión de la sexualización creciente de los productos culturales. La tendencia a la sexualización es consustancial al sector industrial de la cultura, bien por las funciones proyectivas esenciales de las producciones culturales, bien por las circunstancias y fines de la moderna producción cultural. La orientación a un público masivo lleva a emprender procesos de sincretización de los productos culturales, de modo que se introducen componentes diversos en todos ellos para ampliar y facilitar el consumo cotidiano, siendo la sexualidad uno de los factores básicos de sincretización. Además, se considera el análisis de la cultura de masas como resultado de la integración de la cultura popular moderna y la cultura burguesa. La base popular marca la tendencia a una orientación proyectiva-evasiva, que trata de experimentar una vida más intensa (y entre los factores que la facilitan se encuentra la satisfacción sexual). La base burguesa tiende, por el contrario, a la identificación con los personajes, a introducir imaginarios humanos realistas muy cercanos a los espectadores, lo que ha provocado la generalización del happy end en la cultura de masas y con ello la eliminación de los elementos trágicos en el imaginario. No obstante, siendo la tragedia necesaria a todo grupo humano, ha logrado encontrar expresión en el ámbito de las informaciones, especialmente en los sucesos, lo que permite entender la espectacularización de los delitos sexuales.In this paper we propose a critical analysis about the theory of the eroticization of mass culture outlined by Edgar Morin, emphasizing the relevance of his analytical perspective. According to this approach, the trend towards sexualisation of contents would be intrinsic to industrial cultures. On the one hand, due to its psychoanalytic influence, it is considered that every cultural production has found, in the projective psychosocial functions, a good part of their raison d’être, even though sexual or violent projections are masked or otherwise justified. On the other, because of some of the circumstances and purposes of modern industrial cultural production: first, we point out that the mass audience orientation leads to the implementation of syncretisation processes of cultural products, so that they introduce diverse components in all of them to expanding the mass media audience and facilitate daily consumption, being sexuality one of the basic factors of syncretisation; second, because the popular basis of culture will sharpen the projective-evasive orientation towards culture, so that products will show a more intense and perfect life in which secular satisfaction cannot be lacking; third, because the radicalization of the identification link to the characters derived from the bourgeois dominant of the cultural industry will force to remove the tragic aspects of the creations, leading to the displacement of these aspects to the field of information and events, which allows us to understand the performance of real sexual violence, amongst others

Agendas y marcos mediáticos sobre la imagen de la vivienda y la vulnerabilidad social

Exploramos en este trabajo el modo como se representa el objeto vivienda en los medios de comunicación, construyendo una imagen característica para la opinión pública y para los actores políticos, en el conflicto/negociación entre agendas y significados. Esta imagen fabricada cumple como parámetro de evaluación y de acción por parte de los diferentes actores en concurrencia. El objetivo es indagar en la imagen mediática de la vivienda en España a partir de un abordaje múltiple, constituido por el establecimiento de agendas y enmarcado de las cuestiones más relevantes, como una ampliación y un refinamiento en el modo de comprender el problema de la vivienda

La evaluación docente en clave reflexiva: propuesta de metodología de auto-evaluación de la docencia

Memoria resultado del proyecto de innovación de la UCM. Convocatoria 2016-17

Association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and waist-to-height ratio among high-risk subjects: the PREDIMED trial.

Trabajo presentado en European Congress of Epidemiology EUROEPI2012, celebrado en Oporto (Portugal) del 05 al 08 de septiembre de 2012.Association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and waist-to-height ratio among high-risk subjects: the PREDIMED trial

A provegetarian food pattern and reduction in total mortality in the Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea

[Background]: Vegetarian diets have been associated with reduced mortality. Because a pure vegetarian diet might not easily be embraced by many individuals, consuming preferentially plant-derived foods would be a more easily understood message. A provegetarian food pattern (FP) emphasizing preference for plant-derived foods might reduce all-cause mortality.[Objective]: The objective was to identify the association between an a priori–defined provegetarian FP and all-cause mortality.[Design]: We followed 7216 participants (57% women; mean age: 67 y) at high cardiovascular risk for a median of 4.8 y. A validated 137-item semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire was administered at baseline and yearly thereafter. Fruit, vegetables, nuts, cereals, legumes, olive oil, and potatoes were positively weighted. Added animal fats, eggs, fish, dairy products, and meats or meat products were negatively weighted. Energy-adjusted quintiles were used to assign points to build the provegetarian FP (range: 12–60 points). Deaths were confirmed by review of medical records and the National Death Index.[Results]: There were 323 deaths during the follow-up period (76 from cardiovascular causes, 130 from cancer, 117 for noncancer, noncardiovascular causes). Higher baseline conformity with the provegetarian FP was associated with lower mortality (multivariable-adjusted HR for ≥40 compared with <30 points: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.88). Similar results were found with the use of updated information on diet (RR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.89).[Conclusions]: Among omnivorous subjects at high cardiovascular risk, better conformity with an FP that emphasized plant-derived foods was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality. This trial was registered at www.controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN35739639

A multiproxy study distinguishes environmental change from diagenetic alteration in the recent sedimentary record of the inner Cadiz Bay (SW Spain)

In this study, we reconstruct the recent environmental evolution of the inner Cadiz Bay using sedimentary records reaching back as far as AD 1700. We report lithological descriptions of the sediments and extensive mineralogical and geochemical analyses. An extraction technique that identifies different Fe phases provides an assessment of diagenetic alteration, which allows an estimation of the original organic matter inputs to the inner Cadiz Bay. Downcore variations in Corg/N ratios, δ13Corg and δ15N are related to changes in organic matter sources and the trophic state of the water column. The downcore records of selected trace metals (e.g. Pb, Zn and Cu) are interpreted to reflect changes in heavy metal pollution in the bay, while records of other elements (e.g. Mn and P) are likely overprinted by diagenetic alteration. Major environmental shifts took place during the 20th century, when the population around Cadiz Bay increased exponentially. Increases in sediment accumulation rates, organic matter inputs and heavy metal contents, in parallel with increases in δ13Corg and δ15N over this period, are interpreted as direct effects of the increasing anthropogenic influence in the area. The results of this study suggest that multiproxy approaches and detailed consideration of diagenetic overprinting are required to reconstruct past environmental conditions from coastal sediments

Olive oil intake and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in the PREDIMED Study

Background: It is unknown whether individuals at high cardiovascular risk sustain a benefit in cardiovascular disease from increased olive oil consumption. The aim was to assess the association between total olive oil intake, its varieties (extra virgin and common olive oil) and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk. Methods: We included 7,216 men and women at high cardiovascular risk, aged 55 to 80 years, from the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) study, a multicenter, randomized, controlled, clinical trial. Participants were randomized to one of three interventions: Mediterranean Diets supplemented with nuts or extra-virgin olive oil, or a control low-fat diet. The present analysis was conducted as an observational prospective cohort study. The median follow-up was 4.8 years. Cardiovascular disease (stroke, myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death) and mortality were ascertained by medical records and National Death Index. Olive oil consumption was evaluated with validated food frequency questionnaires. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards and generalized estimating equations were used to assess the association between baseline and yearly repeated measurements of olive oil intake, cardiovascular disease and mortality. Results: During follow-up, 277 cardiovascular events and 323 deaths occurred. Participants in the highest energy-adjusted tertile of baseline total olive oil and extra-virgin olive oil consumption had 35% (HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.47 to 0.89) and 39% (HR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.44 to 0.85) cardiovascular disease risk reduction, respectively, compared to the reference. Higher baseline total olive oil consumption was associated with 48% (HR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.29 to 0.93) reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality. For each 10 g/d increase in extra-virgin olive oil consumption, cardiovascular disease and mortality risk decreased by 10% and 7%, respectively. No significant associations were found for cancer and all-cause mortality. The associations between cardiovascular events and extra virgin olive oil intake were significant in the Mediterranean diet intervention groups and not in the control group. Conclusions: Olive oil consumption, specifically the extra-virgin variety, is associated with reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and mortality in individuals at high cardiovascular risk. Trial registration This study was registered at controlled-trials.com (http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN35739639). International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 35739639. Registration date: 5 October 2005