La democracia como dictadura

In this essay I propose a radical demystification of the perceived image of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte’s Chilean dictatorship as a period of uniform terror that suffocated all popular contestation. Based on the differentiation of repressive styles and the popular responses to them, I propose that this perceived image has been artificially constructed in order to hide the historical continuity between Pinochet’s dictatorship and the current democratic regime. I relate this historic reconstruction to a more general thesis: I argue that there is an essential continuity between both political periods ruled by the deep dictatorial character of so-called current democratic regimes. To conclude I highlight the dictatorial mechanisms of current democracies as well as the political tasks that would allow for a progressive opposition to these same mechanisms.En este ensayo expongo una radical desmitificación de la imagen que se tiene de la dictadura chilena de Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, que es vista habitualmente como un período de terror uniforme y aplastante, que habría asfixiado todo protagonismo popular. A partir de la distinción de fases en los estilos represivos y en la respuesta popular, propongo que esta imagen ha sido construida artificialmente para encubrir la continuidad histórica entre la dictadura de Pinochet y el actual régimen democrático. Esta reconstrucción histórica la pongo luego en conexión con una tesis, más general: la continuidad esencial entre ambos períodos políticos obedece al carácter dictatorial profundo de los regímenes que actualmente se llaman democráticos. Expongo los mecanismos dictatoriales característicos de las democracias actuales, y planteo tareas políticas que permitirían a una oposición progresista oponerse a ellos

El proceso de asentamiento de la migración México-Estados Unidos

Existe un proceso de reconfiguración en la migración mexicana a Estados Unidos. En la actualidad la población migrante es de 11 millones de personas y equivale a 11 por ciento del total de la población mexicana. Los centros de expulsión siguen siendo los de origen rural del bajío mexicano, pero se han sumado los de tipo urbano y particularmente del sur sureste del país, con población indígena. En cuanto al género, éste es balanceado, 56 por ciento masculino y 44 por ciento femenino. Respecto a los destinos en Estados Unidos, Texas, California, Arizona, Nuevo México e Indiana siguen siendo importantes, pero ahora los migrantes mexicanos son mayoría en 43 Estados. Los cruces tradicionales han perdido importancia y han surgido otros como Altar Sonora (Sásabe-Sasabe, Sonoyta, Agua Prieta y Cd. Juárez) cuya principal característica es la peligrosidad para la vida del migrante y la utilización de coyotes para atravesar la frontera

Cooperative Research As a Strategy for University Teacher Training. A Case Study of Lesson and Learning Study

This paper presents the possibilities offered by Lesson and Learning Studies for training and for improving and generating knowledge by reconstructing the practical knowledge of teachers. Firstly, we provide a summary of the concept of practical knowledge and the tradition of teachers researching their own practice. This is followed by some principles of Lesson and Learning Studies, with examples of their possibilities for university teacher training taken from a case study of our own practice during a university master's degree

Reflexive language and ethnic minority activism in Hong Kong: A trajectory-based analysis

This article engages with Archer’s call to further research on reflexivity and social change under conditions of late modernity (2007, 2010, 2012) from the perspective of existing work on reflexive discourse in the language disciplines (Silverstein 1976, Lucy 1993). Drawing from a linguistic ethnography of the networked trajectories of a group of working-class South Asian youth in Hong Kong (Pérez-Milans & Soto 2014), we analyze the trajectory of Sita, a Hong Kong-born young female with Nepali background. In her trajectory, performative acts of ethnic minority-based activism emerge as key in the enactment of a given set of values, stances, types of persona and situated forms of alignment/disalignment. That is to say, Sita’s enactment of activism is seen in this article as tied to a discourse register (Agha 2007: 147). As such, ‘talking/doing activism’ is inter-textually linked to a speech chain network of a group of secondary school students, teachers, researchers and community-based minority activists engaged with Sita in various interrelated projects for social empowerment. Analysis of interview transcripts, online chats and multimodal artifacts shows the extent to which the coordinated formation of this discourse register proved useful in providing Sita with relevant cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986) with which she shaped her own academic trajectory, from a low-prestige government-subsidized secondary school to an elite international college. Data also point towards the need for further engagement with recent invitations to re-imagining identity and social action under current conditions of diversification (Blommaert 2013)

Light communities?: Implications for research on diversity & activism.

This paper engages with Blommaert?s (2017) call to refocus the target of attention in the mainstream social sciences, from ?thick communities?, understood as stable systems of collectivity in which individuals share a set of permanent features circumscribed by the nation-state, towards ?light communities?, seen as ?brief moments of tight but temporary and ephemeral groupness, as aggregations of people sharing just the rules of the encounters? but little beyond it? (Blommaert 2017: p. 34; see also Blommaert & Varis, 2015). As part of ongoing discussions of ?superdiversity? (Blommaert, Rampton, Spotti, 2016) which invite scholars in the language disciplines to problematize modernist frames in the sociological imagination of social groups, this call offers possibilities for researchers collaborating with activists in the fieldwork. There are, however, important dangers and limitations that need to be acknowledged. These issues are discussed in this paper, for which we draw on our 5-year collaborative project working with social actors commonly labelled as ?ethnic minorities? in the Hong Kong context

‘I’m already standing up for our rights’: Reflexive discourse and minority- based activism in the trajectory of an adolescent in Hong Kong

This article engages with Archer’s call for further research on reflexivity and social change under conditions of late modernity (2007, 2010, 2012) from the perspective of existing work on reflexive discourse in the language disciplines (Silverstein 1976, Lucy 1993). Drawing from a linguistic ethnography of the networked trajectories of a group of working-class South Asian youth in Hong Kong (P?rez-Milans & Soto 2014), we analyze the trajectory of Sita, a Hong Kong-born young female with Nepali background. In her trajectory, performative acts of ethnic minority-based activism emerge as key in the enactment of a given set of values, stances, types of persona and situated forms of alignment/disalignment. That is to say, Sita’s enactment of activism is seen in this article as tied to a discourse register (Agha 2007: 147). As such, ‘talking/doing activism’ is inter-textually linked to a speech chain network of a group of secondary school students, teachers, researchers and community-based minority activists engaged with Sita in various interrelated projects for social empowerment. Analysis of interview transcripts, online chats and multimodal artifacts shows the extent to which the coordinated formation of this discourse register proved useful in providing Sita with relevant cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986) with which she shaped her own academic trajectory, from a low-prestige government-subsidized secondary school to an elite international college. Data also point towards the need for further engagement with recent invitations to re-imagine identity and social action under current conditions of diversification (Blommaert 2013)

Language, neoliberalism, and the commodification of pedagogy

Although it has revealed the material conditions under which language education programmes are implemented worldwide, research on neoliberalism and language commodification has not yet adequately centred pedagogy. Thus, processes commodifying ‘objects’ other than language as product go unnoticed in educational settings. Drawing on a four-year ethnography in Hong Kong, this article details the processes whereby social actors formulated pedagogy as a ‘commodity register’ to create distinction, index normative roles and desirable social personae. It also shows how some actors concurrently constructed pedagogy as a resource for advancing ethnic-group activist concerns, leading to unpredicted tensions and forms of inequality. 目前关于新自由主义和语言商品化的研究揭示了在全球实施语言教育的物质条件, 却尚未充分地探讨过教学法。因此, 语言之外的其他‘对象’发生商品化的过程在教育情景中被忽略了。本文基于在香港为期四年的民族志, 详细展现了社会行动者将教学法建构为一个‘商品登记簿’的进程, 从而制造区隔、建立规范性角色和理想的社会人形象。本文也揭示了部分行动者如何同时将教学法建构为推进族群激进主义关注的资源, 由此导致了意料之外的张力和不平等形式

La competitividad de la producción agrícola en México, un análisis regional

This research was carried out in the Rural Development District 092 located in Morelia, Michoacan for the fall winter cycle period 2010 - 2011. It consisted on the analysis of profitability of improved seed varieties, under the system gravity irrigation, improved seed and fertilized - conservation tillage. The varieties concerned were Triunfo F2004, F2007 Josecha, Maya S2007, Monarch F2007, F2007 Northern, Altiplano S2007, F2007 and Salamanca Roelfs S-75. For the analysis of private profitability, eight varieties had positive gain, the most profitable variety was monarch, followed by the variety Josecha, Maya, Salamanca, Northern, Roelfs, Triumph and Altiplano. About the cost structure of production, fertilizers were the most significant. When estimating profitability, the eight varieties exhibited comparative advantage, in order of importance, the first one was the variety Monarch, followed by Josecha, Maya, Salamanca, Northern, Roelfs, Triumph and Altiplano. The effects of macroeconomic policy and sectoral policy benefit both the producer income, and decreased cost via inputs. It is recommended to apply new technology to conduct better use of irrigation water, improve marketing schemes for wheat, seek economies in the purchase of nitrogen fertilizers

La migración y las remesas en México: 1980-2010

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue el analizar los efectos del número de migrantes, las remesas, el tipo de cambio, la inflación, el desempleo, el salario tanto de México como de los Estados Unidos, sobre el Producto Interno Bruto de México, así como deter - minar las variables más significativas que definan esta funcionalidad. Para indicar las relaciones que existen entre la migración y las remesas se plantearon dos modelos de ecuaciones lineales. Los resultados obtenidos para la ecuación del número de migran - tes indican que las variables más representativas fueron: el Producto Interno Bruto, el salario y el desempleo de los Estados Unidos y de México. Para la ecuación obtenida de las remesas resultaron, en orden de importancia, las variables: número de migrantes, desempleo, salario y la inflación de Estados Unidos