Culture, neo-liberalism and citizen communication: the case of Radio Tierra in Chile

This article analyses the Chilean independent and not-for profit station Radio Tierra In the general context of the work of two key Chilean sociologists, José Joaquín Brunner and Manuel Antonio Garretón, in particular the latter’s theory of an epochal transformation in the relationship between culture and neo-liberalism in Chile over the preceding 30 years. More specifically, it suggests that Radio Tierra makes evident the emergence of a new form of social communication which, in contrast to the traditional liberal model of communication of, and for, information, is more attuned to the new functions of culture in the expansion and implementation of citizenship under conditions of (neo-liberal) globalization. After a discussion of the contemporary media scene and the role of public journalism and alternative communication in Latin America, the article then focuses on the communicational, political and cultural work of Radio Tierra. In 1990, along with the transition to democracy, Radio Tierra (RT) was born in Santiago as an independent station. Using its trajectory, I will try to concretely show some important connections between globalization, neo-liberalism and culture in contemporary Chile

The Memory of the National and the National as Memory

This essay seeks to illuminate a different, more encompassing kind of transition than that from dictatorship to post-dictatorship (and its attendant forms of memory of military brutal force and human rights abuses) often privileged by studies of political violence and social memory. The focus is twofold: first, to describe a transition from the world of the social to that of the post-social, i.e. a transition from a welfare state-centered form of the nation to its neoliberal competitive state counterpart; and secondly, to analyze its attendant memory dynamics. The double articulation of collective memory under neoliberalism, the deep and recurring violence it has involved at both the social and the individual level, and its self-articulation as a social memory apparatus are apparent in two Chilean films exploring the logic (Pablo Larraín’s Tony Manero) and the history (Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia de la luz) of the implementation of this neoliberal memory apparatus in Chile. Este trabajo intenta iluminar una transición más amplia que aquella entre dictadura y post-dictadura ( y sus correspondientes formas de memoria sobre la violencia militar o los abusos a los derechos humanos) que suele ser el objeto de estudio de los trabajos sobre violencia política y memoria social. Mi interés es doble: primero, describir una transición del mundo social al post-social (es decir, una transición desde una forma de estado-nación centrada en el estado de bienestar a su contraparte neoliberal y competitiva; y en segundo lugar, analizar sus correspondientes formas de memoria. La doble articulación de la memoria colectiva bajo el neoliberalismo, la profunda y recurrente violencia presente, tanto a nivel social como a nivel individual, y su autoarticulación como un aparato de la memoria social son evidentes en las dos películas chilenas Tony Manero de Pablo Larraín y Nostalgia de la luz de Patricio Guzmán que exploran la lógica y la historia de la implementación de este aparato de la memoria neoliberal en Chile

#Santiago is not #Chile, or is it? A Model to Normalize Social Media Impact

Online social networks are known to be demographically biased. Currently there are questions about what degree of representativity of the physical population they have, and how population biases impact user-generated content. In this paper we focus on centralism, a problem affecting Chile. Assuming that local differences exist in a country, in terms of vocabulary, we built a methodology based on the vector space model to find distinctive content from different locations, and use it to create classifiers to predict whether the content of a micro-post is related to a particular location, having in mind a geographically diverse selection of micro-posts. We evaluate them in a case study where we analyze the virtual population of Chile that participated in the Twitter social network during an event of national relevance: the municipal (local governments) elections held in 2012. We observe that the participating virtual population is spatially representative of the physical population, implying that there is centralism in Twitter. Our classifiers out-perform a non geographically-diverse baseline at the regional level, and have the same accuracy at a provincial level. However, our approach makes assumptions that need to be tested in multi-thematic and more general datasets. We leave this for future work.Comment: Accepted in ChileCHI 2013, I Chilean Conference on Human-Computer Interactio

Age-Differentiated Minimum Wages in a Dual Labor Market Model

The fact that minimum wages seem especially binding for young workers has led some countries to adopt age-differentiated minimum wages. We develop a dynamic competitive two-sector labor market model where workers with heterogeneous initial skills gain productivity through experience. We compare two equally binding schemes of single and age-differentiated minimum wages, and find that although differentiated minimum wages result in a more equal distribution of income, such a scheme creates a more unequal distribution of wealth, by forcing less skilled workers to remain longer in the uncovered sector. We also show that relaxing minimum wage solely for young workers may be harmful for less skilled ones.

Scattering in the energy space for Boussinesq equations

In this note we show that all small solutions in the energy space of the generalized 1D Boussinesq equation must decay to zero as time tends to infinity, strongly on slightly proper subsets of the space-time light cone. Our result does not require any assumption on the power of the nonlinearity, working even for the supercritical range of scattering. No parity assumption on the initial data is needed

Factors that affect motivation towards english language acquisition in seventh grade students of a public elementary school in Parral

Tesis (Magíster en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera)The research presents the results of the identification and analysis of factors that characterize the motivation for the English Foreign Language Acquisition of seventh year students who belong to a Public Elementary school of Parral, seventh region, Maule in Chile. To investigate the factors that influence students’ motivation a mixed method research was carried out. The data was collected and analysed through qualitative approach and organized and presented in a quantitative manner represented by graphics. The information was compiled by two previously validated instruments, which consisted of a questionnaire for the teachers of the different subjects of the class and the psychosocial team who works with the students. A personal interview was applied to each student. Two major conclusions were obtained from the results of the analysis of the data collection; firstly students present a lack of motivation towards the subject of English as a Foreign Language as a product of the sociocultural environment in which they are immersed, secondly learners are exposed to language learning from puberty and not from the beginning of their first learning stages as postulates the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH).La investigación presenta los resultados de la identificación y análisis de los factores que caracterizan la motivación hacia la adquisición del inglés como lengua extranjera de alumnos de séptimo año básico pertenecientes a un colegio básico y público de la comuna de Parral, séptima región del Maule en Chile. Para investigar los factores que inciden en la motivación de los estudiantes se utilizó un enfoque mixto tanto cualitativo para la recolección y análisis de los datos y cuantitativo para la organización y presentación de la información representada en gráficos. La obtención de la información se hizo mediante dos instrumentos previamente validados, los cuales consistieron en un cuestionario para los profesores de los diferentes sectores de aprendizaje del curso y para el equipo sicosocial que trabaja con los estudiantes. Una entrevista personal fue aplicada a cada alumno. Dos grandes conclusiones se obtuvieron del resultado del análisis de la recolección de datos; la primera es la falta de motivación de los alumnos hacia la asignatura de inglés como lengua extranjera producto del entorno sociocultural en el cual están inmersos y la segunda es que los alumnos son expuestos al aprendizaje de la lengua desde el inicio de la pubertad y no desde sus primeras etapas de aprendizaje como postula la hipótesis del período crítico

Coupling different levels of resolution in molecular simulations

Simulation schemes that allow to change molecular representation in a subvolume of the simulation box while preserving the equilibrium with the surrounding introduce conceptual problems of thermodynamic consistency. In this work we present a general scheme based on thermodynamic arguments which ensures thermodynamic equilibrium among the molecules of different representation. The robustness of the algorithm is tested for two examples, namely an adaptive resolution simulation, atomistic/coarse-grained, for a liquid of tetrahedral molecules and an adaptive resolution simulation of a binary mixture of tetrahedral molecules and spherical solutes

Una mirada al uso de lenguaje caro en el ámbito judicial latinoamericano

El present treball té per objectiu analitzar l'estat actual de la justícia en termes del discurs que utilitza per adreçar-se a les persones, així com presentar i contextualitzar en l'àmbit regional els avenços i abastos que el llenguatge clar pot brindar per facilitar l'accés a la justícia. En el treball s'aborda el dret a comprendre; després s'explica el que denominem el gir cap al ciutadà; després es fa una ressenya del llenguatge clar a Hispanoamèrica; després es realitza una revisió de les experiències sobre llenguatge clar i la seva rellevància per a la justícia a Llatinoamèrica, abordant-se principalment les aportacions relacionades amb l'escriptura de les sentències, document prototípic de l'àmbit judicial. Finalment, s'aborden les conclusions i projeccions del treball.This paper aims to analyse the current justice system in terms of the type of language used to address people, as well as to present and give context of the advances and achievements regarding how plain language can facilitate access to the justice system at a regional level. This work deals with the right to comprehend. What we call the “turn”to the citizen will also be explained. After, we will provide a revision of experiences of plain language in Latin America, including its relevance regarding the Latin American justice system, mainly addressing the contributions related to the writing of judicial decisions as a traditional document in the judicial field. Finally, some conclusions on these matters are addressed.El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar el estado actual de la justicia en términos del discurso que utiliza para dirigirse a las personas, así como presentar y contextualizar a nivel mundial y regional los avances y alcances que el lenguaje claro puede brindar para facilitar el acceso a la justicia. En un primer apartado se explica lo que denominamos el «giro» hacia el ciudadano; luego se realiza una revisión de los orígenes y antecedentes del lenguaje claro y su relevancia para la justicia en América Latina; posteriormente, se aborda la claridad de las sentencias como punto de partida para un cambio, centrándose en el ámbito penal y de familia. Finalmente, se abordan las conclusiones y proyecciones del trabajo