Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Social sciences

Socialist traditions aim to establish equality of material conditions. Socialists are especially concerned with freedom and believe responsibility lies in controlling the market. A market and individual freedom should align with actual conditions, addressing the absence of equality and the need for market intervention.

The goal of socialism involves controlling goods, means of economic production, and distribution. Property rights should be the responsibility of society and administered for the benefit of all. The State, therefore, should not be merely a guarantor of freedom but a representative of collective interests.

Social and Democratic State of Law

The social and democratic state of law, as seen in Spanish law, values freedom, justice, social... Continue reading "Understanding Socialism, Civil Society, and the State" »

Equality Law Objectives

• Ensuring comprehensive equality treatment across all public policies: employment, social, educational, cultural, and more.
• Establishing balanced participation of men and women in electoral lists, public administrations, and boards.
• Improving training, employment, and permanence in the labor market for women.
• Eradicating any harm or discrimination resulting from sex.
• Eliminating gender wage differentials.
• Adopting positive measures to protect vulnerable women.
• Promoting the reconciliation of work and family life.
• Implementing gender-neutral language in the administrative field.

Promoting Equal Opportunities

• Employment policies aim to increase the participation of women in the labor market.
• In the agricultural sector, a "shared ownership"

The School as a System

A school system is defined as a set of interconnected elements forming a cohesive structure, with processes of interaction that produce results over time. These results are integrated within a larger system or environment, much like a computer, a car, a living being, or human society.

Key Features of Systems

• They are formed by interconnected elements.
• Each element has a specific function and relates to others.
• The relationships between elements evolve over time.
• When multiple elements coordinate, they can perform new functions.
• Systems both receive and generate information from their environment.

Systemic Perspective in Schools

Applying a systemic perspective to schools highlights several specific aspects:

• Communication
• Interrelation
• Globality
• Dynamism
• Self-

Organization: A Key Phase in the Administrative Process

Defining Roles and Structure for Operational Success

Organization is the second phase of the administrative process. Through it, the system determines the division of labor and the structure necessary for its operation.

With its principles and tools, it establishes levels of authority and responsibility and defines the functions and duties of units, individuals, or groups of people.

Who will do what? How will they relate to others? By what authority? In what physical environment? The organization leads to the last detail what planning has pointed out regarding how a social organism should be.

Organization is continuous, as it is subject to constant change.

Benefits of Effective Organization

• Reduces

Rise of Factories and Early Industry

New factories meant a concentration of capital and labor. The first companies were textiles. Increased production and consumption were driven by population growth, changes in agriculture, and trade volumes. This also brought changes in the structure of production and the relationship between owners and workers.

All these processes developed mainly in the textile industry. Factories represented the union of capital and labor under one roof. Workers followed a schedule and received a wage, losing the autonomy they had in agriculture. Traditional manufacturing was centralized in factories under one roof, where spinning machines operated alongside workers in various trades.

Wool vs. Cotton: Industry Shifts

Traditional... Continue reading "Industrial Revolution Textile Transformation" »

Industrial Society: Classes Emerge

The old estate society gave way to class society, mainly structured into two main groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The Rise of the Bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie became the hegemonic group, owning the industries and businesses. There was a large middle class composed of bankers, investors, and owners. There was also a semi-liberal bourgeoisie made up of professionals, officials, and traders. Below this, a large number of employees and shopkeepers formed the petty bourgeoisie.

Sometimes mixing with the old nobility, the bourgeoisie became the center of social life. Richly decorating their homes with domestic servants, their dress, entertainment, and values were imposed as the social model to imitate.

The

Production Perspectives

The production and distribution of goods and services involve multiple tasks and functions, requiring an organizational instrument to coordinate the whole process. This is the company's role. There are several perspectives on the production of these services.

Economic Overview

Production is a process that meets families' needs by developing products based on factors of production (natural resources, labor, capital) employed by companies.

Functional-Utilitarian Perspective

Production practices add value to things by making them more useful than they were before. For example, in manufacturing a shirt, the components are fabric and yarn. Converting these materials into a shirt requires productive activity, utilizing a specific... Continue reading "Production Perspectives: Economic, Functional, and Technical" »

Marxism: Core Principles and Historical Impact

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, initially influenced by utopian socialist thought, developed a profound theory for social change known as scientific socialism. Their body of doctrine found its first comprehensive expression in The Communist Manifesto. They also developed a Marxist theory based on three core pillars:

• Analysis of the Past: The Class Struggle

  Marx and Engels considered the struggle between oppressors and oppressed as the primary driver of historical development. This fundamental contradiction arose from the social relations inherent in each historical period, such as slavery, feudalism, and capitalism.

• Critique of Capitalism: Exploitation and Crisis

  They argued that bourgeois exploitation

Let's consider an example to illustrate this concept:

• Risks associated with medical care and health.

Obviously, we have a set of indicators to describe the state of health of a population in general, and we use these to set priorities. For example, the infant mortality rate, the available vaccines, health workers, and their distribution in the area. The first step for the community social worker, and the institution or organization where they work or that finances their activities, is to describe such situations from three points of view:

1. We must build on what we may call the principle of heterogeneity of the population and its impact on health: The very unequal living conditions also produce very different epidemiological patterns among the different

Early 20th Century European Society

Industrial Growth and Social Inequality

The early 20th century in Europe witnessed significant industrial growth, enriching the privileged bourgeois classes but also creating a deep societal divide. The First World War (1914-1918) further exacerbated this crisis of values. The euphoria of economic and technological progress fueled a consumer society, sheltering the new liberal capitalist system. However, this growth also widened the gap between the wealthy bourgeoisie and the exploited working class, leading to the rise of protest movements and ideologies like Anarchism, Socialism, and Communism.

Crisis of Faith and Reason

Key ideologies challenged positivism and rational thought, denouncing the perceived failures... Continue reading "Early 20th Century Europe: Societal Shifts and Ideological Conflicts" »